Flat Broke With Children

Women in the Age of Welfare Reform

Author: Sharon Hays
ISBN: 9780195132885

Hailed as a great success, welfare reform resulted in a dramatic decline in the welfare rolls--from 4.4 million families in 1996 to 2.1 million in 2001. But what does this "success" look like to the welfare mothers and welfare caseworkers who experienced it? In Flat Broke, With Children, Sharon Hays tells us the story of welfare reform from inside the welfare office and inside the lives of welfare mothers, describing the challenges that welfare recipients face in managing their work, their families, and the rules and regulations of welfare reform. Welfare reform, experienced on the ground, is not a rosy picture. The majority of adult welfare clients are mothers--over 90 percent--and the time limits imposed by welfare reform throw millions of these mostly unmarried, desperate women into the labor market, where they must accept low wages, the most menial work, the poorest hours, with no benefits, and little flexibility. Hays provides a vivid portrait of their lives--debunking many of the

Publisher: Oxford University Press
Publish Date: 2003

Subjects: Family & Relationships / Parenting / Motherhood, Political Science / Public Policy / Social Services & Welfare, Social Science / Sociology / General, Social Science / Women's Studies, Social Science / Poverty & Homelessness

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