The Commodification of Lone Mothers' Labor: A comparison of US and German Policies

Abstract

Drawing on Gøsta Esping-Andersen's concept of commodification of labor, as well as on its feminist critiques, this paper looks at policy effects on lone mothers in the US and in Germany. With increasing labor market participation rates among lone mothers in the US following welfare reform and in Germany following unification, the authors conclude that the changes derive from different policies and incentive structures related to the state of commodification of labor in each country. In the former East Germany, the policy regime of generous childcare benefits enabled the commodification of women's labor, while in West Germany, the established policy regime was dominated by a strong, voluntary commodification of women's labor, particularly that of lone mothers. In contrast, US policy has been characterized by its greater degree of precommodification of women's labor, which was followed, after the welfare reform of 1996, by the enforced commodification of women's labor.