Discussion Blog Ten

You've read about, and discussed, the issues of Sex Education and Family Planning over the past few weeks. This week, our reading focused specifically on some of the consequences for women who have not been taught proper sexual education and who do not have access to family planning services (e.g. contraception, abortion, etc.). In "The Rhetoric and Reality of Welfare Reform" (WVFV), we learn that numerous factors affect single-mothers' ability to realize economic freedom (low-wage/unstable jobs, lower earning potential, lack of child support from absentee fathers, etc.).

As noted in the Lecture Ten Instructor Blog, low-income single mothers have become scapegoats for many of the problems associated with pervasive poverty in the U.S. Many politicians and social critics argue that women often make a deliberate choice to enter into welfare-dependent single-motherhood. After reading about the benefits offered by the federal government to single mothers in the U.S., would you choose to live as a single mother dependent on welfare? From a feminist perspective, how would you respond to someone who argues that the majority of single-mothers on welfare have CHOSEN their lifestyle? What alternative benefits (e.g. living wage and affordable childcare) could you imagine offering to low-income single mothers that would enable them to lead more satisfying lives?