Canadian Woman Studies / les cahiers de la femme (E-Journal, York University)

Gorlick, Carolyne A.

The Female Single Parent Student
by Carolyne A. Gorlick
Un nombre croissant de meres celibataires prestataires d'aide sociale esperent qu'une education
postsecondaire permettra de rompre leur dependence vis-a.-vis de l'aide socile. En Ontario, les
meres celibatiares doivent composer avec deux systemes d'aide sociale, a. savoir: les prestations
generales d'aide sociale, le programme de prestations familiales et le Regime d'aide financiere
aux etudiantes et etudiants l'Ontario (RAEo). Il y a eu tres peu d'initiatives pour promouvoir et
operer des changements novateurs dans les programmes. Resultat : les femmes chefs de families
monoparentales et prestataires d'aide sociale eprouvent de la difficulte a. composer avec ces deux
systemes et ont l'impression de ne fa ire partie d'aucun.
A growing number of single mothers on
social assistance, after assessing the pros-
pect of long-term employment marginal-
ity and gender-based wage inequities, are
hoping that a post-secondary education
will provide a mechanism for exitingthem-
selves and their children from welfare
dependency. In embarking on this course
of action, the single mother in Ontario
attempts to cope with the dual arenas of
social assistance (General Welfare As-
sistance andFamily Benefits programmes)
and the Ontario Student Assistance Plan
(OSAP) under the responsibilities of two
distinct agencies: the Ministry of Com-
munity and Social Services and the Min-
istry ofColleges and Universities, respec-
tively.l The female single parent student
is numerically a member ofa small minor-
ity, both as a social assistance recipient in
a post-secondary setting (4.3 per cent)
and as a post-secondary student in a social
assistance setting (5.8 per cent). (Gorlick)
There has been minimal inter-ministerial
cooperation to promote and offer innova-
tive programme changes. As a result, the
female single parent on social assistance
moves between these two worlds with
some difficulty, sensingshe is marginal to
both.
The Ontario Student Assistance Plan
(oSAP) is intended to ensure educational
opportunity for economically disadvan-
taged students. In the last four years, OSAP
VOLUME 12, NUMBER 4
applications by single parents on social
assistance have almost doubled, while
applications from the general student
population increased by only about 25 per
cent, and applications from single parents
not on social assistance actually de-
creased.2 Unfortunately, many female sin-
gle parents seeking to use education to
Cheryl Holmes, The Listener (detail).
Oil on canvas. 24" x 36"
break out ofwelfare dependency find that
the structure of student aid functions as a
barrier to educational achievement. As
with social assistance programmes, the
female single parent student faces inad-
equate levels of funding, complex infor-
mation, inconsistent and discretionary
decision-making, ambiguous appeal pro-
cedures, stigma and inappropriate accu-
sations of fraud or loan defaults.
Insufficient levels of funding, well-
documented as a problem in social assist-
ance, plagues the female student who is a
single parent. As primary caregiver, she
must often attend college or university on
a part-time basis. Unfortunately, maxi-
mum grant eligibility payments are based
on afour-year undergraduate programme.
When the grant eligibility period is de-
pleted, the student must depend on loans
and confront the prospect ofa heavy debt
load.
The debt loadfor OSAP is frightening.
Even when!get out working it will be
a problem for years. A friend gradu-
ated lastyear. Her repaymentplan is
$300/month for seven years. When
beginning jobs start at $18,000 or
less, this is frightening! (Female Sin-
gle Parent, Brief to Social Assistance
Review Committee)
If recent proposals for a "loans first" pro-
55
gramme go through, the debt problem
will become worse.
Social assistance and asAP have been
particularly flawed in terms of the provi-
sion of adequate child care support. Ac-
tual child care costs are not realistically
assessed. There is no consideration, for
example, of the need for flexible child
care arrangements to cover evening
classes, weekend exams, children's holi-
days or sick days, or transportation costs.
Is there a systemic bias in the social
assistance agency against welfare recipients
engaged in post-secondary education?
Child care is a problem, before and
after school. I am prevented from
taking 8:30 AM classes and find
evening classes difficult. Too much
responsibility falls on my fourteen
year-old. (FemaleSingleParent, Brief
to Social Assistance Review Com-
mittee)
Problems with insufficient funding are
compounded by a complex application
process which may result in misinforma-
tion and incorrect application responses
which in turn result in financial delays.
When funding is delayed, students are
unable to purchase text books and other
important study items and they find them-
selves behind before the course is under
way.
Students seeking asAP may find the
application procedure, with its system of
discretionary decision-making, vague and
alienating. Why does one student receive
more or less financial support than an-
other who appears to be in a similar situ-
ation? How can astudent/parent plan when
funding levels change from year to year?
Students are forced to cope with a decen-
tralized formal and informal system of
decision-making based on cost assess-
ment, bursary money, and emergency
loans. In this context, it is not surprising
that many are not clear how and why
particular decisions are made. As with
social assistance, student/parents may
appeal asAP decisions but they face a
review process which may result in de-
ferred payment and, possibly, unfair pro-
cedures.
At the individual level, the application
and appeal procedures may seem not only
complex, frustrating and unfair, but also
humiliating.
With the need to apply for GWA, FBA,
OSAP and other services came the
embarassment to have such a need.
(Female Single Parent, Brief to So-
cial Assistance Review Committee)
The attitudes of agency frontliners are
critical in influencing the positive ornega-
tive impact of these experiences. Some
single parent students have encountered
Income Maintenance workers and Stu-
dent Awards officers who are helpful and
supportive.
I don't know what I would have done
with[out] her (Student Awards of-
ficer) help. I think she did the best she
could for me given OSAP limitations.
(Female Single Parent, Brief to So-
cial Assistance Review Committee)
Others have been less fortunate.
My case worker didn't help atall. She
didn't encourage me and didn't offer
any information. (Female Single Par-
ent, Brief to Social Assistance Re-
view Committee)
Evidence suggests that female single
parents who receive social assistance are
very likely to be stigmatized by Student
Awards officers and administrators. Ac-
cording to the Discussion Group for Con-
sumers of Social Assistance and Student
Assistance (May 1992), applicants who
did not fit the mold of traditional student
(students with children, students who re-
ceive welfare, the disabled, the elderly)
"were treated as if they had hidden dis-
abilities that would result in their failure,
or that they did not deserve to receive
financial aid."
In conclusion, there has been a clear
indifference in policy to assist single
mothers attempting to complete post-sec-
ondary education. Inter-ministerial coop-
eration between these two agencies has
not progressed beyond the initial agree-
ment under the Family BenefitsAct, Chap-
ter Ill, Policy Information, Section D,
Standard Assessment of Need. When this
group of single parent students is recog-
nized by each of these agencies it tends to
be a negative reaction. Single parents, like
other social assistance recipients, are of-
ten accused of welfare fraud. Also com-
mon is the view that single mothers have
extensive asAP debt loads, but this does
not appear to be true. Single parents on
social assistance comprise only 5.24 per
cent ofloan defaulters. Nevertheless, mis-
information, negative perceptions, and a
general policy indifference to this group
seems to be apparent in both agencies.
Any adequate educational and social
welfare policy should develop an empow-
ering approach-facilitating, fostering and
supporting the choices single mothers have
already made. Constraint-oriented poli-
cies of social assistance and student aid
are premised on a limited and limiting
understanding of 'deterrence' and should
be avoided. Related educational initia-
tives from social assistance have focused
on short-term training and trade pro-
grammes. These policy questions should
be addressed.
Is there a systemic bias in the social
assistance agency against welfare recipi-
ents engaged in post-secondary educa-
tion? Is the policy indifference explained
by the perception that the number of sin-
gle parent welfare recipients attending
post-secondary institutions is insignifi-
cant? Is the political will directed towards
short-term and cheap alternatives for re-
moving single parents from social assist-
56 CANADIAN WOMAN STUDIES/LES CAHIERS DE LA FEMME
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ance? What is the role of post-secondary
institutions, and how might they be more
accountable to this student group?
Dr. CarolyneA. Gorlick is a Professor of
Social Work at King's College, the Uni-
versity of Western Ontario, teaching
courses on women and poverty and
women andsocial workpractice. She has
recently completed the data collection
phase of a five-year panel study on the
experiences of low income single par-
ents. From this wealth of information, a
manuscript focusing on the voices and
realities oflow income women is emerg-
ing.
Name _
Address . _1 The relationship between social assist-
ance and student aid agencies varies
greatly by province. Nevertheless, for
female single parent students, there may
exist comparable experiences.
2 Data has been provided by the Student
Awards Branch of the Ontario Ministry
ofColleges and Universities for 1986-87
and 1991-92.
References
Gorlick, Carolyne. "SocialAssistance and
Student Aid: The Female Single Par-
ent Student." Written submission for
the Social Assistance Committee of
Ontario, 1988.
Report on Legislative Reform by the Ad-
visory Group on New Social Assist-
ance Legislation. Transitions. Report
of the Social Assistance Review Com-
mittee. Toronto, 1988.
•
Province __________ Postal Code
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VOLUME 12, NUMBER 4 57


English

The Female Single Parent Student

Kelkar, Govind

Poor Peasant Women Organize for Land Rights

Spencer, Jacqui

58 CANADIAN WOMAN STUDIES/LES CAHIERS DE LA FEMME
Honour the earth in which you lay
The sand beneath your feet
This is my grounding
My location is the hills of a country
Descendant of warrior women
Redemption songs
And reggae beats
This is my grounding
Stories told of fight and flight
Shame of skin but pride
Shades so deep, dark and voluminous
Beauty of Maroon
These are my people
This is my grounding
I connect
Beginning
Middle
The sun unending
This is my grounding
A language that floats outside yet dances within
Where coc’nut falls
And mangoes speak
The lushness of land
Lay buried deep
This is my grounding
Where water speaks so clear
So true
For lost souls
Whose spirits whisper freedom from shores
With blood shed
JACQUI SPENCER
This is my grounding…
Reclaimed
And shackled no more
This is my grounding
Cane so sweet
Yet bitter fruit
Lost on tongues that no longer speak
This is my grounding
Loss internal
With gains eternal
Listen
As children cry for mothers
Whose souls bleed across oceans
Where shadows speak
Out of many one people
This is my grounding
My land
My love
My roots
This
Is
My
Grounding
Jacqui Spencer is an advocate for the betterment of the 
lives of the marginalized. A mother, and Social Justice 
Education doctoral student at OISE/University of Toronto, 
her focus is empowering Black women through her work 
and lived experiences.
CANADIAN WOMAN STUDIES/
LES CAHIERS DE LA FEMME
 
CELEBRATING 40 YEARS OF FEMINIST PUBLISHING 
Indispensable resources for the feminist reader.
www.cwscf.ca
Forthcoming Fall 2018: 
Women’s Human Rights: Changing the World 


This is my grounding…

Jiwani, Yasmin

The Exotic, the Erotic and the Dangerous: South Asian Women in Popular Film

Ritchie, Fairlie

membership in her father's blood clan to
membership in another clan of Greek ori-
gin.
Callinicos concludes optimisticallywith
storiesofdefiant Greek-American women
who are struggling to live meaningful
lives, "peeling off, layer by layer," the
Good Greek Girl, coping with their cul-
turally ingrained fears of being outsiders
and alone. In the writer's analysis, "Sleep-
ing Aphrodite must be her own Kiss of
Life." She has to re-invent herself, to kill
the fearful child she has been taught to be.
There are some important questions
that Callinicos either leaves unanswered
or fails to raise at all. Can gender oppres-
sion be accounted for by the Greek culture
exclusively? How have the structural-his-
torical conditions of Greek emigration
(isolation, language difficulties, chain
migration, scarcity ofwomen among early
immigrants) contributed to the transfer
and maintenance of the "Greek village
mentality?" In her life histories there is
always a suggestion of violence, but she
does not point explicitly in her analysis to
the threat of violence as a factor in the
oppression ofwomen. Her vision is that of
individual self-realization in so far as this
is what her "defiant" women are striving
for. But how is this self-realization to be
achieved? What are the responsibilities of
these "defiant" women towards their less
fortunate sisters? Where does the wom-
en's movement come in? Finally, in this
analysis there is an absence ofdifferentia-
tion in terms of class, sexual orientation
and generation among Greek-American
women.
Despite these shortcomingsAmerican
Aphrodite makes an interesting read. To
Greek-American and immigrant Greek
women in particular, the book may offer a
painful and much needed catharsis.
NO ROOMS OF THEIR
OWN: WOMEN WRITERS
OF EARLY CALIFORNIA
Edited by Ida Rae Egli. Berkeley:
Heydays Books, 1992.
By Fairlie Ritchie
A pioneer who undertook the arduous,
VOLUME 12, NUMBER 4
exciting trek across the United States with
her husband in a lone covered wagon. A
Lassik tribal matriarch who fled Euro-
American onslaughts as a girl and lived
into her nineties. A Black woman who
went to court for her right to use Califor-
nia streetcars. All of these women lived in
California during the nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries. And all of them were
writers in that milieu. In bringing their
work together in this anthology, Ida Rae
Egli shares with readers a stimulating
array of individuals.
In her Introduction, Egli sets the scene
by telling us what kind of women inhab-
ited California in that era, and how their
experiences there affected them. The dis-
cussion is divided into three historical
phases: "First Contact," "MakingRoom,"
and "Questioning Roles."
NO ROOMS OFTHEiR OWN
. WoMWtilflSof~CaliIoniu
"First Contact" was spawned by the
1848 Gold Rush. Women who came in
that flood were generally of an adventur-
ous mien and shed many social norms as
they approached the new environment.
Native Americans, African-Americans,
people ofSpanish, Chinese and European
descent were all here, and for many of
those from the eastern states the move was
a baptism into multiculturalism.
Fuelled by wealth from gold, Califor-
nians undertook farming and business
endeavours. For a long time California
retained a free spirit of its own. Women
could pursue careers and lifestyles which
were closed to them elsewhere; they could
run boarding houses, be doctors, artists,
and writers. Californians as a whole hun-
gered for a literature of their own, to help
them define this unique culture. Authors
of both sexes found an eager audience
open to ground-breaking creative prac-
tices. A distinctive literary genre called
the SagebrushSchoolemerged, comprised
of "storytellers who mixed reality with a
little western mythology and a bonanza
hyperbole."
The "Questioning Roles" phase gradu-
ally appeared in this setting. When the
1869Transcontinental Railway connected
California with the east, however, the
state was also linked up with a conserva-
tive trend that would stifle some of Cali-
fornia's cultural independence. At this
point, Egli writes, "the golden era of the
California frontier was dead, and buried
with itwere the budding lives ofSagebrush
Realism andfrontier California literature."
The diversity of genre gives us a very
wide range ofwritings, from SarahEleanor
Royce's memoir of her trek west, to the
legal testimony of Charlotte Brown, to
Adah Isaacs Menken's probing poetry.
Egli provides an introduction and a bibli-
ography for each writer, in which she
warmly invites us into their lives and
works; photographs accompany all but
one of the selections.
The collection also presents a multitude
of perspectives. Lucy Young's Native
witness, for instance, declares: "I hear
people tell 'bout what Inyan do early days
to white man. Nobody ever tell what white
man do to Inyan. That reason I tell it.
That's history. I seen it myself." Others
see differently: Jessie Benton Fremort,
for instance, who writes condescendingly
of the young Native women in her em-
ploy. Or Ella Sterling Cummins Mighels,
who says of women that "they have no
caution, no principles, when it comes to
voting." (This writer of editorials and
essays also found occasion to invoke the
"purity of the white race" and the "benign
dominance of men.")
One wonders whether the title of this
book-alluding to Virginia Woolf's well-
known essay-is appropriate. True, few
of these women had rooms of their own
for writing, or for anything else. But while
Woolf's women lacked their own rooms
in a social structure which provided such
sanctuaries for men, in early California
neither men nor women were likely to
have a room to themselves. Instead, they
had open horizons, new freedoms and
adventures.
107


No Rooms of Their Own: Women Writers of Early California

Eginton, Kay R.

VOLUME 32, NUMBERS 1,2 41
Mama, PhD: Women Write About Motherhood and 
Academic Life. Ed. Elrena Evans, and Caroline 
Grant. Rutgers University Press, 2008. 213-221. Print.
The University of the West Indies, Mona Health and 
Wellness Policy. Web. 15 April 2015. 
Solorzano, Daniel G. “Critical Race Theory, Race and 
Gender Microaggressions, and The Experience of 
Chicana and Chicano Scholars.” International Journal 
Of Qualitative Studies in Education 11.1 (1998): 121-
136. Print.
Thompson, Tyrone. “Gender-Based Attacks Haunt uwi, 
Mona”. The Gleaner. February 1, 2015. Web. 1 April 
2015. 
Ward, Kelly, and Lisa Wolf-Wendel. “Academic 
Motherhood: Managing Complex Roles in Research 
Universities.” The Review of Higher Education 27.2 
(2004): 233-257. Print.
Ward, Kelly, and Lisa Wolf-Wendel. Academic Motherhood: 
How Faculty Manage Work and Family. New Brunswick, 
NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2012. Print.
Williams, Joan. “How the Tenure Track Discriminates 
Against Women.” Chronicle of Higher Education 27 
(2000): 173-203. Print.
William-White, Lisa. “Dare I Write About Oppression 
on Sacred Ground [Emphasis Mine].” Cultural 
Studies↔Critical Methodologies 11.3 (2011): 236-242. 
Print.
FATHIMA CADER 
What Maps Do
love is a city. it has streets, it has 
walls, it demands area codes. 
love is a city, and it keens 
with a city’s noontime hunger, 
sweat collecting in its sewers. 
love has coordinates, 
moving swift and cramped 
through the wires over streetcar tracks. 
and love pulses with a city’s breath, 
exhaling in basement apartments. 
love piles up in black bags along sidewalks, 
and 
collapses into a small mountain of bones on 
someone’s front porch. 
love hangs low here, fogs up windows, 
dampens collars and sleeves. 
so the city falls into itself, neon folding into 
neon. 
this place is unsure, 
is cloaked in watching silences. 
its eyelids are slow to lift, 
its fingers still, 
its lips melting into the shore. 
it curves its back over its alleys, 
protective, 
jealous of what maps do.
Fathima Cader’s poetry has appeared in Apogee Journal, 
and her other writing most recently in The Funambulist, 
Hazlitt, and Warscapes, among other publications. She 
is especially interested in the migrations of war and state 
violence. She is based in Toronto.
KAY R. EGINTON 
Ghostly Listener
Bartok’s music in the room  
The hearer ghostly, alone
 taking insubstantial identity
From a sound. 
There is no one near.  
A friend, however sits quietly reading.  
 Paper settles
And news strides in.    
There is nothing to be gleaned
 from the room
But a moment frozen. 
Wintry sound, cold, absence. 
Kay R. Eginton is the author of Poems (1981). Kay has 
also been a contributor to Lyrical Iowa, a publication 
of the Iowa Poetry Association. She lives in Iowa 
City, Iowa. 


Ghostly Listener

Blouin, Barbara

Welfare Workers and Clients: Problems of Sexism and Paternalism

Chatterjee, Ratnabali

The Indian Prostitute as a Colonial Subject: Bengal 1864-1883

Rafiq, Fauzia

Growing Up in Pakistan

Poff, Deborah C.

The High Cost of
Keeping Women Poor
By Deborah C. Po!!
On a accorde peu d'attention a la relation qui existe entre la
pauvrete chez les femmes et la pauvrete a long terme,
intergenerationnelle etendemique, notammenten ce qui concerne
I'impact qu'excerce sur le statut economique de chaque membre
de la famille le fait de grandir dans une famille monoparentale
dirigeepar unefemme. L 'auteur soutient que si nous decidons de
ne pas faire les investissements economiques et sociaux
necessaires en faveur des populations ahaut risque, les groupes
vulnerables formes de femmes et d'enfants continueront aen
subir les consequences.
Little attention has been placed on the relationship of female
poverty to long range, inter-generational and endemic poverty. In
particular, what impact does growing up in a female-headed lone
parent family have on the economic status of individual family
members? Further, what impact does growing up in a poor
female-headed family have on the long term economic status of
individual family members?
While the interest in relationships among these factors should
be self-evident to anyone who cares about women's economic,
political and social status, social policy is generally focussed on
the political quick-fix and what appears to be the most expedient
course of action in the short run. Such political and social
pragmatism is both economically and socially short-sighted. If
we choose not to make the necessary economic and social
investments in high risk populations (i.e. women and their
children) we will continue to see the consequences of this lack of
investment in vulnerable populations of women and children.
The economic status of children and poor women in
Canada
In recent years, in both Canada and the United States, a
significant amount of research has indicated the range of prob-
lems which children growing up in poverty face. The list of risk
factors for poor children include: "premature birth, low birth
weight, malnutrition, recurrent and untreated health problems,
physical and psychological stress, child abuse and learning
disabilities" (Chafel). The growth ofchild poverty in both Canada
and the United States from the 1980s onward is a failure of the
Canadian public on both moral and economic grounds. As
Duncan and Rodgers note:
VOLUME 12, NUMBER 4
Children are completely dependent upon others for their
economic security, and that any of them should live in
households with living standards below the poverty line can
be regarded as socially unacceptable. Second, there is a
growing body of evidence that links outcomes such as
completed schooling and career attainments to the economic
resources during childhood. Thus an impoverished child-
hood has adverse consequences that may last well beyond
childhood.
Since female-headed lone parent families can run a particu-
larly high risk of contributing to long term dependence on social
assistance, any effective approach to this kind of endemic pov-
erty requires an integrated needs assessment of the necessary and
sufficient components for an effective model of support and
intervention to assist these families to exit the social assistance
system permanently.
In order to do this, among other things, we must know why
some female-headed lone parent families are doing better than
others. First, it should be noted that there are common features
shared by all of these families. It has long been recognized that
factors which contribute to the particular vulnerability offemale-
headed lone parent families are a combination ofwomen's socio-
economic, political, and cultural disadvantages in a male-domi-
nated Canadian society, a condition Canadian women share with
other women around the world. However, despite the common
features offemale poverty, there are also important differences in
the types of poor female-headed families. In an American study,
Beshavor and Quin found a significant difference between di-
vorced mothers and never-married mothers. According to their
data, never-married mothers "work less [because of fewer work
opportunities as a result of interrupted education], receive less
child support, and are less likely to marry and stay married to
someone able to support them and their children. As a result, they
go on welfare in large numbers...."
Similarly, children who spend all of their childhood in poverty
may have significantly different needs than children who are
poor for shorter periods of time. To understand the similarities
and differences among poor female-headed lone parent families,
it is necessary to get a fully informed picture, not just from experts
and national data, but from the individuals themselves. As Prager
notes, the analysis has frequently "tended to be based on ideo-
69
A recurring theme is the impact the past decade of conservatism has had in increasing
the feminization ofpoverty, with a corresponding increase in child poverty.
logical assumptions, anecdotes, and less than rigorous analysis.
The available statistics on poverty were annual ones which are
inadequate and misleading in the analysis of the many questions
that have to be answered." Ifwe are to understand where and how
to effectively support high risk families for self-sufficiency we
must have an integrated, longitudinal and holistic information
base.
The need for client-centred and community-based initiatives is
being recognized among policy analysts and service-delivery
workers at all levels of government support. There is a growing
consensus that an integrated cooperative approach by all
stakeholders is necessary for success. With the issue of violence
against women, for example, there is increasing cooperation
among transition house workers, including treatment measures
for both victims and offenders of family violence. Piecemeal
approaches to complex social problemsjust do not work. Without
adequate nutrition, housing, social support, and available and
affordable child care, children at risk can become adults at risk.
However, despite the recognition that solutions must be col-
laborative, complex, and integrative in nature, there has not been
a complementary and innovative formula for implementing such
an approach. The 1988 Report of the Social Assistance Review
Committee, Transitions, states that within Ontario a "philosophi-
cal reorientation is needed so that the provision of assistance to
become self-reliant and active participants in the life of the
community will be considered as important." Despite this noble
goal, as Wright notes, the Committee neglects to address the
availability of positions in the existing labour market to provide
an adequate standard ofliving for many social assistance recipi-
ents. While the Committee report recognizes that "to be a woman
raising children alone can be a passport to a life of poverty," it
does not have an adequate analysis which integrates a "coordi-
nated approach to education and skills training" with larger and
changing economic concerns. Yet it is precisely this larger vision
which is a prerequisite to an informed model for social change.
Furthermore, as the recent evolution of client groups and self-
help support networks have illustrated, services "done to" cli-
ents, rather than provided in consultation with clients, not only do
not always meet the perceived needs of the client but also result
in the production of a hostile and needy clientele. As Mannette
and Meagher state of their study of Cape Breton women, "para-
mount to the success of this project was the involvement of low
income women throughout the entire process of the research.
Their voices, resounding with those of community agencies,
determined the outcome of the project."
Much of the recent literature addressing issues of family
dependency and social assistance has stressed the need for
informed cooperation and integrated services among the various
sectors in the community which respond to families in need or in
70
crisis. The implication of this for service delivery is that mecha-
nisms for inter-agency cooperation must be streamlined and
facilitated.
Another recurring theme in the literature is the impact that the
past decade of conservatism has had in increasing exponentially
the feminization of poverty, with a corresponding increase in
child poverty. The critical theoretical issues here concern ideo-
logical differences in interpretations of the social and economic
benefit of investing in high-risk families and whether the return
for the investment makes the cost warranted. As Butler (1990)
notes:
An assumption made by advocates of higher welfare ben-
efits is that we 'invest' in the future generation by guarantee-
ing an adequate income for children today. In contrast,
others, most notably George Gilder and Charles Murray,
argue that welfare undermines the work ethic and relieves
the poor of the responsibility for their own actions. Children
learn that failure is rewarded with government largess; only
the chump works hard. Thus, it would be better, according to
those who hold these views, to keep welfare benefits low (or
to eliminate welfare completely) and to thereby force the
poor to finish school, to work, to marry and stay married, and
to limit their family size-in short, to behave in ways which
will alleviate their poverty in the long run.
Given the regressive Canadian government which has been in
power for the past eight years, it is not surprising to find that the
current government is cutting back on social service delivery and
educatiDn, and reneging on promises for a national child care
programme and policy while at the same time articulating a
commitment to eliminating violence against women and chil-
dren. In particular, the initiation of a National Taskforce on
Violence Against Women concurrent with the elimination and
cutting-back of social programmes speaks to the lack of under-
standing ofthe relationshipbetween poverty and violence against
women within Canada's patriarchal society.
Policy recommendations
We currently have a government in place that wishes to have
women exit from the social welfare system, but without the
necessary prerequisites for a healthy, safe and autonomous
existence for themselves and their children. In order to meet the
necessary conditions for fully participating as self-sufficient and
equal citizens, we must know what the needs of poor women and
children are in a complex, integrated and holistic manner, and we
have to know these things from a feminist, woman-centred
approach. For these reasons, we must have integrated, women-
CANADIAN WOMAN STUDIES/LES CAHIERS DE LA FEMME
oriented social assistance which takes the following questions
into consideration:
1. What are the current estimated costs of public support for
female-headed lone parent families?
2. What are our best estimates of the numbers of these kinds of
families, their composition and location?
3. What are the specific needs ofthese families as perceived by:
a) the families themselves, b) front-line workers in crisis inter-
vention, c) community service workers, d) community service
policymakers, e) legislators, and f) educators?
4. Are there significant similarities and differences among the
perceptions of these various stakeholders?
5. Is there sufficient consensus among perceived priority needs
to construct a minimum set or alternative sets of goods and
services provisions (i.e., Is there sufficient consensus for the
development of a testable model?)
6. What are the estimated costs of introducing an intensive and
relatively short term (e.g., 3 to 5 years) intervention with these
families which incorporates training and education, personal and
vocational counselling, adequate financial aid, nutritional coun-
selling and adequate child care provisions and which addresses
any other relevant needs of both mothers and children?
7. Relative to the investments, what is the estimatedprobability
of achieving self-sufficiency?
8. Is the estimated cost of short term massive intervention
lower than current long term costs?
Such questions have to be answered by feminist social scien-
tists who engage and empower the women and children for whom
the services must be provided. We also need to implement the fol-
lowing recommendations immediately:
• that transition houses receive adequate compensation for the
realistic amount of time it takes women to re-establish their lives
when they leave their abusive partners
• that women who leave abusive partners receive the necessary
financial support to establish an independent existence for them-
selves and their children (including support not only for such
basics as furniture and clothing but also for counselling)
• that levels of social assistance in Canada are raised to a level
such that no persons or families in Canada live below the poverty
line
• that women living on social assistance have significantly
higher levels of support while they seek further education and
training, including flexible child care support, not just for when
they are in class but as respite to enable them to study
• that rather than cut back on pay equity promises, governments
at both federal and provincial levels strengthen their employment
equity programmes and increase available funds for pay equity
compensation
• that perpetrators of violence receive mandatory counselling
rather than imprisonment or fines which economically disadvan-
tage the families of batterers •
• that the government introduce progressive taxation including
taxation on the corporations in Canada which currently do not
pay taxes to offset the costs of the initiatives outlines here
• that a net wealth tax be introduced in Canada to offset the costs
of the initiatives outlined here
VOLUME 12, NUMBER 4
These are massive recommendations in their scope. But so is
the scope of the problems they are meant to solve.
*Ed. note: Across Canada women's groups are currently debat-
ing whether mandatory counselling is really effective. This
recommendation raises the question of whether wife assault
should be considered a criminal offence requiring a prison
sentence or whether it should be considered a characterflaw that
could be addressed through counselling.
Dr. Deborah Poffis the Director ofthe Institute for the Study of
Women at Mount Saint Vincent University. She is a philosopher
who has taught women's studies and carried out research on
women's issues and ethics for the past decade. She has a
particular interest in issues offamily violence. She has served on
boardsofdirectors for several transition houses, andhas chaired
the National Action Committee on the Status of Women's na-
tional committee on violence against women. Dr. Poff is the
editor of two academic journals: Atlantis: A Women's Studies
Journal and the Journal of Business Ethics (with A. Michalos).
She is currently the principal investigator of a demonstration
project counselling childrenfrom violenthomes (funded through
Health and Welfare'S National Welfare Grants). Last year, she
completeda literaturereviewonfamily violence (withA. Michalos)
for the Family Violence Tracking System for the Solicitor Gen-
eral ofNova Scotia.
References
Butler, A. "The Effect of Welfare Guarantees on Children's
Educational Attainment." Social ScienceResearch Vol. 19 no.
2 (1990): 175-203.
Duncan, G., and Rodgers, W. "Has Children's Poverty Become
More Persistent?" American Sociological Review no. 56
(1991): 538-50.
Duncan, G., and Rodgers, W. "Longitudinal Aspects of Child-
hood Poverty." Journal ofMarriage and the Family no. 50
(1989): 1007-1021.
Mannette, J., and Meagher, M. "Struggling and Juggling: Cape
Breton Women, Economic Constraints, and Strategies for
Survival." Elizabeth Fry Society of Cape Breton, 1991.
National Council of Welfare.Women and Poverty Revisited.
Ottawa: Ministry of Supply and Services, 1990.
Prager, C. "Poverty in North America: Losing Ground." Cana-
dian Public Policy VOl. 14 no. 1 (1988): 52-65.
Ramey, c., and Ramey, S. "Intensive Educational Intervention
for Children of Poverty." Intelligence Vol. 14 no. 1 (1990): 1-
9.
Wright, M. "Women, Work and Welfare: The Thomson Report
and Beyond." Journal ofLaw and Social Policy no. 5 (1989):
227-54.
71


The High Cost of Keeping Women Poor

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