Brutal Need: Lawyers and the Welfare Rights Movement, 1960-1973

By Martha F. Davis

Book Overview

During the 1960s a new breed of "poverty lawyers"--in collaboration with welfare recipient activists--mounted a legal campaign to create a constitutional right to welfare. The collaboration worked... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0300053789
• ISBN13: 9780300053784
• Release Date: November 1993
• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Length: 200 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.8" x 1.0" x 6.5"

Customer Reviews

In policymaking, the agenda is everything

This book explains how welfare really mushroomed during the 1960's onward--and the conditions which led to the need for a welfare rights movement. A punitive crackdown on welfare recipients in the 1950's with a growing consciousness of their status encouraged these women to organize a welfare rights movement. One of the actors in that movement was lawyers. Because they were not necessarily on welfare themselves, they had various motives for helping the welfare rights movement. Some people truly were empathetic to the cause; other people were going through the motions of their work. There also was a gendered component because the 'heads of households' on welfare were women and the lawyers (in an era when law school quotas were active) were predominantely men. How could they possibly empathize with the personal life experiences of their clients even if 'public aid' lawyers did not have to worry where their next meal was comming from? However, this book emphasizes that all lawyers reconfigured the 'welfare recipient'. From factors including their involvement she was an assertive-aggressive being who was demanding her rights publicly, This was far cry from the depression era woman intentionally positioned by society as meek and subservient, grateful for whatever assistance she did receive. Eight years after 'welfare reform', this book was an important read. It provides critical insight for readers interested in public policy and human services. It is also important reading for anybody needing to understand how the motives of a policy advocate ultimately do shape a public policy.