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H-Women does not usually post political position statements. However, in the interest of stimulating a discussion on the recent welfare reform legislation signed into law in the United States, I post the following position paper. KL ******************************************************************************* FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - AUGUST 4, 1996 CONTACT: SONYA MICHEL, 609/258-5392; EILEEN BORIS, 804/295-6769 GROUP INSISTS WELFARE IS A WOMEN'S ISSUE In eliminating guaranteed support for poor mothers and their children, the Republican Congress and Democratic President are making history--but not the type for which most politicians wish to be remembered. The new welfare bill certainly ends welfare as we know it, but promises to increase poverty by cutting public expenditures instead of providing adequate funds for education, training and child care, or the jobs at living wages necessary to maintain a family in decency and dignity. "Substituting 'tough love' for the care of mothers, this bill represents an untested social engineering that harkens back to the poor laws of the past," the Women's Committee of 100 said today. "It blames poor women for their poverty rather than taking into account their lack of power in the family, economy and political system." The Women's Committee of 100, a two-year-old feminist organization of academics, writers, activists, and social policy professionals, formed in response to Speaker Newt Gingrich's stated intention to enact legislation harmful to women within the first 100 days of the new Congress. The group's slogan is, "A war against poor women is a war against all women." WC100 assesses the specific impact of planned "reforms" on women. Its national membership of over 500 includes Isabel Allende, Johnetta Cole, Barbara Ehrenreich, Betty Friedan, Linda Gordon, Heidi Hartmann, Patricia Ireland, Patsy Mink, Robin Morgan, Odetta, Anne Roiphe, Katie Roiphe, Elizabeth Shue, Eleanor Smeal, Gloria Steinem, and Alice Walker. "How does Congress expect mothers to support their children when it refuses to train them for stable jobs with decent pay?" WC members ask. "Congress has upped the ante in terms of work requirements but provided the states with less money than before to reach their goals. Millions of women--and their children--are soon going to find themselves cut off--and desperate." President Clinton is also being hypocritical, the group contends, by claiming to be concerned about domestic violence on the one hand, and eliminating the guaranteed support that allows women to exit abusive situations on the other. How will mothers be able to protect themselves and their children from physical and sexual abuse when they lack access to safe housing, health care, and a stable source of income? These questions, according to steering committee chairs sociologist Guida West, Ruth Brandwein, a former Suffolk County Welfare Commissioner, and political scientist Gwendolyn Mink, show that welfare is not just a children's issue, but a women's issue. "As long as wage differentials between women and men persist, women are always going to have a harder time finding jobs that pay enough to support a household," WC100 member Frances Fox Piven pointed out."And conditions in today's economy make things even worse. Despite the increase in the minimum wage, pay and benefits for low-skilled jobs are plummeting. But there is no money in the new bill for the kind of training or education that is going to prepare these women for years of life-sustaining employment," Piven added. "They're going to be forced to take whatever work they can get, and it won't pay enough." WC100 also fears that while the new legislation authorizes more spending for child care, there still won't be enough to go around, and most states will cut off free child care after a year of employment. Just as mothers are settling into a new job, they will find themselves facing child care costs they can't afford. "The galling thing about all of this," says historian Sonya Michel, another member of WC100, "is that we've been there before. Workfare was tried with the WIN program in the late sixties and early seventies. It didn't work because there wasn't enough child care and they didn't train women for good jobs, so it ended up pushing more women into poverty. This bill will do the same thing," Michel warned. "Congress and the President seem incapable of learning from past mistakes." WC100 has pledged to defend women against the brunt of the new measures. Until now, they concentrated their efforts in Washington. Now the group plans to develop liaisons with state-level organizations, including both social work providers and poor women themselves. "It's important to hear the voices of the women who will be affected by these drastic changes--and the voices of those who are involved in helping them," WC100 member Eileen Boris, a historian, argued in explaining the Committee's new direction. With other women's organizations, WC100 also plans to support those in Congress who voted against punitive welfare reform and urge them to redirect their energies toward creating positive alternatives. "We need to make this a caring society," said philosophy Eva Kittay, one of the group's founders. "As the richest country on earth, it is our moral duty to do so."
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