Thomas Gabe

Family and work structure most Americans' lives. Work provides the principal means by which most families support themselves, and public policies directed at low-income families with children have generally attempted to encourage and support work. Family structure also has been a focus of public policy because an increasing number of children live with a single parent, and poverty rates for such children are much higher than for those in married-couple families. Families with children, regardless of marital status, are at greater risk of poverty, with child poverty rates higher than those for either non-aged or aged adults.

Sure to raise the hackles of many across the nation is any mention of welfare and federal entitlement programs. All agree that no one should be on welfare, but the question is what to do about those who really need the income provided by the federal government. In 1996, welfare reform legislation enacted the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, which is a block grant provided to the state with a chief purpose of ending the dependence of needy families on government assistance. Among the principal groups impacted by the welfare reform legislation are female headed families with children. Recent analyses have revealed that single mothers are more likely to be working than in the past and that welfare receipt among poor families with women at the head has declined. Despite these trends, single mothers' net income has shown no increase, suggesting that full-time work may not be enough to eliminate poverty and welfare dependency among female families. This book reports on several current trends in the economic status of female headed families, providing an overview of federal programs and their effects along with several useful charts based on Census Bureau information. The combination of statistics and evaluation make for an important contribution to the study of initiatives to defeat poverty and income deficiencies in a significant part of the population.