1998 Reviews

Review of "Making Ends Meet: How Single Mothers Survive Welfare and Low-Wage Work," by Kathryn Edin and Laura Lein

Waldfogel, Jane

In Making Ends Meet, sociologist Kathryn Edin and anthropologist Laura Lein set out to answer a few simple questions about the budgets of low-income single-mother families. The researchers wanted to know how much these mothers spent, and where they got the money. They also wanted to know what hardships these families faced, and how low-skilled women decided between welfare and work.