What I Didn't Know About Welfare...

Growing up in an upper-middle class household, I’ve never had to worry about something like welfare or seriously consider the rights and parameters surrounding it. Until reading this article by Mink, I never really understood the extent to which welfare played a role in supporting people’s lives because I was always taught that people go on welfare until they get a job and if they aren’t getting a job, that’s often their fault. It’s a completely stereotypical claim, but it’s one that I haven’t had to question much yet. From what I gathered reading the Mink article, I’m not the only feminist who is stuck in that place. It’s somehow always a shock to learn that even the most devoted of feminists aren’t fighting for things that are so obviously necessary in bettering the lives of women, simply because they’re not aware of the problem because it doesn’t touch them. It’s no surprise that there have always been divides in the feminist movement—race and class are two factors that shouldn’t matter, but do—but it still disheartening to read an article like this one and realize that before reading it, I too may have reacted like many of the middle-class feminists who were trying to get women out of the house to work without realizing that important and necessary work was being done inside the house and that that should be acknowledged. This goes back to our discussions yesterday about how typical “women’s work” or anything domestic have come to be labeled as inferior work—if it’s even work at all. I don’t think anyone would think that a stay-at-home mother should be paid for what she does, but isn’t her work more difficult and more important than many others? And when a woman has no choice but to stay home, when she’s of lower economic status or various other reasons, this “payment” for staying home is what can keep them from floundering into complete ruin. I’ve never seen welfare that way, but Mink makes her points very clearly and I’ve found myself questioning not only this view, but others that also might hold a complete upper-middle-class bias. Single mothers struggle enough as they raise a child or children on their own, they shouldn’t have to be denied further rights and support because of misconceptions about them and about the world we live in. There should certainly be more respect allotted to the things that they do, but it seems that single mothers only earn this respect if they are somehow managing to juggle jobs and their children, whatever the expense. People love the rags-to-riches story, but what about those who have no choice but to remain in their rags because it’s just not possible to juggle it all. The view of single mothers—and especially single, lower-class mothers—has to change in order for anything to be done about this problem and so many others stemming from them.