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

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 February 2011

Suet Lin Hung  and
Kwok Kin Fung
Suet Lin Hung
Affiliation:
Department of Social Work, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong, Republic of China E-mail: slhung@hkbu.edu.hk
Kwok Kin Fung
Affiliation:
School of Continuing and Professional Education, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Republic of China
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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.

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Type
Articles
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Social Policy and Society , Volume 10 , Issue 2 , April 2011 , pp. 177 - 189
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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