Class and Gender Relations in the Welfare State: The Contradictory Dictates of the Norm of Female Autonomy
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. An Ethnographic Approach to the Relationship between Social Workers and Families
3. Female Social Workers and a Clientele of Mothers: The Gendered Dictate to Autonomy
- Social worker:
- I saw a young mom of 27 who’s got four children, from four and a half to three months.
- A colleague
- (sarcastically): And boom, on to the next one!
- Social worker:
- (…) She’s a sweet mom, really nice, but overwhelmed, depressed.
- Supervisor:
- The eldest is four?
- A colleague
- (sarcastically): What a surprise she’s overwhelmed!
- Social worker
- (in same tone): Moms are so disorganized! (Resuming her presentation) I suggested the cafeteria to her, she’d really like them to stay and eat at the cafeteria, but there’s a problem with the meat—they have to eat Kosher. I told her that they could eat without meat, and that she could add some cheese in its place. But she said that complicates things with the principal and that they can’t verify. For the two-year-old, I’m going to go for daycare twice a week.
- Supervisor:
- The husband is around?
- Social worker:
- I asked her, “Your husband helps you?” She told me, “He sees that I cry, he wants to help me, but I was backward, I didn’t want to delegate.”
- Supervisor:
- She’s not that backward!
- Social worker:
- That’s what I told her. (…) I brought up the subject of ironing. Since she irons all day long, I asked her if she thought that it changed anything at school if a T-shirt is ironed or not. (…) They are both young, it’s a young couple.
- Supervisor:
- What does the dad do?
- Social worker:
- He’s a locksmith. (…) She wants to work again, because she’s fed up just doing the ironing.
- A colleague:
- She worked before?
- Social worker:
- Yes. Pharmacist’s assistant.
- Supervisor:
- Oh, right! So she put her life on hold to become a housewife. (…)
- Social worker:
- I told her, “You had children really close together, is that what you wanted?” “No, I was just taking a break and…”
- A colleague:
- There’s no contraception.
Child-rearing problems related to the number of children and housing conditions are not formulated as a danger for the children in this case, where the mother asserts her quest for independence in the marital and professional spheres. The norm of autonomy is not an exclusively constraining imperative for mothers; it can also be the basis of forms of complicity, sympathy, and support in the relationships they have with social workers.It’s the situation of a mother alone with five children. A single lady with five children, aged 13, 11, 8, 4, and 7 months. She just began a job at the education office a few days ago. Before, she got the RMI [a form of welfare payment]. She has been a cleaning lady, a chambermaid, she always tried to work while in a difficult situation. […] Mr. X, with whom she had two children, is very violent. She has been housed in battered women’s shelters […] She is willing, she absolutely wants to work, not just get the RMI. The problem is housing: 13m2 on the ground floor, unhealthy, with a fold-out couch and a loft 50 cm from the ceiling, not for the claustrophobic… […] She isn’t asking for anything, not even about money. […] She’s sweet, this mom.
4. A Socially Situated Model for Women’s Emancipation
5. The Fraught Intersection of Gender Proximity and Class Distance
Madame appears to be quite deficient. She seems limited in terms of intellect and unable to make decisions without input from the gentleman, who completely dominates her. She seems to encounter significant difficulties in doing ordinary tasks alone and appropriating even simple ideas.
6. Conclusions
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
References
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1 | The type of social workers discussed here is more specifically what are called assistantes sociales (‘social assistants’) in France, an older occupation with more recognition than travailleur social (‘social worker’). Nationwide, 92% of assistantes sociales are women (nearly all were women in my field sites; the few men were not included in the study). They have the equivalent of a bachelors’ degree (three years of training after the baccalauréat exam capping secondary schooling), and their income and educational levels are only slightly higher than the French working-population average. |
2 | Since the law of 5 March 2007, recourse to the court comes second, after notifying children’s services (Aide Sociale à l’Enfance). |
3 | Quotations (other than references to academic works) are either from detailed field notes taken during meetings and fleshed out immediately afterward, or reports written by social workers and sent to the court. |
4 | In 2008, 80% of women aged 25 and up with a post-baccalauréat degree were active (either employed or seeking employment), as compared to 32% of women without any formal educational certification (Maruani 2017, p. 25). |
5 | In France as early as the 1970s, the “employee middle classes” have been identified by a particular ethos, referred to as “cultural liberalism,” which extols the virtues of gender equality and sexual freedom (Schweisguth 1983). This ethos sets them apart from the working classes, the self-employed, and part of the upper classes (the grande bourgeoisie remaining faithful to the model of the stay-at-home woman and large families, for instance). |
6 | This new standard of equality in family policy is manifest, for example, in the establishment of paternity leave in January 2002, but these provisions for paternal involvement remain rare and have little real effect (Boyer and Céroux 2010). |
7 | The term “compassion trap” was added as a section heading in the French translation (Goffman 1968, p. 129) and is not found in the original English-language version. |
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Serre, D. Class and Gender Relations in the Welfare State: The Contradictory Dictates of the Norm of Female Autonomy. Soc. Sci. 2017, 6, 48. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci6020048
Serre D. Class and Gender Relations in the Welfare State: The Contradictory Dictates of the Norm of Female Autonomy. Social Sciences. 2017; 6(2):48. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci6020048
Chicago/Turabian StyleSerre, Delphine. 2017. "Class and Gender Relations in the Welfare State: The Contradictory Dictates of the Norm of Female Autonomy" Social Sciences 6, no. 2: 48. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci6020048
APA StyleSerre, D. (2017). Class and Gender Relations in the Welfare State: The Contradictory Dictates of the Norm of Female Autonomy. Social Sciences, 6(2), 48. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci6020048