Welfare Reform and Sexual Regulation

This book considers the 1996–2006 welfare laws in the United States from a feminist perspective. It focuses on the way the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families program intervenes in the personal lives of poor single mothers, through the child support enforcement, family cap, marriage promotion, and abstinence education measures.

Inspired by the political and philosophical 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. 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.