Children's Schooling: A Potential Impediment to Work for Women of Color Facing Welfare Reform

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study is rooted in many mothers' experiences with their children's schooling and how they affect their ability to work in this era of welfare reform. Responding to problems identified by women participating in a welfare-to-work program, this paper explores the realities of children's schooling and its effects on their mothers' work from the perspectives of ten women of color. The study reveals that personal, interpersonal, and systemic factors such as ADHD, gang involvement, peer pressure, inappropriate teaching practices, and social promotion impede their children's learning in school. To address these issues, the mothers help with homework, sit in on classes, advocate, and problem-solve tirelessly. These issues and tasks require a considerable amount of some mothers' time, and affect their ability to get or retain work especially when they are called at work by school authorities. While no study has reported children's education as a possible impediment to mothers' work, we believe this preliminary study's central findings deserve more systematic inquiry to honor and address the lived experiences of poor women of color as they respond to welfare reform.