This document contains 15 papers on poverty, low-wage work, and survival in the global economy, with emphasis on the following topics: identity and the meaning of work; making decisions about work, family, and welfare; and paths toward change. The following papers are included: "Identity as a Weapon in the Moral Politics of Work and…

New Chance was designed as a research and demonstration program to improve the economic status and general well-being of highly disadvantaged young women and their children. The program was directed toward mothers aged 16 to 22 who were high school dropouts and receiving welfare. Sixteen sites in 10 states that had some prior experience in serving…

During the 1920s, progressive women activists invented welfare to help mothers and their children survive when breadwinning fathers either died or abandoned their families. During the 1930s, the local mothers' pension programs of the Progressive Era became part of the emerging national welfare state, which was conceived to relieve poor single…

A total of 30 women from a large eastern state who were identified as being single heads of households and who were receiving some form of public assistance, raising one or more children under the age of 18 years, and either currently or previously employed were interviewed regarding their demographics, work experiences, and past and present life…

Two hearings held a month apart examine major issues concerning Medicaid benefits in family welfare and nursing home reform. The first set of hearings discusses the proposed Family Welfare Reform Act of 1987 (H.R. 1720), which is intended to replace the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program of the Social Security Act Title IV.…

The activities of the first five years of New York City's Welfare Education Program are summarized. Operation Second Chance and Mothers at School, the two parts of WEP, provide 194 basic education classes, with a combined enrollment of 4,000. The program is intended to give welfare recipients the basic skills and self-confidence they need to…

The Project on Devolution and Urban Change studied the effects of welfare reform in the counties encompassing the following cities: Cleveland, Ohio; Los Angeles, California; Miami, Florida; and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In May 1995, the 3,900 women in the sample were receiving public assistance and living in high-poverty neighborhoods. After 3-4…

As welfare-to-work reforms increase women's labor market attachment, the lives of their young children are likely to change. This note draws on a random-assignment experiment in Connecticut to ask whether mothers' rising employment levels and program participation are associated with changes in young children's early learning and cognitive growth.…

This data book from the Children's Defense Fund includes statistics on a range of indicators that measure critical aspects of children's lives in each of the states and the United States as a whole. Statistics are provided in the following categories: (1) population and family characteristics (number of children under age 18 and age 6, number of…

The self- and group-initiated and on-the-job learning activities of low-income women were explored in a study of a small group of low-income mothers living in the greater Vancouver area of British Columbia, Canada. During the study, the low-income women attended meetings during which a participating researcher documented the women's experiences.…

Marriage offers important social and economic benefits. Well-designed public policies could play a constructive role in helping couples develop the skills needed to develop healthy, sustainable relationships with each other and their children. It does not follow, however, that marriage promotion should be a significant component of anti-poverty…

The labor market spillover effects of welfare reform were estimated by using models that pool time-series and cross-section data from the Current Population Survey on the state-year cell means of wages, employment, and other labor market outcomes for various demographic groups. The labor market outcomes in question are dependent variables that are…

Milwaukee Area Technical College's (MATC) Project Get Started assesses mothers on welfare, analyzes their child care needs, makes recommendations, and engages 75% of the women in an appropriate job activity for at least 10 hours per week. Mothers attend an orientation that furnishes information on the project and on "W-2," the state's…

This book examines the identity and schooling of working class women through the stories of 15 women from a working-class Philadelphia neighborhood and 15 women from southern rural communities who eventually moved to neighborhoods near Duke University in North Carolina. Chapter 1 provides an overview of the book and the study on which it is based.…

The entry of working welfare mothers into the labor market will have an impact on the wages and employment of low-skilled workers. This impact was examined through a labor market analysis of available statistical data about the U.S. population and employment patterns. The characteristics of workers likely to enter the labor market because of…