Poverty and Welfare with Women

Eang's article on Leading by Example discusses her experience with poverty, sexual assault, war, under age labor and family. Her family escaped from Cambodia after hiding out during the War but with loss of aunts, uncles and grandparents. She was lucky to be born in the US where she lived in poverty right off the bat. Her mother did what ever she could to keep food on the table and to send her children to school. When she was young she was sexually assaulted by an older man. It was a very traumatic event for her and effected her deeply. She eventually started school because her mom wanted to her to have an education to make a better life. When she was in second grade she started doing full time manual labor on weekends, summer and days she wasn't in school. That is very illegal but once again no one stopped them for this because it was cheap labor. They were only paid $4.50 under the table. Which means they probably had illegal immigrants working there as well. Her mother worked many jobs and went to night school so that she wouldn't make he same mistake twice. She did not know English and took her child to the hospital and signed a form that allowed them to do medical testing on her and she died. Eang and her sisters all graduated and went to college. She learned about women's studies there and realized that she considered herself as a feminist. She learned from her experiences and now is working to go to medical school to help women and children.

Mink's article talks about how they stand up and speak for poor women and gender inequality. I believe this a great idea because women sometimes need other women to speak up for them because they might not know how to or not know what to say. Welfare is also a women's issue and its the war against welfare in some cases. Mink pays attention the relationship between welfare and equality and welfare and feminism. She brings up the Personal Responsibility Act and the effects it has on poverty and the welfare system. Also the New Deal Social Security Act has been being talked about.