Defining welfare, work, and motherhood : women’s participation in the welfare rights movement in Detroit, 1964-1972.

Dr. Cynthia Edmonds-Cady, professor in the School of Social Work at Illinois State University, delivers a talk entitled, Defining welfare, work, and motherhood: women’s participation in the welfare rights movement in Detroit, 1964-1972, at the Michigan State University Museum. Edmonds-Cady describes the unlikely political partnership between suburban, middle-class white women, known as welfare friends, and welfare recipients in the Detroit area. She describes a grassroots welfare reform movement engaged in civil disobedience and protests, and provides an historical view of welfare policy at both the Federal and State level. Her presentation highlights the irony of poor mothers actively advocating for sufficient resources to raise their families, in an alliance with affluent suburban women who had the luxury of staying home with their children. Edmonds-Cady is introduced by Professor John P. Beck, Associate Director, Michigan State University School of Human Resources and Labor Relations. Part of the "Our Daily Work/Our Daily Lives" Brown Bag series sponsored by the MSU School of Human Resources and Labor Relations and the MSU Museum.

Recorded at Michigan State University Museum, Mar. 18, 2011, by the Vincent Voice Library.