Keeping women and children last

Ruth Sidel revisits the condition of America's poor women, with particular focus on the federal government's attempts to dismantle the welfare system. She shows how America, in its search for a post-Cold War enemy, has turned inward to target single mothers on welfare and how politicians have scapegoated and stigmatized female-headed families both as a method of social control and to divert attention from the several problems that Americans face.

Most important, she reveals the real victims of poverty - the millions of children who suffer from societal neglect, inferior education, inadequate health care, hunger, and homelessness. Citing statistics that are both terrifying and disturbing, Sidel delivers a chilling indictment of the current trends and political maneuvering that threaten to keep America's poor women and children last.