Friday, 14 January 2005 - 8:00 AM

This presentation is part of: Welfare Reform

Normative versus felt needs of women in the era of welfare reform

In the field of social welfare, there has long existed conflict over the role and needs of poor women and children in the field of social welfare. Welfare advocates view women primarily as nurturers and entitled to the choice of staying home to rear their children despite their income levels. Women reformers view welfare differently and have implemented a “tough love” approach to welfare. They expect mothers to reform regardless of the availability of living wage jobs or adequate care for their children. However, while both advocates and reformers moved forward with their respective policy agendas, neither systematically consulted clients to determine what their wants or felt needs may be. This paper presents on a study which gave voice to welfare recipients’ perceptions of their own needs and wants as they face the uncertainties of life during welfare reform. Using Bradshaw’s conceptual framework regarding need, this study focused on three questions: 1) How do welfare mothers perceive their own needs and wants (felt needs), particularly with respect to work and welfare? 2) How are these different from professionals’ perceptions of client need (normative needs)? 3) How do these women manage the discrepancy (if any) between the two? Five focus groups were conducted to collect qualitative data from 33 women who were currently receiving or had recently received public assistance benefits. Data were analyzed using ethnoscientific methods. Seven themes related to women’s roles and desires in this new era were generated. They were: 1) an affirmation of the benefits of working outside the home; 2) the ongoing need these women expressed for basic supportive services whether on or transitioning off of public assistance; 3) a desire for independence from governmental assistance; 4) a desire for resource investment in their lives, not merely maintenance; 5) the need for a supportive helping relationship during time of transition; 6) notions of deserving and undeserving public assistance recipients; and 7) the usefulness of a variety of coping strategies in their effort to reconcile differences between felt and normative needs. The felt needs of women transitioning off public assistance were at once similar to and different from the normative needs in which current welfare reform policy is grounded. Clearly, these women want and need to work. However, in tandem with this need or desire to work comes equally strong needs for support around their employment, and a desire for investment in their futures. Ways that policy makers can respond to this recipient-driven knowledge may bring legitimacy to the process of welfare reform that has heretofore been lacking.

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