Welfare reform should be considered a Feminist issue becasue women are disproportionately more impoverished than men, and women, especially single mothers have been disadvantaged by welfare reform. Policy makers who are prodominately men who have created welfare systems and welfare reform have done so in a way that isn't sensative to the problems faced by poor women. One huge problem for many poor women is the fact that domestic work and child care are unpiad and undervalued. This becomes a huge problem for single mothers under welfare reform who must work in order to stay on welfare. In one of the articles we read, it mentioned a woman who was forced to start working before she was given assistance for day care. This left her without any way to care for her children. She had to work, becasue without doing so she would be taken off welfare and wouldn't be able to provide for her children. She was forced to leave her baby in the care of its alcoholic father (who she had left which was the entire reason she was on welfare) until she recieved assistance for childcare. She came home one day to find the baby crushed by its drunk father who had fallen asleep and rolled over on the baby. They mentioned another woman who was forced to start working eventhough she didn't feel her 2 month old was ready to be fully weaned off breast feeding. She offered to actually work more hours with shorter split up shifts. They wouldn't allow her to do this, and her baby was hospitalized because it couldn't properly digest formula. These senerios show the types of problems that arise from the fact that welfare reform is mostly focused on making sure people get jobs. Those who designed these policies think that getting jobs is the most importnat solution to poverty for everyone. Although this may be the case for some, it over looks the complexities of poverty for many. It also overlooks that fact that domestic work and child care is actaully work. There is a steoreotype of people on welfare as being lazy and leeching off the system. People think that since that's all welfare recipients want to do, the solution is to make sure they work, and get them off welfare as soon as possible. Those who are on welfare that don't want to work are seen as trying to pull on over on the government, or mooch off our tax money. These sterotypes overlook the fact that for some people, staying at home isn't being lazy. For some people, staying at home is working. If doemstic work and childcare were recognized as real work and more highly valued in our society, then we may be able to come up with a welfare policy that works better for women. If domestic work was actually valued, then there might not be so much pressure for people to get jobs right away when they are on welfare. What if taking care of one's children and other domestic work was actually seen as a job with real economic value? The issue of childcare has been considered when creating welfare reform, and there are programs designed to help women with dependent children. However, I don't think the full complexity of the issue has been taken into consideration by policy makers. This could be due to the fact that policy makers are mostly men or that poor women of all ethnic backgrounds are definately not involved in policy making and their experiences with welfare and other programs may not be accurately understood. I think more attention needs to be paid to the actual lives and expereinces of those in welfare, and less attention to stereotypes in order to create a system that can actually benefit poor women.