s reported in a study published by the Michigan Law Review, “While it is true that, proportionately, there are more African American recipients of welfare than white recipients, and proportionately, there are more blacks living in poverty than whites” (Cahn 1997). The media’s public picture of welfare recipients and images of poor people are not just class based; they also rely on stereotypes of gendered and raced behavior. In a recent study published in the American Political Science Review found, “Although blacks represent only 37% of welfare recipients, perceptions of black welfare mothers dominate whites’ evaluations of welfare and their preferences with regard to welfare spending” (Gilens, p. 601, 1997). For the purpose of this research, I will demonstrate how in contemporary culture, public welfare, race, class and gender are centrally connected.Changing welfare to workfareDespite promises of welfare reform “easing the transition from welfare to work,” the law has, if anything made the transition more difficult. Studies in nine states by the National Governors’ Association and other organizations found that between 40 percent and 50 percent of those who left TANF had no job at all (Sherman et al., 1998, 8, 49). Considering workforce discrimination and the lack of affordable childcare working outside the home is increasingly difficult for single mothers. If a key goal of welfare reform is to move recipients into jobs, they will need day care for their children. Studies show that working mothers with incomes below the poverty line pay a much greater share of their income for child care than do other working mothers. Overview of current federal initiatives finds that it is the working poor who receive the least child care assistance.Federal involvement in the childcare market has been justified as a means of offsetting the cost of children, as a work incentive for low-inco...
