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Article: Penalizing poor women: welfare policies in the United States penalize larger families while denying the means to plan for smaller ones.(determining poverty)
- Article from:
- Conscience
- Article date:
- December 22, 2005
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 Catholics for a Free Choice. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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IN 1996, WELFARE, AS THE TERM is commonly understood, ceased to exist. Poor families, primarily mothers and children, had to start earning their keep. Promoted by Democratic President Bill Clinton and eagerly passed by the Republican Congress, this "reform" was the most dramatic change in welfare policy since its establishment in the Social Security Act of 1935. What people do know about that legislation is generally confined to the five-year time limit on the receipt of cash assistance and the fact that mothers must now work for their checks. Less well known is the fact that almost half (24) of the states penalize poor women if they have a child.
The child ...