1.5. Antipoverty programs in the United States since the mid-

1990s have focused on welfare-to-work programs that compel welfare recipients to take paid jobs. Some economists argue that these programs place women who are not “ready for work” into jobs that are not “ready for mothers” and move them from the ranks of the welfare poor to the working poor.

a. What policies would be necessary to make U.S.

antipoverty programs far more effective?

b. How could public policy be used to make jobs more

“mother-ready” and more likely to lift these women above the poverty line?