Welfare Reform Now That We Know It: Enforcing Women’s Poverty and Preventing Self-Sufficiency

The welfare system engages in economic violence against poor women, trapping them in poverty. This is true not only because it provides so little support, nor because it forces more women into the workforce than ever before. Most important, the welfare system is “economically violent” because it reinforces and, indeed, creates economic dependence and exploitation both inside and outside the labor market. Sometimes this connects with, and translates into, physical violence.