Week 3:Poverty, Prisons, and

Stories of Survival

WMST/FS 60, Winter 2009Professor Miller-Young

•What does the election ofBarack Obama mean forwomen and the causes offeminism in the U.S. andaround the world?

•What does it mean for racialand class politics in the U.S.and the world?

•How might women of color bespecifically affected?

Major issues affectingwomen of color in the U.S.are:

Poverty, homelessness,opportunities foremployment and equal payand benefits, reproductivefreedom and access toaffordable health care,education, criminalizaiton,rape, abuse and domesticviolence, and stigma andstereotype in representation

Pay Equity and Poverty

• Women (all) earn 77 cents for every $1 menmake. Black women earn 63 cents andLatinas 57 cents (also quoted as 72 and 60cents).

• Women are 40% more likely to be poor thanmen, 70% of older women.

• 60% of “extremely poor” (less than halfpoverty line) are women.

• 35.5% of single mother households are livingin poverty.

Welfare Policies & Discourses

• WOC are particularly vulnerable to the negative effects of welfarepolicies and discourses.

• Welfare is part of as system of oppression that reflects and reproducesracial and economic privilege for some and disadvantage for others.

• WOC are stigmatized as breeders of criminals, undeserving,promiscuous, irresponsible, lazy & dependent.

• Stereotypes, like the “Welfare Queen,” represent poverty as personal,individual, and behavioral failures rather than historically- based social,political, & economic structures. They affect policy and publicperceptions of the issue and the value of poor women.

Welfare Reform

• 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work OpportunityReconciliation Act, (PRWORA) “Welfare Reform,” endedaid as a federal entitlement program for the poor. CreatedTemporary Aid to Needy Families (TANF).

• Authorized states to make their own rules, regulations, andpunitive practices.

• Set 2 yr. limit and 5 yr. lifetime limit.• Coerces women into low-wage labor force through

“Workfare” and “Work First” programs.• Bars new legal immigrants from benefits for first 5 yrs.

Criminalizing Welfare

• Welfare and criminal justice systems are converging tocontrol poor WOC lives.

• WOC increasingly criminalized with the expansion ofsurveillance policies like drug testing, and rules againstsupplemental income (defined as fraud).

• WOC, once convicted, cannot obtain future welfarebenefits, including food stamps or housing assistance.

From Social Welfare to Social Control

• Welfare is an institution and discourse thatreproduces ideologies of race, ethnicity, class,and gender in intent, implementation, andimpact.

• The “Illegitimacy Bonus”, denials of assistanceto “illegal aliens”, & the “Family Cap”, lead tosurveillance of WOC.

• Poor women are increasingly criminalized dueto welfare policies.

• The welfare system and criminal justice systemare converging.

Prisons in the U.S.

Women in U.S. Prisons