The Ins and Outs of Welfare-to-Work: Women as They Enter and Exit a Nursing Assistant Employment and Training Program

Abstract

This study examines the multiple roles and burdens faced by women entering and exiting a welfare-to-work program aimed at training them to find employment as nursing assistants. Based upon participant observation and three post-graduate follow-up interviews, the study reveals that the demands of work and family, and the reactions of male partners and children to employment outside the home, are complicated by family illness, disabilities, and unemployment situations. Though the program apparently created clear obligations to work and family for the trainees, the persistence of uncertain consequences and conditions for the trainees male partners indicate that a gender shift in welfare policy has failed to completely take root. The result has been conflicting narratives of success and injustice from women involved, and the author suggests policy be readjusted to account for women's everyday experiences.