Welfare's end / Gwendolyn Mink.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Mink, Gwendolyn, 1952-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Unmarried mothers--Government policy--United States.

Unmarried mothers.

Poor women--Government policy--United States.

Poor women.

Welfare recipients--United States.

Welfare recipients.

Poor women--Government policy.

Unmarried mothers--Government policy.

United States.

Public welfare--United States.

Public welfare.

Public welfare--United States--History--20th century.

History.

United States--Social policy.

Social policy.

Physical Description:

xii, 180 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Ithaca, N.Y. : Cornell University Press, 1998.

Summary:

With her analysis of the thirty-year campaign to reform and ultimately to end welfare, Gwendolyn Mink levels a searing indictment of anti-welfare politicians' assault on poor mothers. She charges that the basic elements of the new welfare policy subordinate poor single mothers in a separate system of law. Mink points to the racial, class, and gender biases of both liberals and conservatives to explain the odd but sturdy consensus behind welfare reforms that force the poor single mother to relinquish basic rights and compel her to find economic security in work outside the home.

Mink explores how and why we should cure the unique inequality of poor single mothers by reorienting the emphasis of welfare policy away from regulating mothers to rewarding the work they do. Every mother is a working mother, the bumper sticker proclaims, but the work that mothers do pays no wages. Mink argues that women's equality depends on economic support for caregivers' work.

Welfare's End challenges the ways in which policymakers define the problem they seek to cure. While legislators assume that something is wrong with poor single mothers, Mink insists that something is wrong with a system that invades their rights and negates their work. Showing how welfare reform harms women, Mink invites the design of policies to promote gender justice.

Contents:

1 Welfare as a Condition of Women's Equality 1

2 How We Got Welfare Reform: A Legislative History 33

3 Disdained Mothers, Unequal Citizens: Paternity Establishment, Child Support, and the Stratification of Rights 69

4 Why Should Poor Single Mothers Have to Work Outside the Home? Work Requirements and the Negation of Mothers 103

5 The End of Welfare 133.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 141-169) and index.

ISBN:

0801433479

OCLC:

37782953