Five years ago Bill Clinton promised to end welfare as we knew it.
Republicans cheered, liberals jeered, but in the end politicians of all stripes joined the welfare reform parade. While the legislation was all about work, the assumptions driving it were about motherhood, namely that working mothers are better citizens, better role models and ultimately raise better children. Five years later, millions of women are off the rolls and in the workforce and most say welfare reform is a rousing success
Others say that by making work a moral imperative for poor women, we've ransomed a whole generation of children, and that when you scratch the surface of the welfare reform miracle, you find a messy world of exhausted women in dead end jobs who don't have time to be mothers. Welfare reform and the politics of motherhood. (Hosted by Jack Beatty)
