Short Response 11/4

In "The Lady and the Tramp," author Gwendolyn Mink talks about her frustrations as a welfare activist during the 1990s when the Personal Responsibility Act was passed, stripping poor women from their entitlement to welfare. Throughout the article, Mink expresses her concern at the number of women who supported such a bill and robbed their fellow sisters from a right that their priviledged positions provides. As a result of the bill, poor women were forced into the workforce in order to make ends meet and give their children proper financial support. While the priviledged middle class has the financial security to decide for themselves whether or not they will stay in the home or "free" themselves by working, poor women do not have the same opportunity to decide which road to take. They lack the means to stay in the home, if they so decide, and thus have one more constraint forced upon their lives. Mink argues that welfare should be a right to all poor women, since motherhood is equally as valuable as any paid job, such as nursing or teaching or cleaning. After all, isn't a mother all these occupations twenty four hours a day? I think Mink makes a strong and compelling argument for welfare. Poor women should not be forced down a single path due to their often pre-established position in society. Instead, they should be given the choice, just as priviledged women are given, to decide for themselves if they would like to work or stay in the home. This is the only way they will be treated with dignity and freed from just one of the many constraints their sex and financial situation impose upon them.