Single Mothers’ Subject Constructions of the “Good Mother”: An Intersectional Analysis of Social Practices

Single parents, and especially single mothers experience the consequences of the “crisis of care” in an intensified way. Time stress that results from the demands of paid work, as well as the requirements of being solely responsible for a child or children is part of their everyday lived experiences. Solutions to these challenges are not necessarily met by welfare state responses, but have to be organized in private ways, such as in personal networks. Being positioned as a single mother in a capitalist society and care regime influences social practices and self-perception. Based on the theoretical and epistemological application of the intersectional multilevel approach from Winker and Degele, we use interview data with single mothers who receive unemployment benefits in Germany. The goal of the reconstruction processes is the illustration of subject constructions that can be derived from the presentations of social practices in everyday life. It is clearly revealed that the concept of the “good mother” is highly relevant for the social recognition of single mothers who lack, for example, societal approval in a heteronormative or classist way. We thus identify a cluster of three values of the “good mother” that are embedded in multiple dimensions of ruling.