Social Policy and Society

Table of Contents - April 2011 - Volume 10, Issue 02  

Articles

Gendering Welfare: Lone Mothers’ Experiences of Welfare-to-Work Programmes in Hong Kong

Suet Lin Hunga1 and Kwok Kin Funga2

a1 Department of Social Work, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong, Republic of China E-mail: slhung@hkbu.edu.hk

a2 School of Continuing and Professional Education, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Republic of China

Abstract

Consideration of welfare regimes in Hong Kong has generally neglected gender and care work issues, focusing instead on welfare ideologies relating to production and the market orientation of social policies. In addition, traditional Chinese values place a high priority on motherhood. Drawing on qualitative interviews with lone mothers and social workers, this article considers welfare reform in Hong Kong from the late 1990s and the shift to welfare to work, examining these from the perspectives of gender. It suggests that as a result of the reforms there is a danger that lone mothers become double failures, as carers and workers.

(Online publication February 24 2011)