WIJFR: Flat Broke with Children

[charminglife]

Flat Broke with Children: Women in the Age of Welfare Reform by Sharon Hays
www.goodreads.com/book/show/7847377-flat-broke-with-children

I've been on a non-fiction kick lately and saw this at the library and am so glad I picked it up. The author (who's a professor of gender/sexuality studies at USC) did first hand research in 2 different cities following the welfare reform acts of 1996 and the creation of TANF. This book covered welfare reform at the micro and macro level - with first-hand narratives of women's experiences with the 'new' welfare, how it impacted caseworkers and other professionals while unpacking the political tensions within the reform laws. This isn't a quick read, but I found it very accessible.

It has been 8 years since the book was published - so some of the statistics about wages are out of date, as well as comments about future acts of the Bush administration - but I'd still recommend the book. I looked on the author's page at USC and it looks like part of her current scholarly work is an update on welfare reform - I look forward to reading it.

[msmerymac]

This sounds good. Thanks for the rec!

[PinkSquirrel]

This sounds really interesting. I do volunteer work with a lot of low income women and while I know boatloads about medicaid, I don't know nearly as much about the welfare system. I'm definitely going to add this to my to read list.

[whitepicketfence]

This sounds like a really interesting read. Thanks for sharing!