Rebeca Kissane They Never Did Me Any Good Summary

Reflection on: “‘They Never Did Me Any Good’: Welfare-To-Work Programs From the Vantage Point of Poor Women”.
The article first provided an overview of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconsolidation Act (PRWORA), and described it as a governmental attempt to reduce the dependency on welfare. In class we have discussed the Welfare-to-Workfare programs, which creates precarious jobs—underpaid, temporary, with little to no benefits. While the program aims to help individuals become self-sufficient, the author of the article Rebeca Kissane implies that the program staff use a “one-size fits all” approach to training and educating the participants. For which they ignore the larger structural sociological issues, and consider poverty to be caused by personal choice, or induvial problems. Moreover, push the women into accepting any form of employment, not one that they desired—a full-time job, stable enough to provide a stable financial situation for the individual and their family. …show more content…
Some women believed the programs were useless, and did not fulfill their expectations. While other women believed the programs had actually helped them. The women who felt the programs were useless, mentioned that the staff had a “one-size fits all” teaching method, or would have a bias towards the participants that had more skills, or had at least a high school diploma. In addition, they felt the information provided were things they already knew, and instead believed the staff could have taken them to actual job interviews, instead of resume or interview workshops. On the other hand, the women that enjoyed the programs believed their self-esteem had increased, which was what lead them on the search of a job. Overall, it appeared that more participants were unsatisfied with the