The Netherlands and Britain have treated lone mother families in similar
ways in the post-war period. Until very recently they have been alone
among countries of the EU in allowing lone mothers to draw benefits
without making themselves available for work so long as they have
dependent children. At the beginning of the 1990s, both countries
attempted (unsuccessfully) to enforce the obligation of ‘absent fathers’ to
maintain. In 1996, the Dutch government took decisive steps towards
treating lone mothers as workers rather than mothers. In Britain, the last
Conservative government began to move in the same direction, something
that has been confirmed by the new Labour government. This
article reviews the structure and characteristics of lone motherhood in
the two countries and the nature of the recent policy changes. It then reports
the findings of an exploratory qualitative study of divorced mothers in
both countries. The evidence from the interviews reveals the strength of
the primary commitment that women in both countries make to care. It
also shows the difficulties divorced women face in combining paid and
unpaid work, which, we suggest make the pendulum swing from treating
lone mothers as mothers, to treating them as workers unrealistic.