Welfare Reform and Sexual Regulation

by Anna Marie Smith

"When Americans think about welfare reform, they generally refer to its "workfare" requirements and strict time limits. Anna Marie Smith argues, however, that the sexual regulation dimensions of welfare reform are also significant. Inspired by the political and philosophical interventions of feminist women of color and Foucauldian social theory, she explores the scope and structure of the child support enforcement, family cap, marriage promotion, and abstinence education measures that are embedded within contemporary welfare policy. Presenting original legal research on both federal and state law and drawing from historical sources, social theory, and normative frameworks, she makes the case that these measures seriously violate the rights of poor mothers. She also shows that welfare reform's intervention in the kinship structure and intimate behavior of the poor has several historical precedents. In particular, welfare policy has consistently constructed the sexual conduct of the raci