Don't Call Us Out of Name

The Untold Lives of Women and Girls in Poor America

Author: Lisa Dodson
ISBN: 9780807042090

A radically new vision of women and girls living below the poverty line; Lisa Dodson makes a frontal assault on conventional attitudes and stereotypes of women in poor America and the seriously misguided "welfare reform" policies of the end of the century. "I hear Odessa, a thirty-two-year-old woman, speak at a forum on welfare reform. I ask her about the phrase she used, 'Don't call me out of name,' for it seemed to speak for a whole nation of people. Odessa tells me that women who have no money and no one to stand up for them get put into a bad position and they get misnamed. Most often they get called 'welfare mothers' or 'recipients,' words she will no longer acknowledge. With millions alongside her, Odessa has emerged by her own strength and some opportunity, and now she insists upon naming herself." While Lisa Dodson was working in a Charlestown factory twenty years ago, the stories of the women she worked with daily captivated her; she listened to them speak about harsh lives

Publisher: Beacon Press
Publish Date: 1999

Subjects: Political Science / Public Policy / Social Policy, Social Science / Feminism & Feminist Theory, Social Science / Women's Studies

This book is available in the following Community Centers: Women's Center (Location: Class/Economics)