Teen Mothers--Citizens or Dependents? - Softcover

Horowitz, Ruth

9780226353791: Teen Mothers--Citizens or Dependents?

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0226353796 ISBN 13: 9780226353791

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 1996

In a book that speaks clearly and forcefully to the heart of the welfare debate in the United States, Ruth Horowitz examines one of the most critical questions of welfare policy: how can a United States government program help teen mothers—one of the most needful groups of all welfare recipients—move from welfare dependency to employment, independence, and responsible citizenship?

"Rich vignettes reveal the complexities of teenage mothers' lives, particularly the disjuncture between classroom and street identities, 'inside' and 'outside.' . . . Original and illuminating as well as timely."—Sharon Thompson, Women's Review of Books

"Horowitz offers insights that should be considered in the debate over welfare reform. . . . Teen Mothers . . . places Horowitz's results in the context of major theories about the role of welfare in the U.S. and offers a microlevel critique of the implicit assumptions and probable consequences of each theory's approach to welfare reform."—Booklist

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About the Author:

Ruth Horowitz is professor of sociology at the University of Delaware.

From Booklist:

This participant-observer study of Project GED--a one-year high-school equivalency and job readiness training program for teenage single mothers--by a University of Delaware sociology professor offers insights that should be considered in the debate over welfare reform. Horowitz finds that Project GED's staff members took two different approaches: "arbiters" stressed hierarchy and authority and insisted on a rigid separation between public and private worlds and on student obedience and conformity; and, "mediators" sought to build community, self-esteem, and independence and to enhance the students' capacity to understand and negotiate the demands of various social contexts. Horowitz explores the sources of the staffers' own sense of identity and the nuances of their attitudes toward the students' lives outside the program as well as the ways students responded to the two approaches. Teen Mothers: Citizens or Dependents? places Horowitz's results in the context of major theories about the role of welfare in the U.S. and offers a microlevel critique of the implicit assumptions and probable consequences of each theory's approach to welfare reform. Mary Carroll

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