Social Securities Talk: Why Can’t Feminists Change the Law? The History and Politics of Welfare Reform in the Modern U.S.

In her talk, Kornbluh will reveal how welfare reform is shaped by “intersectional sexism,” the gendered and racialized dimensions of legal activity that are evident, persistent, yet ignored by mainstream policy makers and Washington, D.C.-based intellectuals. Taking as her example the failed passage of a feminist welfare reauthorization bill in the early 2000s, Kornbluh will discuss why the Democratic Party resisted embracing this initiative and explore the crucial role feminist scholars and activists have to play in understanding the details of policy and law in the intersectional context of gender, race, poverty, and inequality.  A reception will follow.

Felicia Kornbluh is Associate Professor of History and Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies at the University of Vermont.  She is the author of The Battle for Welfare Rights: Poverty and Politics in Modern America (2007) and, with Gwendolyn Mink, Ensuring Poverty: Welfare Reform in Feminist Perspective (2018).

Sponsored by the IHC’s Social Securities series, the Harry Girvetz Memorial Endowment, and the Blum Center for Global Poverty Alleviation and Sustainable Development, and the Hull Chair in Feminist Studies