Description
The articles in this special issue provide a general critical analysis of the political, social, and labor market effects of “welfare reform.” In particular, a useful essay on the impact of welfare policies on Asian immigrants fills a big void; another addresses the high incidence of domestic violence in the lives of welfare recipients; and an important piece on the welfare discourse calls for a reconceptualized vision of dependency and care giving.
All the authors are women, sensitive to the fact that 95% of adult welfare recipients are women, and advance a hard-hitting critique of the roles played by so-called congressional feminists and mainstream feminists who gave cover to conservatives eager to require wage-work (or workfare) of single mothers, even as they championed the traditional family.
Purchase articles (click on the author link to read the abstract and buy the pdf):
Gwendolyn Mink, Introduction [Free Download]
Rickie Solinger, Dependency and Choice: The Two Faces of Eve
Eileen Boris, When Work Is Slavery
Nancy Naples, From Maximum Feasible Participation to Disenfranchisement
Frances Fox Piven, Welfare and Work
Lynn H. Fujiwara, The Impact of Welfare Reform on Asian Immigrant Communities
Demie Kurz, Women, Welfare, and Domestic Violence
Eva Feder Kittay, Welfare, Dependency, and a Public Ethic of Care
Gwendolyn Mink, Feminists, Welfare Reform, and Welfare Justice