Saving Bernice: Battered Women, Welfare, and Poverty

FROM THE PUBLISHER

This is the story of Bernice, a former welfare mother and survivor of domestic violence, and her arduous journey to escape from, and ultimately triumph over, years of battering, poverty, and welfare. 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.

Bernice's story gives insight into the lives of millions of poor women and the serious obstacles they must overcome on the path out of poverty. Author Jody Raphael combines Bernice's dramatic account with numerous academic studies to document the fuller context of poverty, fear and violence that imprisons so many women. This book is a must-read for everyone who wishes to end not just welfare, but poverty 'as we know it'. (Patricia Ireland, President, National Organization for Women)

This compelling volume reveals an unintended and overlooked consequence of welfare reform-the exacerbation of domestic violence against low-income women and children. By demonstrating how abusive male partners can trap women in poverty, Jody Raphael makes a strong case for new approaches to restructuring the welfare system. Saving Bernice is a pathbreaking book that will radically change how one views poor women and public assistance in America. (Senator Paul Wellstone)

Saving Bernice illustrates very clearly how family violence keeps many women in poverty and dependent on welfare. Lessons learned from reading this book should guide the crafting of solutions to help women move from welfare to work without risking their safety. (Ann Richards, former Governor of Texas)

SYNOPSIS

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 resisted the full implications of new information about violence and poverty, and that radically different kinds of assistance need to be institutionalized in welfare-to-work policies. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

FROM THE CRITICS

Library Journal

In this harrowing account of one woman's experiences with poverty and domestic abuse, Raphael, who previously guest-edited Understanding Women's Poverty, follows the life of Bernice, a child of a dysfunctional family (her alcoholic father poured gasoline over her 13-year-old brother and threw a match at him, burning him to death). Raphael includes the grisly details of Bernice's life as a battered woman and welfare mother, her frustrations with working through various public agencies, and her eventual triumph over her circumstances. Unfortunately, the writing is uneven, and Raphael's use of quotes from Virginia Woolf's writings at the beginning of every chapter seems a stretch. And though she provides evidence supporting her contention that examining domestic abuse necessarily involves examining the welfare system as a whole, this is not a new idea. Linda G. Mills's The Heart of Intimate Abuse: New Interventions in Child Welfare, Criminal Justice, and Health Settings (Springer, 1998) and Ruth A. Brandwein's Battered Women, Children, and Welfare Reform: The Ties That Bind (Sage, 1998) are more scholarly and better written (albeit less personal) sources on the subject. Recommended for specialized collections only.--Ellen D. Gilbert, Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, NJ Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.\

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