Product Review

With its analysis of the thirty-year campaign to reform and ultimately to end welfare, Gwendolyn Mink's book is a searing indictment of anti-welfare politicians' assault on poor mothers. Mink charges that the basic elements of the 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 supporting welfare reforms that force the poor single mother to relinquish basic rights and compel her to find economic security in work outside the home. For this revised and updated edition, the author has replaced the previous final chapter with an entirely new chapter discussing welfare policy decisions since 1998 and assessing prospects for women on welfare under the Bush administration.