“Give Us a Chance to Get an Education”: Single Mothers' Survival Narratives and Strategies for Pursuing Higher Education on Welfare

Abstract

Sweeping changes in 1996 to the U.S. national welfare system prioritized “work-first” policies while restricting educational opportunities for mothers on welfare. Based on qualitative longitudinal interviews and focus groups with 64 women participating in California's welfare reform program, CalWORKs, this research focuses on the narratives of single mothers on welfare pursuing higher education after the “end of welfare as we know it” by constructing “survival narratives.” Their “survival narratives” reveal the costs of pursuing higher education while on welfare, how they construct strategies that help them persevere through school, and critically assess the failures of welfare reform.

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