Did welfare reform reduce poverty rates among women and children?
Welfare reform-both state welfare waivers in the early 1990s and federal welfare reform in 1996-did not reduce the official U.S. poverty rates of women or children, we find. The big push from welfare to work also doesn’t appear to have lifted more people out of deep poverty-defined as living below 50 percent of the U.S. federal poverty line. Several other researchers also find that welfare reform did not reduce poverty or deep poverty. That’s not to imply that welfare reform policies had no effect on women and children’s poverty status. The many different welfare policies implemented across the country are expected to have mixed effects. Some policies likely increased poverty among women and children. Others likely decreased poverty. That’s why the zero overall change. Specific policies do appear to influence the poverty rates of women and children. 2. Which specific welfare policies affect poverty? For starters, some stricter time-limit policies may alleviate poverty. Limiting the tim
