Draft Only: This version of this paper is forthcoming in the Journal of Sociology in late 2002

Abstract

Over the last twenty years, Australian social policy has increasingly focussed on raising the labour market participation level of sole parents. The extension of mutual obligation to sole parents under welfare reform further concentrates this policy direction. Yet while increased workforce activity may reduce �welfare dependency�, the efficacy of employment to raise the level of material well-being in sole parent families is less clear. Recent research casts doubt on the assumed link between material well-being and paid work for sole mother households. This paper uses data from the 1996/97 Negotiating the Life Course Project and three measures of material well-being to examine the relative importance of employment and partnered status to material well-being among sole and married mother households. The results indicate that increased market work may not lead to significantly higher rates of material well-being for sole mother families. Sole parenthood and poverty are obviously linked, but the cause of this interaction is not necessarily a lack of labour market work. In this study the major explanation for the glaring disparities in material well-being between mother households was the partnered status of the mother. Will increasing the obligation for sole parents to undertake labour force activity therefore merely replace inadequate monies from income support with inadequate market income? These findings should sound a word of caution in the current rush to replace the welfare state with the market economy. For many sole parent households, working their way out of poverty may not be an accessible or realistic option.

---