Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables and figures
- Acknowledgements
- Notes on contributors
- Foreword Lone parents: the UK policy context
- one Comparing employment policies for lone parents cross-nationally: an introduction
- Part 1 Policies within specific countries
- Part 2 Cross-cutting approaches
- Conclusions
- References
- Index
twelve - Lone mothers, employment and childcare
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 January 2022
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables and figures
- Acknowledgements
- Notes on contributors
- Foreword Lone parents: the UK policy context
- one Comparing employment policies for lone parents cross-nationally: an introduction
- Part 1 Policies within specific countries
- Part 2 Cross-cutting approaches
- Conclusions
- References
- Index
Summary
A society where being a good parent and a good employee are not in conflict is a prize for us all and one which I believe we can achieve. (Byers Unveils New Approach to Support Working Parents, DTI, Press Release, 7 December 2000)
Stephen Byers, the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry was launching a consultation paper Work and parents: Competitiveness and choice (DTI, 2000). He made it very clear that ‘parents’ includes both fathers and mothers. However, it is also clear from reading the paper that any measures to help parents ‘to balance work and family life’ so that they ‘may contribute fully to the competitiveness and productivity of the modern economy’ must be based on giving families ‘reasonable choices’ taking ‘the needs of business into account’.
In the past, the ‘reasonable’ choices facing mothers in the UK were constructed differently. The big increase in economic activity rates, which had occurred among married women in the UK since the Second World War, was almost entirely accounted for by an increase in part-time employment. Very few (5%) of married women had full-time employment while they had a pre-school child. Until 1980, lone mothers irrespective of the age of their child(ren) were more likely to be economically active than married mothers in the UK. There was little difference in the level of qualifications of married and lone mothers – neither were well qualified (see Land et al, 2000). Social assistance was there for those without earnings. As the Supplementary Benefit Commission, responsible until 1980 for the means-tested supplementary benefit system (now called Income Support) wrote in their last annual report:
We stress that our support for better working opportunities for lone mothers is not based on the view that they ought to be supporting themselves. Many lone parents believe it is better to concentrate their efforts exclusively on the difficult and important task of bringing up children single-handed and they are entitled to do that. Then it is important to raise benefits to a level at which lone parents do not feel compelled to take a job to support their families. Freedom of choice should be the aim. (Supplementary Benefit Commission, 1980, p 12; emphasis in the original)
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Lone Parents, Employment and Social PolicyCross-national Comparisons, pp. 233 - 254Publisher: Bristol University PressPrint publication year: 2001
- 1
- Cited by