Janet E. Kodras

A contextual examination of the feminization of poverty

Abstract Poverty is being increasingly ‘feminized’ as women and their children grow as a proportion of the poor population. Three competing explanations for poverty feminization have been advanced: the breakdown of the nuclear family, alterations in the welfare system, and restructuring of the U.S. economy. This study investigates whether these three mechanisms vary by urban-rural context. We first identify differences in the growth of poverty among Black and White female-headed families during the 1970s in metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas. Multivariate analyses are then employed to assess the relative importance of the hypothesized explanations. The breakdown of the nuclear family is the most important correlate for both races and across geographic settings in creating a pool of potentially poor women. Changes in local conditions of womens employment have an effect which is contingent upon race and setting. Expansion of the welfare system during the 1970s was found to assist White women in some areas but had no overall effect on the poverty of Black women.

STATE, CAPITAL, AND CIVIL SOCIETY IN THE BATTLE OVER WELFARE REFORM: THE CONTRIBUTION OF GEOGRAPHIC PERSPECTIVES

One of the important contributions geographers are making to the current round of welfare reform is to demonstrate that the spatial strategy of devolving programs from the national to the state and local levels is part of a larger political strategy to obscure the effects of ending a federal guarantee of assistance to poor people, as the impacts are lost in the clutter and confusion of local implementations. And in fact, the changes underway are so complex that is it possible to lose sight of the larger implications of welfare reform. I attempt here to refocus attention on the deeper significance of decimating the welfare state and the contribution of geographic perspectives in understanding these changes. I start with a map as the foundation for two basic points (Fig. 1). This map is drawn from a study by the Tufts University Center on Hunger and Poverty (1998), which assesses how states are taking advantage of unprecedented flexibility to redesign welfare policies as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) replaces Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC). This is a very early, and yet comprehensive, picture of changes wrought by welfare reform. First, it is instructive to recall that virtually all politicians who supported passage of the 1996 welfare reform legislation asserted that its aim was to improve the economic wellbeing of welfare recipients—the state acting in the best interests of the poor. To assess the extent to which states are in fact designing policies that improve the economic security of recipients, the Tufts researchers devised a scale measuring changes in each states welfare policy from the AFDC era to the TANF era. This scale was based on changes between a states policies for 34 items, measuring how each state has changed benefit levels and eligibility, time limits, work requirements and sanctions, assistance obtaining work, childcare, and the like. A positive score indicates that a states new policy is likely to improve the economic circumstances of the poor relative to the past policy, while a negative score indicates that a state has decreased investment in the poor. The results show that fully 37 states have adopted policies that worsen the economic security of their poorest households. Only nine states, predominantly in the Northeast and along the West Coast, have captured the opportunity to improve prospects. These widespread cuts demonstrate the reality behind the rhetoric. Despite the fact that fully 90% of cities surveyed by the U.S. Conference of Mayors have warned that insufficient job

Changes in latitude, changes in attitude: Population movements and conservative shifts in congress

Abstract Migration from the Northeast and Midwest to the West and South over the past decade has been from politically liberal to conservative areas of the United States. Similarly, migration from central cities to suburbs has been from liberal to conservative areas within states. The Constitution and Supreme Court decisions require redistricting between states (reapportionment) and within states (redistricting) every ten years. This study examines whether reapportionment and redistricting has resulted in a more conservative House of Representatives as the number of representatives from these growing conservative districts has increased. It finds no nationwide evidence to support this proposition; instead, the effects of district reorganization appear to be specific to each district and time.

Shifting global strategies of US foreign food aid, 1955–1990

Abstract This study examines the use of US food aid as an element of American foreign policy over the course of the post-war era. Seven policy periods are identified within the post-war era, each representing the foreign agenda of successive presidential administrations. The selective geographical allocation of food aid is largely a function of the locus of foreign priorities at any given time, with the result that the shifting global patterns of countries receiving food aid since World War II reflect the spatial dynamics of American foreign policy. Those favored by US food assistance tend to be pivotal states within a regional theater of conflict, regardless of the incidence of hunger or the ability of the local economy to absorb these commodities.