Aid to Families with Dependent Children

Abstract

Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) is the key source of financial aid to many poor, female-headed families in the United States. Political trends have led to numerous attacks on this system, creating an image of AFDC as overly generous, and the families who depend on it as “lazy” and “irresponsible.” Policy makers have deliberately attempted to lower the “comfort level” of AFDC recipients. The result is a system that actually exacerbates conditions associated with the cycle of poverty. Detailed ethnographic research on 24 AFDC recipients shows that the system (1) is experienced as “threatening” by families who must rely on it to survive; (2) elicits feelings of stress, pressure, worry and helplessness; (3) discourages recipients from working; and (4) disempowers women.