Don't Call Us Out of Name: The Untold Lives of Women and Girls in Poor America

by Lisa Dodson

Book Overview

A radically new vision of women and girls living below the poverty line; Lisa Dodson makes a frontal assault on conventional attitudes and stereotypes of women in poor America and the seriously misguided "welfare reform" policies of the end of the century.

"I hear Odessa, a thirty-two-year-old woman, speak at a forum on welfare reform. I ask her about the phrase she used, 'Don't call me out of name, ' for it seemed to speak for a whole nation...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0807042099
• ISBN13: 9780807042090
• Release Date: September 1999
• Publisher: Beacon Press
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.0" x 9.8"

Customer Reviews

Don't Call Us Out of Name

An excellent, eye-opening book. For me, the take-away messages were that everyone needs someone for emotional and spiritual support, and a college education can help you get out of a financial hole in life.

McLain, Review

In this book Dodson conveys the experiences and challenges of women with families living, coping and breaking away from living poor in America. Dodson presents this evolution in a matter of fact manner that shares in the joys and sorrows that are faced by these women and the way they feel treated by society. The title of this book, "Don't Call Me Out of Name", on the streets means don't call me something I'm not. Dodson uses over eight years of interviews, surveys, observations and focus groups with women from different racial and ethnic backgrounds, that live in Boston, on what it is like to live in poverty. This is an eye opening account of these women's struggles to have a life, to strive for a better life and the challenges of getting there. Dodson also gets input from these women on what their needs are, what helps and what hampers getting out of poverty and successfully off welfare. This book is written for a general reading audience but should belong on the shelves of policy-makers and all people involved in welfare reform. Many sections of Dodson's book point to education as the way out of this lifestyle, but how difficult it is to obtain an education with all the strife's of living in poverty, i.e., no transportation, no reliable childcare, no support. As a former welfare recipient I understand the complexities of "working" the system to obtain a better life and how time consuming the welfare system is. I found this book very informative and enlightening and learned about people living in poverty trying to better their lives. I rate this book a 4 (very good) because the beginning of the book was slow to maneuver through. The question that I would have for the author would be does she have any ideas on how to improve the welfare system because she has spent so much time listening to the needs of the welfare recipients.

Important work

A very important and eloquently written book. Dodson is smart and committed to her work in a way that shines through. I highly reccommend this book to anyone interested in the topic.

Eye Opening

Very eye-opening to the problems that many people face on a daily basis. The stories in this book dispell many of the myths about women on welfare, and tells of the obstacles that these women face while trying to achieve a life off of welfare.

Like a gripping novel but a must-read for policy makers.

Those of us comfortable in our suburban sprawl, our urban chic, our corporate climbs, and our hard work and diligence think that getting off welfare is as simple as getting a job--any job. Those of us born and bred on one side or the other of middle-class America look suspiciously at "welfare mothers" and believe that they have more babies for bigger checks. That they are lazy, dysfunctional drug addicts. That they lounge in the lap of luxury, compliments of our hard earned tax dollars. The middle-class, hard work ethic says that anyone can do as we do--work and prosper--and anyone who doesn't is a low-life.Lisa Dodson, in Don't Call Us Out of Name: The Untold Lives of Women and Girls in Poor America, shows us an entirely different picture.Over eight years of interviews, surveys, observations, and focus groups with women of many racial and ethnic backgrounds in the Boston area culminates in this frequently heart-wrenching account of what it's really like on the other side. On page after page and in their own words, Dodson allows hundreds of "savvy, complex, and challenging" women to come forth and tell their stories for themselves. Contrary to the notion that poverty reflects character defects, Dodson stresses that these women uphold a tradition of family values and perform meaningful family care work that is neither paid nor recognized. They have grown up "deprived of basic material support in the midst of great national wealth," and that deprivation dictates not only a chaotic lifestyle, but it also generates a host of inherent challenges and difficulties. These women have not chosen a subsistence-level life of monthly welfare checks and food stamps because they like it; far too often, few choices are available and rising up is next to impossible.So many of us--individuals, social workers, policy-makers--accuse poor women of irresponsible motherhood. We deplore the many unwed, teen-aged mothers that seem to come overwhelmingly from the ranks of poor America and who, too often, end up on welfare like their mothers before them. Why don't they wait for motherhood? But these young women say "Wait for what? What is coming anyway?" Dodson maintains that motherhood is the next logical step for these young women "who have no access to college, career ladders, and other entries into the dominant society."Dodson explains that a key element and the primary fuel for the ongoing cycle of poverty among women is what she calls "daughters' work." While their middle-class peers develop skills and identities through school achievements, extra-curricular activities, team sports, and hobbies, many poor girls spend their developmental years "providing child care, performing house chores, and trying to help with troubles and instabilities faced by their parents." Among the women and girls she studied, Dodson reports that "the time girls provided for housework and child care ranged between sixteen and twenty hours each week." I