Vol. 25, No. 1 (1998)

The eight articles in this special issue, guest edited by Gwendolyn Mink (a Professor of Politics), make a critical contribution to the current debate on welfare. The analyses are politically acute and timely concerning the implications of recently implemented welfare legislation at the federal and state levels. These readable contributions pay close attention to differences of gender, class, and race.

Articles provide a general critical analysis of the political, social, and labor market affects of "welfare reform." In addition, a useful essay on the impact of welfare policies on Asian immigrants fills a big void; another addresses the high incidence of domestic violence in the lives of welfare recipients; and an important piece on the welfare discourse calls for a reconceptualized vision of dependency and care giving.

All the authors are women, sensitive to the fact that 95% of adult welfare recipients are women, usually their families' caregivers. Thus, we find hard-hitting critiques of the roles played by so-called congressional feminists and of feminists generally who gave cover to conservatives eager to require wage-work (or workfare) of single mothers, even as they championed the traditional family.