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The Return Of The Welfare Queen, Michele E. Gilman
The Return Of The Welfare Queen, Michele E. Gilman
All Faculty Scholarship
After welfare reform was passed in 1996, there was every reason to hope that the welfare queen was dead. The “welfare queen” was shorthand for a lazy woman of color, with numerous children she cannot support, who is cheating taxpayers by abusing the system to collect government assistance. For years, this long-standing racist and gendered stereotype was used to attack the poor and the cash assistance programs that support them. In 1996, TANF capped welfare receipt to five years and required work as a condition of eligibility, thus stripping the welfare queen of her throne of dependency. Nevertheless, during the …
"Screening" The Poor: The Legality Of Drug Testing For Welfare Benefits, Jacquelyn Bolen
"Screening" The Poor: The Legality Of Drug Testing For Welfare Benefits, Jacquelyn Bolen
Law Student Publications
On March 8, 2014, at the conclusion of the 2014 Virginia General Assembly regular session, Virginia joined at least 17 other states that, in this year alone, have introduced proposals to screen or test applicants for illegal substances prior to obtaining public assistance.1 Following the enactment of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, which permitted states to conduct drug testing as part of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, states began proposing drug screenings for applicants of public welfare benefits.2 Despite a 2003 Sixth Circuit decision holding that suspicionless drug testing is un-constitutional, in …
Feminism, Democracy, And The "War On Women", Michele E. Gilman
Feminism, Democracy, And The "War On Women", Michele E. Gilman
All Faculty Scholarship
This article analyzes the social conservative attacks on women preceding the 2012 election cycle, known as the War on Women, and the ensuing feminist response. Combat was waged on many fronts, including abortion restrictions, access to contraception, funding for Planned Parenthood, welfare programs, and workplace fairness. The article discusses what this "war" means for the complex relationship between feminism and democracy. American democracy has had both liberating and oppressive effects for women, while feminism has sometimes struggled internally to appropriate the values of democracy and externally to harness its potential. Accordingly, the article explains the major political theories regarding feminism …