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Abstract
The purpose of this study was to explore the daily practices of working single mothers using the ancient Greek practice, care of the self, described by Michel Foucault. Current research on the subject focuses almost exclusively on the impact of poverty on working single mothers who receive welfare. However, this interview study with five working single mothers of school-aged children documents their everyday practices that enable them to care for themselves and their families. Practices included those found in mother-daughter relations and kinship relations, practices related to finances, practices of advocating for their children, practices of home management, and practices of self-care. The author reviews the literature concerning working single mothers from the 18th century to the present, the literature about poor single mothers and welfare assistance, recent research covering the positive practices of working single mothers, and the literature about single mothers by choice. She then offers a discussion of Foucaults description of the ancient Greeks approach to ethics, care of the self. She uses care of the self to identify and then describe the practices of the self that the participants in her study used to create themselves as ethical subjects of their actions., during data analysis, the author then elaborates the practices of these five women that create them as ethical subjects of their actions. These working single mothers found a space for active engagement in ethical living, resisting and accommodating the cultural codes in which they lived, through their heart-felt desires to make the next generation better. Appreciation for the everyday practices that establish these working single mothers as ethical subjects of their actions offers social workers, policy makers, and the larger society a different perspective into the dynamics of this rapidly growing family form.