The Only Thing You Really Got is this Minute: Homeless Women Re-visioning the Future

As we enter the millennium, growing numbers of women and children join the ranks of the homeless around the globe. 1 Common factors contributing to homelessness include the feminization of poverty, a shortage of affordable low-income housing and welfare policies focused on short-term relief. Unique factors include war and political upheaval that produce a mobile population of refugees who are homeless. In thinking about the corning millennium, feminists are challenged to envision a future where the economics and politics of gender do not inevitably produce poverty and homelessness. Homelessness in women\u27s lives is both a symptom and an outcome of their economic dependence within the private household and the wage-labour market. Women become homeless when relationships end and economic support is withdrawn, labour does not generate a living wage, illness drains the family resources, or other factors intersect to make them vulnerable. In addition, homelessness often occurs in the aftermath of natural disasters, such as floods, earthquakes and hurricanes, and man-made disasters such as wars. Women and children are the most visible among the displaced; in Central America 90 percent of the families living in refugee camps are headed by women.

The Economic Resource Receipt of New Mothers

U.S. federal policies do not provide a universal social safety net of economic support for women during pregnancy or the immediate postpartum period but assume that employment and/or marriage will protect families from poverty. Yet even mothers with considerable human and marital capital may experience disruptions in employment, earnings, and family socioeconomic status postbirth. We use the National Survey of Families and Households to examine the economic resources that mothers with children ages 2 and younger receive postbirth, including employment, spouses, extended family and social network support, and public assistance. Results show that many new mothers receive resources postbirth. Marriage or postbirth employment does not protect new mothers and their families from poverty, but education, race, and the receipt of economic supports from social networks do

The Woman is Not Always the Bad Guy: Resistance in the Discourse of Battered Women

Feminist scholars promote an advocacy and social change approach that is rooted in centering women\u27s knowledge and suggestions for change. This article centers and analyzes suggestions made by women staying in shelters for women who have been battered and explores the ways their perspectives reflect individualized or structural discourse and their solutions concentrate needs at the level of survival, equality, or transformation. The article finds that women have a range of perspectives and suggestions, and feminist scholars are encouraged to understand and address these from women\u27s multiple positions while continuing to grapple with how to promote social change to improve women\u27s lives

Public Administration Review

How can the processes of public participation be improved? This study uses interviews and focus-group discussions to look for some answers. The results suggest that improving public participation requires changes in citizen and administrator roles and relationships and in administrative processes. Specifically, we need to move away from static and reactive processes toward more dynamic and deliberative processes. The article suggests some practical steps to achieve these changes. © COPYRIGHT 1998 American Society for Public Administration The appropriate role of the public in public administration has been an active and ongoing area of inquiry, experimentation, revolution, and controversy since the birth of this nation. The contemporary movement to examine the role of the public in the process of administrative decision making has come about in response to problems in the latter half of this century and as a result of concern on the part of citizens, administrators, and politicians over citizen discouragement and apathy Many citizens, administrators, and politicians are interested in increasing public participation in public decisions. Efforts to do so are currently underway across the country. However, there is considerable evidence to suggest that these efforts are not effective The question of how to engender effective and satisfying participation processes is the central issue in this research. Our findings indicate that effective, or authentic, public participation implies more than simply finding the right tools and techniques for increasing public involvement in public decisions. Authentic public participation, that is, participation that works for all parties and stimulates interest and investment in both administrators and citizens, requires rethinking the underlying roles of, and relationships between, administrators and citizens. In the first section of this article we examine the question of the necessity or desirability of more effective participation by reviewing the literature in U.S. public administration and identifying the relevant contemporary issues for both administrators and citizens. The current model of the participation process is presented and critiqued in the second section, using the concept of authentic participation as a starting point for moving toward more effective participatory processes. We then turn to identifying the barriers to effective participation as seen by our research participants. Strategies for overcoming the barriers are discussed, and implications for the practice of public administration and citizenship are suggested in the last section. Following a grounded theory model The Necessity or Desirability of More Effective Participation The role of participation in public administration has historically been one of ambivalence. Although the political system in the United States is designed to reflect and engender an active citizenry, it is also designed to protect political and administrative processes from a too-active citizenry. It is within this context that participation in the administrative arena has traditionally been framed. In recent times, interest in public participation in administrative decision making has increased as a result of a number of factors, not the least of which is that a citizenry with diminished trust in government is demanding more accountability from public official