children has placed them in the nurturing role within most societies, confining them to the 'private sphere' of the housework and childcare, which is often viewed as politically irrelevant ( Yuval-Davis, 1997, pg 2).
             Statistics taken from the Australian Bureau of statistic (1998) confirm that this exclusion has affected child support and the annual income of single mothers. Out of the 4.6 million children under the age of 18 in Australia, over 1.1 million of these children live with just one parent, usually the mother. The percentage of single parents who receive financial support from their ex-partners is 41%. The median income for single mother with no child support is around $ 16,900 per year. The median income for parents with partners who receive child support is $45,140. As we can see from these statistics, the income for single parents ensures that they are at the lower social demographic groups.
             A study by Albelda (1999:723) suggests that the reasons single mothers are disadvantaged is because they predominate in insecure casual and part time employment, receive mediocre welfare and are inhibited in their earning capacity due to their full time commitments with their children. This idea is confirmed when we look at the employment trends in Australia with women predominating in part-time causal work. In general there are approximately 71% of women between the ages of 15 to 69 have spent time in the labour force, a dramatic rise from the 61% in 1997 (Australian bureau or Statistics, 2001) (statistics for part-time employment men/women)
             We know that women are predominating in part-time casual work, probably due to the reality that single or not, women are the primary care givers of children in most countries and the part-time casual wage is flexible. However we also know that the casual and part time work is characterised by low pay, low autonomy, low benefits and low security (Greig, Lewins, & White, 2003:20...