Single Mother Poverty in a Global City

Author

Gregory Cala, CUNY Graduate CenterFollow

Date of Degree

6-2025

Document Type

Master's Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Program

Political Science

Advisor

John Krinsky

Subject Categories

Political Science | Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration

Keywords

Single Mothers, Welfare Reform, Housing, New York City, Public Policy, Housing Policy

Abstract

The thesis explores how New York City's emergence as a "Global City" and welfare reform uniquely impacted single mothers’ lives on the matter of labor, housing, cost of living and more. New York City’s recovery from near bankruptcy in the 1970s began after cutting social programs and luring corporate firms with financial incentives. As firms moved to the city, so did their workforce of employees with skills in specialized service roles. Concurrently, the need for cheap, part-time, and temporary services emerged. By the 1990s, the growth of these less specialized service jobs outpaced all others, all while calls for work requirements for welfare recipients reached a fever pitch. The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program codified those demands and helped fill this need. Most non-specialized workers were women, and many of those women were single mothers. While more single mothers took non-specialized jobs, housing in New York City targeted specialized workers, making rent more expensive. This, of course had an outsized impact on single mothers, who were much likelier to be non-specialized service workers. Using data from the American Community Surveys (ACS), I will chronicle how single mothers entering the workforce post-TANF but continued to experience rent burden and shelter poverty at rates higher than other households with children. Chapter 1 will introduce the concepts of the Global City and a more holistic approach to viewing poverty, Chapter 2 will detail my methodology in proving their effects on single mothers then Chapters 3-7 will detail household conditions in 1970-1990, 2000, 2010, 2019, and 2022.

Recommended Citation

Cala, Gregory, "Single Mother Poverty in a Global City" (2025). CUNY Academic Works.
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/6202