The politics of motherhood: The 1950s backlash against Aid to Dependent Children

Using both quantitative and historical methods, this dissertation examines the political forces behind the 1950s backlash against Aid to Dependent Children (ADC, the main welfare program for poor mothers and their children in the United States). In response to mounting criticism of the program and lax federal control of ADC, almost half of U.S. states between 1949 and 1960 adopted formal restrictions on ADC eligibility, such as strict "suitable home" policies and employment requirements. My dissertation highlights the ways in which this welfare backlash was shaped by gender, race, and class.; Combining insights from Marxist and critical race theories, I argue that states were particularly likely to restrict welfare coverage when capitalists' demands for low wage, flexible labor were high and/or racism was rampant. Using logistic regression, I show that states were more likely to restrict ADC coverage in the 1950s where agricultural capitalism was more important to the state's economy and/or the level of racism was high.; Drawing on feminist theories, I argue that patriarchal ideologies shaped the content of many of the ADC eligibility rules created in the 1950s. A number of states adopted rules that expressed the expectation that women remain sexually inactive and childless outside of marriage and/or be economically dependent on individual men (i.e., past or present lovers or husbands) rather than the state. Attacks on unwed welfare mothers, many of whom were black, were often shaped by an interaction of racist and patriarchal ideologies.; My dissertation also provides case studies of welfare politics in three states--California, Georgia, and Kentucky--based on primary documents from welfare department administrative files, legislative records, and organizational newsletters. Agricultural capitalists in both California and Georgia, interested in maintaining their supply of low wage, seasonal labor, actively lobbied the state to restrict ADC eligibility in the 1950s. Anti-welfare campaigns in these two states varied in terms of the particular policies advocated, their rhetoric, farmers' allies, and the state actors they pressured because of larger differences in these states' political economies and race relations. A welfare backlash did emerge in Kentucky, but largely failed to change ADC policy. I explain this case of a "failed backlash" in terms of the state's unusual political economy and the largely white racial composition of its welfare rolls.; My dissertation thus shows that race, class, and gender have historically interacted and each played an important role in the development of poor mothers' welfare rights in the U.S. Reviewing recent research on the contemporary welfare backlash, I argue that capitalists' demands for low wage, casual labor, racism, and patriarchal ideologies are again shaping efforts to restrict poor mothers' welfare rights.