The politics of motherhood: The restriction of poor mothers' welfare rights in the United States, 1949-1960

This article provides a historical context to recent debates about the poli tical dynamics of welfare state retrenchment. It examines the social and po litical forces behind the 1950s welfare backlash in which nearly half of U. S. states strengthened their eligibility requirements for Aid to Dependent Children (ADC), the main welfare program for poor families in the United St ates. I argue that racist whites, concerned with maintaining the racial sta tus quo, and agricultural capitalists, concerned with ensuring a ready supp ly of low-wage seasonal labor, were important political forces behind this welfare backlash. Quantitative evidence indicates that states were more lik ely to restrict ADC eligibility where agricultural capitalism was more impo rtant To the state's economy, a high proportion of ADC recipients were blac k, and states' per capita income was low. This suggests that states are mor e likely to cut welfare programs when demands for low-wage, flexible labor are high, fiscal constraints are considerable, and/or racial conflicts are salient. This analysis is supplemented with comparative case studies of the welfare backlash in Georgia and California. These case studies reveal that in addition to racial and economic factors, patriarchal ideologies and pol itical and institutional factors shaped how welfare critics carried errs th eir antiwelfare campaigns.