Between happy futures and precarious presents: The promise and pitfalls of work for single mothers on the margins in Australia

This article explores how low-resourced single mothers in Victoria, Australia, navigate work, care responsibilities and interactions with the social support system. Drawing on 20 in-depth, qualitative interviews with single mothers on the margins of the formal labour market, and informed by concepts from affect theory, this article demonstrates how government rhetoric has been internalised by participants, shaping their attachment to paid work as a pathway to a positive future. Simultaneously, participants described feeling let down by the lack of government support for, and recognition of, the care work they undertake in the present.