Lone Motherhood, Ideal Type Care Regimes and The Case of Austria

Abstract

This paper evaluates the model of ideal type care regimes, as introduced by Jane Lewis and Barbara Hobson, as a means of understanding the comparative position of lone mothers in different welfare regimes. It does this in the light of an application of the model to the case of Austria. We find that the model offers insights and advances in understanding the comparative situation of lone mothers in Austria, but the analysis also points to certain shortcomings in the model. Partly these are problem of range and, to adequately represent outcomes for lone mothers, a ‘negative’ dimension of poor outcomes needs to be developed for both the ideal types postulated - the ‘Caregiver Social Wage’ model and the ‘Parent/Worker’ model. Secondly, there is a problem of mis-specification of process, as revealed by the case of Austria where lone mothers seemed to be positioned in the ‘Parent/Worker’ model (if somewhat negatively), while married mothers were positioned within the ‘Caregiver Social Wage’ model. An answer may be to modify the specifications of the second ideal type as a ‘Caregiver/Breadwinner Social Wage’ model.

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