NEGOTIATING
NEED: SINGLE MOTHER COLLEGE STUDENTS
IN POST-WELFARE REFORM AMERICA
by
Jillian M. Duquaine-Watson
An Abstract of a thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for
the Doctor of Philosophy degree in Women’s Studies in the Graduate College of
The University of Iowa; May 2005; Thesis Supervisor:
Professor Ellen Lewin
This project examines the experiences of single mothers who are students at two postsecondary educational institutions in Iowa City, Iowa—The University of Iowa and Kirkwood Community College. Through a combination of archival research, discursive analysis, interviews, and participation observation, I examine how institutional philosophy, resources, and pedagogy influence the success and retention of single mother students, including both the supports as well as the barriers they encounter as they endeavor to secure postsecondary education and training. Thus, the project interrogates meanings of/about “good” and “acceptable” motherhood—including how those meanings are shaped by constructions of race, class, and heteronormative, nuclear family ideals—by investigating the educational institutions within and through which these discourses coalesce. By providing a historical, ethnographic, discursive, and institutional examination of the experiences of single mother students within the post-Welfare Reform United States, this study offers a distinct and productive account of the continually evolving relationships between educational institutions and this important but underrepresented student population.