Blog # 10 - Working Poor Women’s Unpaid Labor

The welfare reform was signed by President Clinton in 1996. Another term for the reform is the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act. This reform forced those on welfare to work for their welfare checks which resulted in more single mothers returning to work. During the time that the reform was passed it seemed that there were many positive effects. For example, according to NPR news reports, the reform gave women a positive incentive to work hard for their aid which also resulted in them having more income. This also had a positive effect on the children of working mothers, because by them seeing their mothers going to work every day and working to support the family, made the children themselves set higher goals for themselves. This seemed like a quick fix to the problems of mothers on welfare and it seemed to work in the beginning but then everything else set in. These women who are working because of this reform are forced to pay for childcare because they had to now work. These women are also forced to pay for the transportation to get to work and to get their children to their care, as well as paying for the clothing for their jobs. This has resulted in many women working hard for what they have, but at the end of the day, their pay still does not cover the costs, so life for them has not really improved based on this reform. In later years preceding the reform, the number of those enrolled in welfare programs has decreased; however those enrolled in Medicare programs, disability programs, and food stamps programs has increased. This proves that just because many people came off welfare aid does not mean that they came off government aid entirely.


According to Chaudry, after the welfare reform that was passed by Clinton, many working mothers had to adapt survival strategies. Whether these so called “strategies” should be considered strategies, women definitely had to adapt to new situations. Chaudry explains that two major adaption’s that women had to face once the welfare reform was put in play, was either arranging their childcare around their work schedules or arranging their work schedules around their childcare arrangements. An example of this would be the story of Sara and Cristina in Chaurdry’s book, Putting Children First. Sara is a young mother who was very persistent in continuing her education while being a single mother. She had many hardships being that she is from a different country and had to adapt to the social norms of America. She first lived with her mother after coming to America however that arrangement did not work because they did not get along. Sara decided that she did not want to raise her daughter being subjected to the psychological turmoil that the mother would place on them. Her first option of childcare was a neighbor who Sara and Cristina later moved in with; however that went bad after the neighbor asked Sara to give up Cristina. This caused major tension for Sara because during the time of the transition Sara was afraid the neighbor would steal Cristina. Once Sara was out on her own she had to apply for welfare in order to live in a shelter. Many women like Sara were forced to make sacrifices during this time of the reform. Some women were forced to leave their children in unsafe environments because they needed to work to keep their welfare benefits. The welfare reform forced women to make themselves more flexible with job positions and childcare arrangements. Women spend so much extra time trying to locate affordable childcare as well as securing jobs to pay for the childcare.

I agree with Chaudry that America as a whole needs to decide what role we want to play in the lives of children. If we provided more available care options for families with infants, I think that poverty rates would go down. For many families, a new infant is a big expense and during this time is where families are forced to drop to one income as a result of the needed childcare for the infant. A second investment that I feel that Americans should invest in is making educational development for young children. We should have not only the pre-k and head start programs available but more for younger children as well. Also if we improved the access of childcare, it would be easier for mothers to return to work after having children which would result in more income for the family as well. By Americans being more proactive for a better life for all children, I personally think less children would grow up to be criminals and the children would grow up with more opportunities.