George Washinton University
Women's Studies Program
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WSTU 265.81/Soc. 265.81 Fall 2002

Women, Welfare, and Poverty

Internet Resource Links for Women, Welfare, and Poverty Course

Note: All links are current as of 8/28/02. Links will be added and updated during the semester. Your additions are welcome.

U.S. Sources on Poverty and Welfare Reform

Read enough from a variety of sources below to get an overview of the legislation, familiarity with some of the jargon and issues raised by people of different political perspectives and different roles in the policy process (advocates, administrators, policymakers). Where (if anywhere) do you find poor women's own voices? Feminist voices?

Use these links to find a current research report to critique for the short paper and to get ideas for sources for your final paper topic.

Poverty in the US

Official U.S. government poverty definitions and statistics http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty.html

Access some of the same sources by browsing the University of Wisconsin Institute for Research on Poverty's Frequently Asked Questions about Poverty. Their FAQs include nothing on gender or race.

U.S. Welfare Reform Policy

Begin to explore the vast array of material available on the internet on the current welfare reform policy and its implementation. If you are new to the topic, one good place to start: is http://www.libertynet.org/edcivic/welfref.html (Institute for Civic Values welfare page) This page has links to the full text of the 1996 legislation and major speeches made for and against the legislation.

Other good links for beginning exploration and finding relevant research reports (each with lists of other links):

http://www.cudenver.edu/cwr/issues/overview.html welfare reform overview and links
http://www.cudenver.edu/cwr/issues/tweakingtanf.htm reports related to TANF reauthorization
http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/irp/ University of Wisconsin Institute for Research on Poverty
http://www.vaw.umn.edu/Vawnet/welfare.htm Welfare and domestic violence
http://www.ssw.umich.edu/trapped/ Taylor Institute, University of Michigan School of Social Work (welfare and domestic violence)
http://www.impactresearch.org domestic violence and other topics
http://www.epn.org/whatsnew/subjects/welfare-1.html idea central Electronic policy network
http://www.iwpr.org IWPR welfare research network including how to subscribe to a welfare research monitoring listserve
http://www.urban.org Urban Institute (many research reports on welfare reform)
http://www.welfareinfo.org/ Welfare Information network
http://www.welfarelaw.org/ Welfare Law Center
http://www.mdrc.org Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation (welfare reform evaluation research)
http://www.mathematica-mpr.com/WELFARE.HTM Mathematica (welfare research page)
http://www.jcpr.org/index.html Northwestern/U. of Chicago Joint Center for Poverty Research
http://carbon.cudenver.edu/public/cwr/issues/realpeoplearch.htm Real People, Real Stories Archives
http://www.cbpp.org/pubs/povinc.htm Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, poverty research papers
http://www.researchforum.org/excellent sources of recent research and evaluations from multiple sources.
http://www.researchforum.org/cfm/home_tanfcf.cfm recent publications from many sources (part of the researchforum website)
http://aspe.os.dhhs.gov/hsp/hspwelfare.htm DHHS welfare & work page
http://aspe.os.dhhs.gov/ DHHS planning & evaluation links page
http://www.brook.edu/es/wrb/wrb_hp.htm Brookings Institution welfare reform research & publications
http://www.welfare2002.org/ Women's Committee of 100 "Immodest Proposal"

Grass-roots organizing against welfare reform

http://www.echonyc.com/~wham/welfareorgs.html 1996 Director of Low-income groups working on welfare and poverty
http://www.kwru.org/ Kensington Welfare Rights Union (Phila.)
http://www.wroc.org/index.htm WROC (Welfare Rights Organizing Coalition -- Seattle)

Other Resources

The Green Book (2000) is a an important resource. It "consists of background material and data on programs within the jurisdiction of the Committee on Ways and Means of the U.S. House of Representatives. It is compiled by the staff of the Committee from many sources and it provides program descriptions and historical data on a wide variety of social and economic topics, including Social Security, employment, earnings, welfare, child support, health insurance, the elderly, families with children, poverty and taxation. It has become a standard reference work for those interested in the direction of social policy in the United States."

Some sources on women's poverty in poor countries

http://www.ids.ac.uk/bridge/bri_bull.html Bridge Bulletin -- read issue #2 Poverty Reduction Strategies
http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/beijing/platform/poverty.htm UN Fourth World Conference on Women (FWCW) platform on women and poverty
http://www.50years.org/factsheets/bailouts.html "Bailouts for Banks, Burdens for Women" statement by 50 Years is Enough (grass roots coalition critical of the World Bank)