Autonomy, some may say, connotes a state of mind much more than a state of affairs. Clearly, there is more to being a ‘free spirit’ than can be teased out of stark socio-economic facts and figures alone. Still, people are certainly not autonomous in any of the relevant senses if they are unable to meet their subsistence needs, or if they must depend upon the arbitrary will of others to do so. So socio-economic status does have an important bearing on questions of ‘autonomy’, and it is that side of the question that we will be principally exploring through our panel data.

Issues of conceptualization and measurement

Before addressing those issues directly, however, there are issues of conceptualization and measurement to be canvassed.

At the level of conceptualization, autonomy is essentially a matter of having and exercising free choice; and that is essentially a matter of having viable options between which to choose. Consider the example of a single parent who engages in forty hours a week of paid labour as well as running her household and caring for her young children. Her choice to go out to work as well will look far more autonomous if it had been a viable option for her and her family to rely instead on public assistance – if, had she not gone out to work, she would have had the option of receiving welfare benefits which would have been adequate to meet the needs of herself and her children.