Author:
Gordon, Linda.
Imprint:New York : Free Press ; Toronto : Maxwell Macmillan Canada ; New York : Maxwell Macmillan International, c1994.
Descriptionx, 433 p. : ill. ; 25 cm.
Bibliography Note:Includes bibliographical references (p. 315-419) and index.
Note:Especially during rancorous debate over the nation's welfare system and women's place in it, many libraries should acquire Gordon's excellent book. How, she asks, did aid to single mothers come to be constructed so that it now generates such dissatisfaction? Her answer, sobering for feminists, is that ADC was designed by women activists. It turned out to be unsatisfactory because its early advocates, despite relative personal freedom from gender constraints, were guided by maternalist definitions of women, and because the alliances they made, however understandable, helped guarantee a division between welfare and entitlement programs such as old age insurance. The resulting system was easily overwhelmed by subsequent social changes. Gordon's work is advocacy of expanding welfare, but her approach is characterized by a fair-minded, thoughtful refusal to settle for too easily dichotomized judgments of the past. She painstakingly dissects what she properly insists was a shared gender system, and she looks unblinkingly at racism in its manifold guises. A full summary restatement of Gordon's argument might have made the book more accessible to a broader audience. As it is, this sophisticated, engaged history puts demands on readers but is exceptionally rewarding. -- Choice review
Note:Recommended in Resources for College Libraries ; Choice Outstanding Title
