May be repeated for credit with permission of department. Section 001 - Women, Children, and Poverty in the 1990s. The impoverishment of women and children is a serious problem in the United States and throughout much of the world. This course looks at the issue from a historical, contemporaneous, and cross-national perspective. It considers causal factors such as increasing numbers of single-mother households, racial and ethnic discrimination, wage and employment discrimination experienced by women with children, as well as legislative changes.
Poverty is associated with many negative outcomes for both adults and children.
Women in the U.S. continue to shoulder most of the social welfare burden as underpaid and unpaid care givers. Major changes in the social welfare establishment will be examined in terms of their effect on well-being in women and children. The United Nations has declared the period of 1998-2000 as a time in which we are to seek eradication of the poverty of children throughout the world. The feasibility of this goal is analyzed. The course includes lectures, group discussions, community observations, and written assignments.