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Posted 24 Feb 2001   For week ended June 04, 2000
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News about Mormons, Mormonism,
and the LDS Church
Sent on Mormon-News: 26May00

Summarized by Kent Larsen

Battered Mormon Women Are Examples In Academic Look At Welfare Reform
(Toward real welfare reform: The voices of battered women)
Affilia pg224 1Jun00 P6
By Ruth A Brandwein, Diana M Filiano

NEW YORK, NEW YORK -- An article in the social science journal Affilia mentions the tragic cases of two anonymous Mormon women in an examination of the effects of the US welfare law on battered women. The two women were part of focus groups that the authors organized to probe the issue.

One of the women, called only Rose in the article, came from a polygamous Mormon household. The mother of six, she told the authors that at first her husband had wanted her and his other two wives to become more independent. But then, "as soon as we became independent, he realized he was losing control." She claimed that his abuse led to a nervous breakdown, but that the nervous breakdown was never diagnosed or treated because, ""it's forbidden by my religion." The mental difficulty left her forgetful, prone to crying uncontrollably and, she says, her "mind is not the same."

Coming from the abusive relationship, Rose says that the welfare system forced her from caring for her children like she wanted to, "Man and society need to realize [that] mothers have special roles and special gifts .... It scares me that women shouldn't have the choice to stay home and take care of children.... Kids have so many problems after an abusive relationship-then their mom is forced out of the house into work. What about the emotional needs of kids? Sometimes they just need mom to hold them."

Rose also says that the welfare system pushed her into employment before the family was ready, "[Coming from an abusive relationship,] The last thing you are ready to do is go to school or work .... You feel like you need to nurture yourself and your kids. The kids have so many problems [that] you shouldn't need to leave them . . . .You can't be pushed immediately into everything . . . .You have so much fear when you leave [the relationship]; you have more when you are given time limits and more pressure."

The other Mormon in the focus group, who seems to be a member of the LDS Church, is called Joan in the article. A high school drop-out who married at 16, she had 3 children by the time she was 20. But in spite of not having even a High School Diploma, Joan became the main breadwinner in the family, "because her husband didn't want her to be dependent."

But her husband didn't provide even the support she needed to work. He often failed to show up to baby sit his children when he was supposed to, forcing Joan to miss work, and leading to her getting fired repeatedly from a variety of jobs. "I wouldn't leave the children with him when he was drunk, so I went through many jobs, I got fired often. I was very embarrassed. . . . It ate away at my self-esteem."

But unlike many of the women in the study, Joan credits the welfare system with saving her life, "If welfare hadn't been there, I would have stayed in the relationship and probably wouldn't be alive." She says that the workers in the welfare system were supportive and helpful.

The article takes these experiences and those of 22 other battered women and suggests that the current welfare reform movement in the US hasn't provided enough support for women in their situations. The system forces them into the workforce when they have young children at home before they can adjust from an abusive situation, and doesn't provide the job training and education that they need, among other things, to successfully enter the workforce. The article makes several suggestions for changes in the welfare system to help support these women.


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Copyright 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 Kent Larsen · Privacy Information