Saving Bernice : battered women, welfare, and poverty
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Saving Bernice : battered women, welfare, and poverty
(The Northeastern series on gender, crime, and law / edited by Claire Renzetti)
Northeastern University Press, 2000
- : pbk
- Other Title
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Index to the Island of the Pacific
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Note
Bibliography: p. 169-177
Includes index
Description and Table of Contents
- Volume
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: pbk ISBN 9781555534387
Description
Skillfully interweaving Bernice's own eloquent words about her harrowing abuse with descriptions of other women's similar experiences and a rich synthesis of statistical findings, Jody Raphael demonstrates convincingly that domestic violence and dependence on public assistance are intricately linked. In a work that is sure to stir controversy, she challenges traditional views and stereotypes (conservative and liberal) about welfare recipients, arguing that many poor women are neither lazy nor paralyzed by a "culture of poverty," but instead are trapped by their batterers.
Bernice's ordeals at the hands of her abusive partner -- brutal beatings, violent rapes, threats on her life, stalking, blocked access to birth control, and sabotage of efforts to find a job -- resonate throughout the work. The experiences she relates provide crucial insights into the welfare system and illuminate its failures, successes, and potential in helping women like her.
This disquieting yet inspiring book puts a human face on the heated public policy debate over welfare reform. Above all, it is Bernice's life story and, through her voice, the story of countless other battered women who are isolated in poverty and welfare by the power and control of their abusers.
- Volume
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ISBN 9781555534394
Description
Raphael (executive director of the Center for Impact Research) describes the responses one partner of a battered woman on welfare made to the woman's efforts to obtain employment, thus illustrating some of the ways in which welfare and abuse trap battered women. She maintains that welfare debate has
by "Nielsen BookData"