Myten om alenemødrene og velferdsstaten

Title: The Myth of Single Mothers and the Welfare State. Summary: In the last three decades, there have been two large public debates about single mothers and the welfare state in Norway; the first, initiated by the leader of the Progress Party during the electoral campaign in 1989, portrayed single mothers as parasites on the welfare state; the second, evident since the early 2000s, has focused on Somali single mothers and portrayed them as misusers of benefits for single parents. The article identifies significant myths in these public debates and discusses how they have changed. These stereotypes are compared with insights from research on the situation of single mothers, and the article demonstrates how the welfare benefits for the group have changed in the same period. The article ends with a discussion of the importance of myths in political debates. Myths may “work” both in direct and indirect ways. How influential they are, however, is always difficult to decide. The myths about single mothers have worked in the sense that they have set the agenda. This makes it important for researchers to take on the work of not taking myths as accepted truths, but to challenge and defy them.