maternal and infant welfare

Studies the economic life of single mothers on welfare and in low-paying jobs, and argues that while women who hold jobs do have more income, they are less able to make ends meet due to the increased costs of child care, transportation, and other expenses.

Uses first-person accounts of four women who are raising children on welfare to provide a look at the problems and concerns involved in this system.

Examines the constraints that have been imposed on women over the last two centuries in the name of science, discussing how pseudoscience has been used to tell women how to live since the early nineteenth century.