The vast majority of single parents on welfare in Ontario are women. Instead of encouraging them to stay home and raise their children - as was the case in the past - governments now force these women to find jobs. Why has this happened?

Several decades ago the majority of single mothers needed government help because of the death of their spouse. They were seen as the ìdeservingî poor. However, today, divorce or desertion causes most women to become single parents. As a result they are identified as the authors of their own misfortune and less deserving of public assistance than their predecessors. As well, most women with children now work outside the home. Those who do not are in the minority and have to justify their inability to hold a job.

Finally, the number of people on social assistance in Ontario increased dramatically from 675,000 people including children in 1990 to 1.4 million in 1994. Although the numbers have decreased somewhat since, 400,000 single parents and children continue to rely on welfare payments. The growth in clients and expenditures this decade caused politicians to try to end welfare ìas we know itî. This has been done by curtailing benefits and imposing workfare that forces welfare recipients into jobs.

Workfare programs assume that people resort to welfare because they are reluctant to work. However, the majority of single mothers who rely on social assistance want to work.

Before the introduction of workfare in Ontario, 25% worked full or part-time (while others attended school). The fact that they worked but failed to earn enough to escape social assistance highlights the dilemma of women on welfare: they cannot earn enough to support a family without public assistance. This predicament cannot be solved with workfare.

The reality is that single mothers will always rely heavily on welfare because being the sole care giver reduces the opportunities to become self-sufficient. Even with workfare, more and more women will be receiving welfare since the number of single parents continues to rise. The 1996 census reported that the total number of lone parent families - most of whom are headed by females - increased by 33% between 1986 and 1996.

If governments truly want to aid single mothers on welfare to become employed and independent some type of income supplement is required. Only by supplementing the income of these women will they be able to work outside the home. This is because the majority do not have the skills and education to earn wages that allow them to afford an apartment, childcare, and other expenses for their children and themselves.

In Ontario, almost half of single mothers on welfare do not have a completed high school education. Jobs paying minimum wage - $6.85 an hour - without health and pension benefits is all that these women can obtain. Government programs to help them complete their education are helpful but in short supply since politicians are loath to spend money without seeing an immediate payoff.

Without income supplements, including more childcare subsidies, many of these women have no choice but to stay at home. Since there is little sign that supplements will be made available, single mothers need to be accepted as ìgoodî mothers deserving of public assistance, regardless of how the came to be single parents. In doing so, politicians - most of whom are male - have to recognize that raising young children without a partner with an income just above the poverty line is a full-time occupation for many women.

Thomas R. Klassen teaches in sociology at Trent University.