Much of the research and public policy attention on urban poverty is directed at the "urban underclass." In addition to unemployed, minority, inner-city females heading their own families, the urban underclass also includes many women who work for wages. These women are employed in dead-end, female-dominated occupations and are no more financially secure than they would be if they received welfare payments. This doctoral dissertation project will explore the strategies that low- income women have developed to ensure the health, safety, and shelter of themselves and their families without relying on welfare. Specifically, the research will focus on the place-specific nature of the personal contacts that link African-American, Puerto Rican, and Vietnamese women to jobs, child care, and housing. Intensive personal interviews and a survey questionnaire will be used to investigate the ways that personal networks enable and constrain women in their quests to provide for themselves and their families. Analysis of the spatial dimensions of women's social networks will illuminate the relationship between the nature of these networks and the job, housing, and child-care opportunities available to these women. By focusing explicitly on the spatial dimensions and the place- based nature of personal contacts, this project will provide valuable information about the degree to which women are constrained locationally, and it will assess the impacts of these spatial constraints on their economic survival. This project also will provide an excellent opportunity for a promising young scholar to continue to develop independent research skills.
