The Dream is over: The Moral Regulation of Single Mothers in New Zealand

Abstract

This thesis explicates the ‘moral regulation’ (Little, 1998) of single motherhood for welfare recipients in New Zealand. For the purposes of this study the definition of moral regulation’ followed Little’s (1998) interpretation of Valverde and Weir’s (1988) model: the moral regulatory practices of both the state and civil society which reinforce class, gender, race and sexual inequalities. Particular attention was given to the disciplining (Bordo, 1993; Gillies, 2007) of single welfare mothers as state dependants, and their position within the ‘mothering hierarchy’ (Bock, 2000; Gillies, 2007). The research project also explored concepts of social and cultural capital (Bourdieu, 1986) vis-à-vis single mothers and questioned whether engaging with (or employing) these forms of capital provided sources of resistance and resilience against negative ideological, institutional and interpersonal responses towards single motherhood, material hardship and the ‘push’ into paid employment. Data was collected using two qualitative methods of inquiry: autoethnography and in-depth participant interviews with eight single mothers. Analysis and interpretation of the data was self-reflexive and culturally informed, incorporating both reflexive writing practices and sociological theory. The first section of this thesis is a self-narrative (or autoethnography) based on the authors subjective experiences of single motherhood; the second section, is a narrative account of single motherhood based on the qualitative interviews conducted. The discussion section locates the lived experiences of single mothers within the relevant discursive fields and connects the personal dimensions of single motherhood to the socio-political landscape of New Zealand. In short, this study finds that despite some advances in social equality, and better recognition of the needs and rights of marginalised populations, single mothers are still politically underrepresented by way of structural support and advocacy, and overrepresented negatively by the media and in political discourse relating to ‘problem populations’. Moreover, single welfare mothers are exposed to moral regulation and discriminatory practices on many intersecting levels – ideological (exo), institutional (macro) and interpersonal (meso/micro) – in their day-to-day lives. However, within their everyday practices, single mothers also mobilise many forms of social and individual agency, thus succouring their material and emotional survival.