Purpose: Welfare reform is credited with moving millions of poor parents, primarily single mothers, off assistance and into jobs. Advocates contend that welfare reform benefits both parents and children by compelling mothers to work, which is presumed to increase self-esteem and make them better role models for children. This study explored recipients' interpretations of work experiences and how they perceived opportunities -- especially in light of the low-paying, traditionally female work they were funneled into through training programs. This study's findings are shaped by Bourdieu's theory of habitus, in positing that people on welfare, just as individuals in other class strata, are habitualized to work according to their position in capitalism, as well as by lack of access to hierarchies of privilege (Bourdieu 1984). Previous studies have focused on this population's efforts to manage stigma. This research expands the literature by examining women's interactions with children, and the identity they derive through parenting. Thus, it affords an in-depth examination of welfare receipt and employment, and effects on the well-being of children's primary care-givers in a post-reform context.

Methods: The sample included 29 women who were long-term recipients or who were no longer eligible for the benefit. All participants were mothers (X=2.8 children) with a mean 10.5 years education. Qualitative data were collected for 18 months using ethnographic field observations and semi-structured interviews. A total 320 hours research included field observation and 70 interviews of 1 to 2.5 hours. Questions addressed: 1. experiences working, 2. their aspirations, and 3. family composition. Data were analyzed using a phenomenological approach. All interviews were tapd and transcribed verbatim. Data were coded and sorted into 157 categories.

Results: Twenty-nine women worked 33 jobs over 18-months for a mean 6.19 hourly. Several themes emerged: women derived identity not through waged occupations but through being mothers. Most were justifiably skeptical about enhancing self-esteem through poverty-level jobs, a finding that lends credence to the habitus theory. Many wished for attachment to a stable wage earner and to be homemakers. Others hoped to operate home businesses such as paid childcare or hairstyling – work outside the primary labor market and near their children.

Practice Implications: Policy, and its administrators, should recognize that many recipients define identity via the family maintenance role traditionally held by women in capitalism (Abramowitz, 1988; Willis, 1977). This acknowledgement is critical: It can deter casting this clientele with the stigma historically associated with welfare. Further, rather than punitive statutes targeting poverty as a result of individual deficit, social policy must address inequities in a stratified labor market, as well as the job displacement that is a normal function of capitalism.