ABSTRACT
This chapter chronicles major policy initiatives from World War I through the first part of the twenty-first century. It examines how the varying opinions have influenced American social welfare policy and, ultimately, our well-being. In 1990, Congress passed the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which prohibited discrimination against people with disabilities in employment, public accommodations, and transportation. The struggle over the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) illustrates the degree to which women's rights continue to be a battleground in US politics, almost a century after women won full voting equality. Beginning in 1916, Margaret Sanger, an activist who worked to secure women's reproductive rights, opened family planning and birth control clinics in US. Throughout US history, social welfare policy has developed in the context of the culture of capitalism. President Obama's strategy was to promote economic recovery by investing in infrastructure and job creation, particularly "green" jobs that would help produce cleaner energy.
