Leaving and Losing Jobs: Resistance of Rural Low-Income Mothers

The expanding service economy demands an increasing supply of low-wage workers who, increasingly, are women and racial minorities. At the same time that women are being pulled into these low-paying and often inflexible and unstable jobs, reforms in the welfare system have removed the economic safety net for many women and children. This paper relies on in-depth interviews with rural low-income mothers in a midwestern state to examine the importance of the context of working conditions in shaping job turnover. In the often brittle and unyielding conditions of the low-wage, primarily service work available in one rural county, "breaks"-either by quitting or losing a job-are not an uncommon occurrence. I argue that within the context of these low-wage service jobs, which offer employees little autonomy, quitting may be one of the only forms of resistance available to workers. (C) 2005 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.