Gwendolyn Mink’s article titled “The Lady and the Tramp (II): Feminist Welfare Politics, Poor Single Mothers, and the Challenge of Welfare Justice” addresses many of the same issues brought up in “The Mommy Tax” and “Maid to Order,” but offers tangible solutions to adequately provide for single mothers who cannot choose to stay home and raise their children and must work full-time to provide for their family. She writes about the difference in goals between privileged women and poor women: privileged women fought to enter the workforce, poor women are usually in the workforce by necessity and cannot choose to stay home and raise their children.
Because many prominent feminists are privileged and society privileges income-producing labor, their concerns are heard, while the working women have less opportunity to advocate for their own choice to stay home with children without sacrificing their ability to provide for their families. Mink argues that a necessary step to achieving women’s equality is providing income support for single parent caregivers so that they are not “forced either by law or by economic circumstance to choose wages over children” (58). She points out that it would be easy to assign a monetary value to housework/caregiving (many are already paid for these services) and then single parents (who are mainly women) could choose without penalty between working in the home and working for wages.
The chapter titled “Leading by Example” by Rosanna Eang provides a first-hand account of life in poverty and other ways that feminist efforts can benefit the lives of those affected by poverty. Eang writes about expected Cambodian gender roles for women, including early marriage and caregiving duties. Women in Cambodia often do not have many choices regarding the course of their own lives. Even when her family moved to America, life was difficult because of language barriers, racism, and hate crimes. She explains that she worked in the blueberry fields and numerous factories as a child illegally and was sexually abused by a Cambodian man that visited her aunt’s house. The author’s open honesty about these circumstances as they happened in her life and her statement that she is “not yet healed of it” (60) brings the reader close into her personal experiences and, with this closeness, develops readers’ trust in her feelings and words.
Eang addresses a common issue resulting from the women’s rights movement: some confusion regarding what feminism is and who can define themselves as feminists. She characterizes her mother as a feminist (who probably didn’t know she was or wouldn’t call herself a feminist) and finds “a feminist in every woman across all racial and cultural boundaries” (64). As soon as she begins to study women’s studies and feminism in college, she identifies with feminism and wants to involve herself in helping communities of disadvantaged women and children. Through internships and program development, Eang was able to effect change in her community. She started a reading program in the pediatric office of the health center, which serves individuals affected by poverty. From her own experiences in poverty, she is able to give back to children and women in similar situations and produce change.
Eang also writes about the difficulties of coming from a country with traditional beliefs about the role of women in society and living and working in America, which has more progressive views about gender roles. Her mother seems to live between both worlds and Eang is working to shift her own life toward more open definitions of what she as a woman can accomplish in the world.
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