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Journal of Contemporary Ethnography
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The Challenge of Self-sufficiency

Women on Welfare Redefining Independence

MARGARET K. NELSON

Middlebury College

Drawing on interviews conducted with fifty-one single mothers in a rural state, this article explores how women who rely on state assistance sustain a belief in their own self-worth. The article first shows that single mothers hold firmly to the value of self-sufficiency. It then shows that they can hold to that value because they believe that their welfare reliance is different from that of other women and because they redefine independence to allow for acts that might normally be understood to challenge that norm. The findings are compared to those in other studies that cover some of the same issues. The discussion draws on three levels of context for interpreting the findings: the current discourse concerning single mothers and, more specifically, welfare recipients; the client stance that develops among those who deal with bureaucracies; and, finally, the interview situation itself.

Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, Vol. 31, No. 5, 582-614 (2002)
DOI: 10.1177/089124102236543
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