Lone Motherhood, Poverty and the Meaning of Money (original) (raw)

LOW-INCOME "SINGLE MOMS" IN ISRAEL: Redefining the Gender Contract

This article on low-income " one-parent mothers " in Israel is based on 32 in-depth interviews and supportive data from a longitudinal study. Findings problematize scholarly treatments of " single mothers " as a universal category, showing it to be culturally specific and polysemic. It is argued that low-income one-parent mothers embody a central tension in the Israeli male-breadwinner/ female-caretaker gender contract, as its initial class bias is exacerbated by the dissolution of marriage. By simultaneously adopting and reformulating the hegemonic schema that frames their femininity as deficient, they expose the dual character of the contract as resistant to change and dynamic.

Daily Bread: Women’s Self-Help Microfinance and the Social Meanings of Money

Sociological Research Online, 2022

In this article, we explore the impacts and implications of ‘Rojiroti’, a women’s self-help group (SHG) microfinance scheme operating in poor communities in Bihar, India. We focus particularly on how improvements found in women’s circumstances and in children’s health might result from Rojiroti SHG membership. Through data from 5 focus groups and 19 individual interviews with women in communities where Rojiroti operates, we discover how the scheme is regarded and how it affects women’s management of household budgets. Moreover, we explore the relational aspects of SHG microfinance and the ways that it can alter family and social dynamics. Drawing on notions of ‘earmarked’ money and ‘safeguarded’ money, we argue that the money itself has meaning and non-pecuniary value in the form of other currencies, including power and agency, which can lead to the improved well-being and health of families.

Poor Women and their Money: between Daily Survival, Private Life, Family Obligations and Social Norms

This series is published by the Rural Microfinance and Employment project (RUME). The project, RUME, has been selected in December 2007 by the French National Agency for Research (programme: Les Suds, Aujourd'hui). The main objective of this research is to explore the linkages between rural finance and rural employment-including diversification and migration-with a view to contributing to the ongoing discussions and interventions in the fields of rural development and poverty and vulnerability reduction. The project methodology relies on the following features: a pluridisciplinary approach, a combination of tools for data collection and analysis, a comparative perspective across three countries (Madagascar Mexico, South-India), a strategic collaboration with microfinance institutions. From an outcome perspective, the proposal will seek to achieve a balance between academic and applied results. Further details about the project and its work can be viewed on our web site at www.rume-microfinance.org

Kemp, A. and N. Berkovitch. 2020. Uneasy passages between neoliberalism and feminism: Social inclusion and financialization in Israel's empowerment microfinance

Gender, Work and Organization, 2020

This article focuses on feminist non-governmental organizations advocating for economic empowerment of women (EEW) through microfinance, using Israel as a case study. Through fieldwork, interviews and documents, we investigate the institutional practices, cultural discourses and struggles that EEWs develop in order to expose the particular ways in which feminist organizations interact with the world of finance and state institutions. Our analysis points to the complex power dynamics of mediation, suggesting that there are 'uneasy passages' between neoliberalism and feminism, ones that help re-signify the meaning of financial discourses while re-politicizing women's social and economic exclusions. Simultaneously, however, this relation induces a series of compromises, whereby EEWs adopt neoliberal modes of governance. Rejecting the notion that contemporary feminism has simply been co-opted by neo-liberalism or the perception of EEW microfinance as a mere expansion of neoliberal rationalities, we reveal new sites and ways in which feminism both colludes and collides with neoliberalism. K E Y W O R D S empowerment, feminism, financialization, microfinance, neoliberalism Tweet Feminism has neither simply co-opted by neoliberalism nor is women's microfinance (MF) a mere expansion of neoliberal financial rationalities. Studying Israeli women's MF activism reveals new sites and ways in which feminism both collude and collide with neoliberalism.

The Legitimacy of Single Mothers in Israel Examined through Five Circles of Discourse

This study applies critical discourse analysis to examine the relationship between the imagery and the legitimacy attached to single mothers, as well as the social policy designed for them. The correlation between images, legitimacy, and policy was examined during three decades (the 1970s, 1990s, and 2000s) of extensive legislation pertaining to single-parent mothers. The data have been drawn from a diversity of sources, including Knesset debates, Knesset committee discussions, women's organizations, the media, and semi-structured interviews. The study shows that welfare policy necessarily encapsulates cultural perceptions and basic assumptions pertaining to certain segments of society. These beliefs anchor justifications for the expansion or limitation of social rights and reveal how the development of social rights is linked to cultural and social apprehension.

"The Household: Finance." Correspondences, Cultural Anthropology (2017)

Cultural Anthropology website, 2017

What is the place of the household in capitalism? Two generations ago, feminist scholars refuted economic notions that centered capitalism on the individual, demonstrating that industrial capitalism relied on the household for reproduction. But what about capitalism today? The rise of finance has subordinated production to financial profits and provoked states and corporations to slough off their duty to their citizens and workers. Haven’t these processes realized the individual that capitalism’s boosters have always envisioned at its core? To the contrary. Even though finance seems to elevate individual responsibility to new heights, financial capitalism remains deeply dependent on households, even as it obscures their significance.

Money of her own: women’s struggle for emancipation through their dealings with money

Our study explores women's appropriation of the democratic ideal of equality and autonomy as revealed through their handling of money within a couple relationship. We based our study on 30 in-depth interviews with partners of heterosexual couples in [country]. Our results show that women problematize themselves in terms of their autonomy and equality between the sexes through their relationship with money. They are rooting a core issue concerning their emancipation in ordinary, everyday, and apparently insignificant gestures which are often invisible to a casual onlooker. What is being witnessed, therefore, is the gendered personalisation of a social issue, with women working towards their emancipation individually rather than collectively. Gender relations are thus being reshaped, integrating two contemporary values: women's emancipation and the emphasis on the individual. Laurence.Bachmann@unige.ch 2 The author wish to thank Veronica Jaris Tichenor as well as the anonymous reviewers for their useful comments on previous versions of this paper. 3 We refer to the democratic ideal as the new moral of emancipation that emerges from the end of the 1960's, based on "the democratization of values and behaviors typical from the high bourgeoisie and artistic milieu" (Chauvel, 2006: 33). Supported by law, this moral puts the individual at the center and highlights the recognition of its subjectivity, personal freedom and hedonism .

Money Management Patterns of Dual-Earner Families in Israel

Day Care & Early Education, 2003

The purpose of the present study is to assess money organizing patterns and banking arrangements in dual-earner families and how they are affected by both the economic and social context. A log linear analysis of data from the International Social Survey Program for working couples in Israel indicates that the combination of money organizing patterns and banking arrangements enables meaningful

Assailing Poverty and Patriarchy, How Does Small Money Fare?

This report is based on the findings of the case tracking study of 35 BRAC borrowers from Matlab RDP over a period of one year. Tracking began in July, 1996, and in all cases more than three months had elapsed before tracking began. The issues examined in this study are: background of the borrowers, use of loan, participation of the women in the use of loan, economic return on investment, borrowing from other sources, mobility of the borrowers or the decision making by the borrowers in their households related to the loan from BRAC. Findings revealed varied importance of credit for the BRAC borrowers. BRAC loans were a substantial support for the poor in terms of emergency funds and capital for multifarious investment. Despite access to loans from BRAC, they still borrowed from the moneylenders under compelling situations. It further found that the dominance of patriarchy was difficult to break because of its deep root in the society. Though observance of purdah varied, it was never absent and as such restricted the movement of women to a great extent. Patriarchal division of labour ensured that women remain confined mostly within household. The study concluded that these deep-rooted cultural factors were responsible for the perpetuation of women's subordination and micro-credit could not change it significantly.