Welfare's End

Charged with chasing middle-class women back into the home while chasing poor women out, American conservatives have recently come under attack for this perceived contradiction in their attitudes. In her solid history of the struggle over welfare, Mink, a professor of political science at UC-Santa Cruz and a longtime campaigner for welfare reform, takes aim at politicians who target poor women. Mink's essential point is that welfare is a guarantee of women's equality. It's vital, she says, not only for women's human rights but also for the strength of democracy to view welfare not as a subsidy for dependence (which it largely is not) or as an income substitution for the loss of a breadwinner (which it was first intended to be) but as an income owed to those who work inside the home by raising children. The campaign to make fathers support their children, which is a widely favored tactic, actually can have the effect of forcing the mother to be dependent on a man she may want nothing to do with. Thus the freedom to choose her own company is effectively taken from her. Mink's arguments counter the myths of welfare dependency and she is able to make a compelling case for positions that are far out of the mainstream of current politics. This is a well-reasoned and eye-opening book, and one hopes Mink's departure from the debate's current narrow focus will not lose her the audience she deserves. Anyone interested in these topics should be intrigued by the way she has shifted the grounds of the discussion. (Mar.)