ABSTRACT
This chapter considers a brief background review of the critique that public transfers operate as a structural determinant of female headed families and poverty, an examination of the research evidence, an empirical test of the new structural critique of poverty, and a concluding discussion. According to the new structural critique of poverty, "overly generous" welfare programs have given rise to a class of citizens who choose to live in poverty. The descriptive data raise much uncertainty about the relationship between poverty and Aid for Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) transfers. AFDC eligibility guidelines and the net profit associated with rearing children in poverty encourage disproportional increases in the number and size of female headed families. The most powerful determinants of poverty among families during the 1970s appear to have been economic growth and the rise of female headed families. As economic growth slowed in the 1970s, its effect on contemporaneous changes in the rate of poverty among families diminished.
