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Gender and Politics
What does it mean to “gender” a policy debate?
Gender has become a policy debate because feminists are now seeking a policy that favors them. It refers to ideas that are in relation to both men and women as groups separate from each other (Tolleson-Rinehart 129). Gender has been a debate since the ratification of affirmative action in the convention in order to rectify logical discrimination. President Lincoln introduced affirmative action whereby gender became the major issue. This policy aimed to promote equal opportunities to both men and women in order to eliminate the perpetuate discrimination in the society. However, since the formulation of this policy, many issues have been raised on gender whereby women now advocate that their voices should be heard. They seek to be included in things such as politics and even get the same wages as those of men.
In addition, it means that the issue of gender has become a political process because of the challenges that women face. Gender needs to correspond with the perspectives of women and it should advance their status. In order for democratic policy process to be successful, feminist activists needs to be taken into consideration. Policies cannot be defined as gender but what feminists expect from gender debate is to see the policies working towards improving their rights and status. Moreover, they want legislation that advances their agenda in relation to that of men. They want policy reforms that meet their welfare and that strike a balance between men and women in all political, economical and social sectors.
Why might feminist activists want to “gender” a policy debate?
Feminist activists want to “gender” a policy debate because there central issue is that of race, social class and sexuality. Nevertheless, they are also concerned with the workplace issues such as sexual harassment in the working place, fair maternity leave and fair wage payment policies. All these issues have led feminist activists to desire for a gender policy debate that rectify the policies in order to favor women. Racism and sexual harassment has been common in the place of work thus women want a gender debate that promotes their interests. Since the 1980s, feminism became the subject of debate up to the present. The policy debate embraces challenges, differences, irrationality and attempts to accommodate diversity and transformation (Lawless, Richard and Jennifer 95).
Abramovitz (67) points out various forms of feminist activism whereby women need to secure and defend their rights. She argues that the state has to promote the welfare of women in order to avoid discriminating them from social, economical and political issues. She provides a survey of different ideas on the subject of gender and describes diverse activism by women of different classes and times. Consequently, she comments on the welfare activism of poor women whereby she views as the base for movement in fighting the attack welfare, which has been supported by AFDC safety net. The debate on feminist activism represents gender issues on reproduction, sexuality, work and family. The debate on these issues has affected social movements but the debate on welfare reform reveals that the lobbying of women without any allies will not make any changes in the process.
Lastly, some women’s rights activists believe that women should take their own decision to make free choices about sexuality. Thus, this issue has enabled feminist activists to make gender a policy debate. Many efforts have been made by feminist activists to influence the congress but the encounters between movements and government are dynamic. They want to “gender” a policy debate because they desire to advance their status. However, the activists do not agree precisely on vital actions that will accomplish their goals. Thus, they push their priority conflicts on the government agenda and influence the dominant frame of debate on significant issues on equality.
What were the main purposes of welfare (ADC) when it was created as a federal program in 1935?
The main purposes of welfare (ADC) was to provide federal grants to help the mothers to maintain aid laws in the states, which was passed in forty states in early 19th century. The Aid to Dependent Children is an act that was included in the Social Security Act of 1935. The program provided aid to poor parents whereby the federal government contributed one third of the costs. During this period, this program assumed that women always cared for their children alone. Later ADC was changed to Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC). Although ADC was one of the controversial provisions of the 1935 law, it benefited the single parents. However, it led to provoked opposition and public criticism since the Depression period. The general relief helped not only single mothers but also the impoverished families.
Another purpose of ADC welfare was to support the unemployed workers seeking aid. During the Great Depression, President Roosevelt introduced general relief policy and many programs were formed including ADC. This program helped those mothers who were unemployed and the pensions for mothers’ caseloads were increased. By the late 1932, the federal fund from the Reconstruction Finance Corporation that was part of federal funds was given to unemployed mothers to help them meet their basic needs. The process of legislative that produced ADC attracted the attention of the public. Later, the ADC program was moved to the Children’s Bureau and left to the task of administering relief starting from 1933. This was considered a victory of the New Deal movement.
What are the main purposes of welfare (TANF) now?
One of the main purposes of welfare (TANF) now is to assist low-income families with children in order to meet their basic needs. Temporary Assistance for Needy Families is a joint federal cash assistance program that has been operating since the major welfare reform in 1996 (Tolleson-Rinehart 130). Currently, about 1.8 million families receive financial aid in every month from TANF. Another purpose is that this program requires people to seek employment while receiving financial aid. However, this program provides people with limited aid and the amount of aid is usually given at an interval. Nevertheless, only the States can choose the amount of resources to devote to a certain program. TANF is a newly created program that requires the federal government to move the share of their caseloads to work and implement time limits in the way families are supposed to receive the funded aid.
What factors explain these changes?
There are diverse factors that led to above changes. First, economic expansion became more vigorous and even wages among the semi-skilled workers increased. This led to diverse changes of the ADC and TANF programs and time was limited, at which the financial aid was given. Secondly, the economic and policy changes also contributed to changes of these programs. The economic and policy changes became endogenous and intercausal thus contributed to changes of the ADC and TANF programs. Many states enacted different pioneer programs to the federal welfare reform that granted stronger work enforcement among the public. The states that enacted these programs had high unemployment rate than those, which did not enact them. Thus, these policies adopted during the legislation of 1996 became different due to different economic environments. Lastly, indirect substantial number of effects a rising from rapid economic growth, which is difficult to measure separately. This also contributed to the changes of these programs. The economic expansion increased the availability of jobs and earnings in the current welfare recipients thus affecting the nature of state policies and implementations of welfare programs.
Works Cited
Abramovitz, Mimi. Under Attack, Fighting Back: Women and Welfare in the United States. New
York, NY: Monthly Review Press, 2000. Print.
Lawless, Jennifer, Richard Fox, and Jennifer Lawless. It Still Takes a Candidate: Why
Women Don’t Run for Office. New York, NY: CambridgeUniversity Press, 2010. Internet resource.
Tolleson-Rinehart, Sue and Jyl Josephson. Gender and American Politics: Women, Men, and
the Political Process. Armonk, N.Y: M.E. Sharpe, 2000. Internet resource.
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