URGENT…URGENT…URGENT…URGENT…URGENT

June 2002

Dear Member of Congress,

The present debate on welfare “reform” reauthorization leaves out the value of the vital work that mothers, grandmothers and other family caregivers do.  Instead, the debate has focused on how many hours mothers must be made to perform “work activities”.  This denies that mothers are already doing work crucial to society.  What job is more important, or harder, than raising children and caring for those of us who are elderly, sick or have disabilities?  From rural areas to inner cities, women’s caring work holds farms, families and entire communities together.  Caregivers in the home contribute $billions in unwaged childcare work alone, and $billions more in healthcare, and yet are being forced to leave even infants in order to take any job for any pay outside the home. 

Every mother can feel what mothers on welfare face daily: being forced to leave your children, often under questionable conditions, having less than half an hour a day of waking time with your infants.  Everyone can imagine the horror of having to face being laid off from a waged job while the pressure of the 60-month time clock builds.  All mothers know how it feels to be sick with worry and unable to focus when you leave your children alone, or put an ill child in the care of others when you know you are what your child needs.  Who cannot understand the agony of knowing the benefits of breastfeeding but being prevented from providing them?  All of this traumatizes both mothers and children.

Welfare reform assumes that only those with the money have the right to care for their own children.  And with 2/3 of recipients now women and children of color, the racist implications of this forced work policy are obvious. Furthermore, proposals to “encourage” single mothers into marriage, turn our most intimate relationships into an economic consideration, leave women more vulnerable to violence, are homophobic and force women into relationships they may not want.  In 1995, at the UN conference on women, the US agreed to measure and value unwaged work, including caring work; welfare “reform” violates that agreement.

Welfare reform treats care giving work, and those being cared for, as a nuisance that stands in the way of getting a job -- any job, at any pay.   Mothers must have a choice not a mandate, and welfare benefits must not depend on immigration status.  All women working outside the home are entitled to pay equity, quality childcare, education and training of choice, and protection from discrimination.  No time limits, no sanctions.

 What kind of society is it that ignores the basic human rights of a child to a mother's care, and of a mother to care for her own child or to determine under what circumstances others should care for them?  In this the wealthiest nation, money is lavished on the military, but mothers get nothing for the work of raising children.  Caregivers, the heart of the economy, always come last – along with our children. Count caregiving as work!

Don’t deny a mother’s right to care for her own children! Value caregiving. Reflect that value in welfare policy.