Blog #14 - Mink, Rangel

The Personal Responsibilities Act is a controversial law that was passed in 1996, banning all poor single mothers from welfare benefits. This law was enacted because of the belief that poor single mothers are lazy and promiscuous women whose only motive for have children is to gain financial compensation from the federal government. Gwendolyn Mink in her article, The Lady and the Tramp, describes the Personal Responsibilities Act as a war against poor women, in which single mothers are punished for having children. Mink states that, “Without welfare, mothers who work inside the home are deprived of equal citizenship for they alone are not paid for their labor.” Mink explains that caring for ones child has been almost completely devalued by the federal government because poor mothers have been denied all compensation for their labor as mothers. The only option afforded to poor single mothers is marriage. However this is a dangerous option for many women because they become financially dependent on their husbands. Women, who cannot survive economically to leave their husbands, are forced to remain in a relationship that can be loveless, unhealthy or abusive. Mink explains that, “full-time care-giving mothers, then, are disproportionately dependent on men if married and disproportionately poor, if not.”

Mink introduces an interesting idea concerning the way that feminists have contributed to the struggles of welfare mothers. During the second wave of feminists, women fought to gain acceptance in the male dominated public sphere, or the men’s world of work. Feminists created the idea that social and political independence came from paid employment. Out of this movement came the idea that all work outside the home is more important and socially productive than work in the home as a mother. The work of second wave feminists has helped to depreciate the value of child care as a woman’s primary source of labor. Mink argues that the work of the second wave feminist has contributed to the acceptance of the Personal Responsibilities Act which states that child care is not a legitimate form of labor. In my opinion Personal Responsibilities Act seems completely contradictory to the purpose of welfare. Poor single mothers are extremely vulnerable and need financial assistance in order to survive and raise their children. I do not understand why a single mother would be denied welfare assistance because she isn’t married, but in our patriarchal society it does not surprise me that the government values marriage and would require a woman to marry in order to gain financial assistance.

Knowledge is Power, is an article by Maria Cristina Rangel, about her struggles as a single mom on welfare. Rangel brings up a very interesting point, about the way that the government forces poor individuals to choose between working and getting welfare, and going to college to get an education and being denied welfare. It is almost impossible to gain a college degree if you are on welfare, because the government does not recognize the pursuit of knowledge as work, and therefore requires individuals to work in separate jobs in order to obtain welfare. Rangel makes a shocking comparison between the way that slave owners denied their “property” and education in order to keep them ignorant and subservient, and the way that the government denies people on welfare easy access to higher education. She explains how this could be a way of keeping these individuals ignorant and preventing them from petitioning against unfair welfare legislation such as the Personal Responsibilities act. In some way I agree with Rangel’s claim. The only way to free an individual from poverty is to provide them with an education so that they can get a high paying job. If individuals cannot afford an education they are forced to work minimum wage, or low paying jobs, and remain dependent on the government for welfare checks. Instead of just offering financial assistance to poor families, the government needs to find a way to offer college educations to lower income students so that they can permanently escape poverty.