Certainly not the National Organization for Women. For more than 30 years, we've been urging fathers to take equal responsibility in caring for their children. And the fathers don't even have to be poor to get these benefits, only their kids do. So middle class fathers can get job training and placement, and other services unavailable to poor mothers who need and would no doubt love to have them.
Many women end up in poverty because they are forced to flee abusive husbands or partners.
Five major research studies have found that between 20 percent and 30 percent of welfare recipients are currently experiencing domestic violence. Other studies have concluded that the majority of recipients currently face domestic violence or have faced such violence in the past. Despite this record, Congress is telling poor women that the way out of poverty is a husband. Clearly, pressuring a poor mother to marry could do more harm than good. Besides, if marriage really did cure poverty, it would not take an act of Congress to promote it.