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Speaking Out SPEAKING OUT: WOMEN, POVERTY, AND PUBLIC POLICY Edited by Katherine A. Rhoades and Anne Statham Speaking Out: Women, Poverty, and Public Policy Edited by Katherine A. Rhoades and Anne Statham Proceedings of the Twenty-Third Annual Women’s Studies Conference University of Wisconsin System Women’s Studies Consortium October 29-31, 1998 University of Wisconsin System Women’s Studies Librarian Madison, Wisconsin 8 1999 Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System ISBN 0-9677071-0-2 Printed in the United States of America Dedication To all of the courageous women we have met who are making strides to move beyond the grasp of poverty. Table of Contents Introduction Katherine A. Rhoades and Anne Statham x Part I: Historical Perspectives and Policy Critiques Limitations on the Use of Culture as an Explanatory Concept: The Case of Long-Term Poverty Susan Rigdon 14 Zap FAP: The National Welfare Rights Organization’s Assault on Nixon-Era Welfare Reform Andrea Jule Sachs 26 Classist Conceptions of Dependency: Conservative Attacks on Poor Women with Children Luisa Deprez 34 Response to Judith Stacey’s Keynote Address Rearticulating Academic Feminist Studies Ellen Messer-Davidow 46 The Ideological Foundations of the TANF Welfare Rules Heather McCallum 55 W-2 Welfare Reforms: Undoing the Wisconsin Idea? Sarah Harder 65 Part II: Welfare Reform Happening in Different U.S. States A Look at Family Life Under W-2 Barbara Barnard 72 Stated and Unstated Needs: Low-Income Parents and Child Care Diane Michalski Turner 78 Work Requirements and the Care Crisis: Everyday Lives of Single Mothers Under the New Welfare Laws Peggy Kahn, Valerie Polakow, Paula Pemberton 92 Life After TANF: Single Mothers in Erie County, Pennsylvania, Share Their Experiences Laura Lewis 101 Excerpts from Education as Emancipation: Women on Welfare Speak Out Frances Payne Adler, Carol Amelia Lasquade, Adrian Andrade, Erin Silvas 114 Part III: International Perspectives and Policies The Future of Social Welfare in Denmark Lynn Walter 122 Maternity Leave Policy in the U.S.: How Do We Compare? Anne Banda 132 Women in the Federal Republic of Germany Timothy Crow 142 Liberalization and Poverty Alleviation: An Indian Experience Madhu Bala 151 Part IV: Teaching Resources and Strategies The Liberal Arts, Public Literacy, and Pushing Out of Poverty Jennifer Shaddock 165 Reclaiming Hope Judith Pederson-Benn 172 Facing Student Resistance to Images of Poverty in the Women’s Studies Classroom Karen Peterson Welch 177 Where Is the Voice of Women in Poverty in the Psychology Classroom? Suzanne Griffith and Hal S. Bertilson 183 Part V: Mechanisms of Resistance Perceived Self-Efficacy and the Experience of the Welfare Recipient Lorie Schabo Grabowski 191 Creating a Sense of Power through Family Resource Centers Sandra Stokes 202 The Heroine’s JourneynThe Unavoidable Human Experience Betty Salamun 208 The Familiar Face of Oppression: Violence in American Indian Communities Lisa Poupart 212 Part VI: Literary Explorations of Poverty Literature and Poverty: Sandra Cisneros and The House on Mango Street Patricia Thomas 226 Giving a Voice to Depression-Era Women: The Fiction and Nonfiction of Meridel LeSueur Deborah Davis Schlacks 231 Locating South Asian Feminisms within the Context of Postcolonial Feminist Theory Asha Sen 239 Appendix Wisconsin Women’s Action Agenda (Developed at the Conference) 250 Contributors 254 Acknowledgments This volume and the conference that spawned it are the work of many committed groups and individuals. First, all of the participants in the Women and Poverty Public Education Initiative (WPPEI) provided us vision. We want to especially thank those WPPEI members who assisted in planning this conference—Victoria Hansen, Cindy Klevgard, Pat Mapp, Janet Polansky and Laura Wittmann. Other members of the Conference Planning Committee—Amy Barker, Jan Bogstad, Linda Bohacek, Penny Graham, Sarah Harder, Bharati Holtzman, Cate Irsfeld, Ruth Keller, Ann McKinley, Ellen Messer-Davidow, Jane Pederson, Bets Reedy, Diana Satorius, and Nancy Worces- ter—also deserve recognition. We are also grateful to those on the Eau Claire campus who provided support for the conference, most especially La Vone Sneen with the UW- Eau Claire Office of Continuing Education, for her logistical support, and Doug Stevens, who was also helpful. The University of Wisconsin Consortium, directed by Jacqueline Ross, has provided the framework for the annual conferences for 23 years. We also thank the keynote speakers, conference presenters, and participants, who created such a lively intellectual atmosphere. Members of the Wisconsin Women’s Network were especially helpful in developing the Action Agenda that resulted from this conference; we were assisted in this effort by several other key Wisconsin groups, including the Institute for Wisconsin’s Future and the Wisconsin Council for Children and Families, also by Nancy Chen from the Region V Office of the Dept. of Labor’s Women’s Bureau. Phyllis Holman Weisbard and Linda Shult, from the UW System Women’s Studies Librarian’s Office, supported our efforts to produce this volume, and we thank Director Ken Frazier and the UW-Madison General Library System for supporting publication through the Jay and Ruth Halls Library Fund. Finally, we thank the women experiencing welfare reform, some who participated in this conference, and others who have opened their lives to us in this particularly difficult time. Introduction There are many stories behind this volume and the conference that gave rise to it. We began our walk along this path in the mid-1990s. Welfare reform was being seriously considered in Wisconsin, and our state government was anxious to be “ahead of the curve,” as it had been with many earlier welfare reform experiments, such as “learn fare,” “bride fare,” and “work not welfare.” Bill Clinton had successfully campaigned just a few years earlier to “end welfare as we know it.” It was in this atmosphere that the University of Wisconsin Women’s Studies Consortium Outreach Program, representing the interests of many Women’s Studies faculty around the state, began a collaborative project with women in the poverty community to dispel the myths and stereotypes and educate the general public about the realities of living in poverty. We had no idea things would move as quickly as they have, that within a few years we would see the dismantling of the welfare safety net and the institution of work-only programs that ignore the problems many women are having with this mandate. Wisconsin is known as a leader in this reform, although it is happening in similar ways in many other states. Under the auspices of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, we were able to meet women in other states who were doing similar work. Some of them came to our conference and their work is included here. When we planned the conferencenheld on the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire campus, October 29-31, 1998nthat resulted in this publication, we chose a theme of “Speaking Out.” It seemed critical that a feminist analysis be included in the ongoing debates about welfare reform, and the related issue of women’s economic security. In Wisconsin, and elsewhere around the country, that voice has been effectively stifled. With this conference, and the Action Agenda that resulted, we begin the journey to right that imbalance. “Speaking Out” remains one of the most cherished acts of freedom in a democratic society. From organizing “Speak Outs” against racism to breaking silences about domestic violence, feminists have long embraced the power of “speaking out” about systematic injustices that limit women’s lives and curtail their opportunities. At the same time, feminists have also understood that because of the diversity among and between women, some women are in a position to speak out more easily and will be heard more readily than others. Given their relative position of power, it seemed likely that people housed within institutions of higher education would be among those joining the pervasive public outcry Speaking Out: Women, Poverty, and Public Policy x that erupted in response to the current spate of welfare reforms. It is therefore surprising that few academics spoke out even though the reforms in effect were tolling a death knell for many women who could improve their chances for future economic self-sufficiency by participating in higher education. This seemingly muted response from higher education, coupled with the depth and rapidity of welfare changes sweeping the nation, prompted the Planning Committee for the twenty-third annual University of Wisconsin System Women’s Studies Conference to focus the conference on speaking out about women and poverty issues. From the beginning, the conference was fueled by the hope that the conference would enable feminist scholars to join more actively in conversations with activists, policy makers, and women who are most directly affected by welfare changes. The papers comprising this volume, gleaned from among the nearly 100 papers presented at the conference, salute the success of that conversation. We have divided the papers into six sections. Five authors provide an historical perspective for policy critiques. Rigdon revisits the concept of “culture of poverty,” providing a new way of viewing the findings of Oscar Lewis. The internal workings of the welfare state and reactions to it are provided by Sachs’ analysis of the welfare rights movement and Deprez’ examination of the concept of “dependency.” Messer-Davidow shows us the agenda of the “radical right,” and suggests ways we might counter their efforts. McCallum provides a more contemporary analysis of the ideology of TANF, and Sarah Harder suggests how we can frame our efforts to provide long-term sustainability for women now living in poverty. In Part II, we include views of welfare reform in specific states. Barnard and Turner look at implications for children and families in Wisconsin. Kahn and her coauthors consider the situation in Michigan; Lewis looks at Pennsylvania; and Frances Payne Adler and her co- authors speak to the situations in both Wisconsin and California.
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