Narrative Change: A Vital Component of Advancing Gender Equity

By: Diane Cornman-Levy

“She used 80 names, 30 addresses, 15 telephone numbers to collect food stamps, Social Security, veterans’ benefits for four nonexistent deceased veteran husbands, as well as welfare. Her tax-free cash income alone has been running $150,000 a year.”

At a campaign rally in 1976, Ronald Reagan spoke those very words and introduced the Welfare Queen into the public conversation on poverty. The narrative of the forementioned woman became a favorite example of welfare abuse at the expense of working Americans. Welfare Queen became a national archetype and Reagan’s administration flourished on a policy of regulating and reducing welfare. Since 1976, the narrative of the myth of the welfare queen has been perpetrated by anti-welfare coalitions and has caused prejudice against the poor that persists to this day, consequently shaping policies that have made it more difficult for poor women to access resources.

Read the full blog here.