Welfare Reform and Sexual Regulation

This book considers the 1996-2006 welfare laws in the United States from a feminist perspective.

Anna Marie Smith (Author)

9780521527842, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 9 July 2007

288 pages, 12 tables
23.3 x 15.5 x 1.8 cm, 0.448 kg

"In this incisive and far-reaching analysis, Anna Marie Smith excavates the labyrinth of welfare regulation to unearth its hidden punishments and rights violations and to puncture the mythology of compassion that has accompanied welfare ‘reform.’ Smith’s indictment of ‘reform’ and its supporters is powerfully argued and convincing. And so is her vision for change. This is a major contribution to feminist theory and democratic politics, and essential reading for all who are working to rebuild a genuinely progressive agenda."
-Alice O’Connor, University of California, Santa Barbara

Inspired by the political interventions of feminist women of color and Foucauldian social theory, Anna Marie Smith explores the scope and structure of the child support enforcement, family cap, marriage promotion, and abstinence education measures that are embedded within contemporary United States welfare policy. Presenting original legal research and drawing from historical sources, social theory, and normative frameworks, the author argues that these measures violate the rights of poor mothers. Drawing on several historical precedents the author shows that welfare policy has consistently constructed the sexual conduct of the racialized poor mother as one of its primary disciplinary targets. The book concludes with a vigorous and detailed critique of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's support for welfare reform law and an outline of a progressive feminist approach to poverty policy.

Introduction
1. From paternafare to marriage promotion: sexual regulation and welfare reform
2. Biopower and sexual regulation
3. Post-Foucauldian sexual regulation theory
4. The ideological construction of paternafare
5. Paternafare law today
6. Welfare reform, reproductive heterosexuality, and marriage
7. The normative assessment of paternafare: an ideal type analysis
8. Feminist visions
Appendices
Index.

Subject Areas: Educational: Citizenship & social education [YQN], International law [LB], Politics & government [JP], Welfare & benefit systems [JKSB], Feminism & feminist theory [JFFK], Social discrimination & inequality [JFFJ]