University of Virginia Library

I agree with The Cavalier Daily's
statement in last Wednesday's editorial
that "welfare practices need
a thorough review." On the basis
of a summer's experience as a welfare
caseworker, I would like to
add a few brief comments about
welfare and unwed mothers.

The CD is correct, in my
opinion, in asserting that enforcement
of statutes like the one in
Maryland will not decrease the
number of illegitimate children. I
do not believe legislation will ever
decrease sexual intercourse out of
wedlock. No doubt people of all
economic and educational levels,
state legislators and judges
included, commit this act; I like
to think that in talking about
taxpayers who conduct their affairs
"more circumspectly," the
CD meant that such individuals
use effective contraception. What
is needed is state-supported saturation
education about contraception,
aimed especially at unwed
mothers receiving welfare
assistance who had one or more
illegitimate children.

While this type of campaign is
essential, it may not be overwhelmingly
successful because the
mothers of illegitimate children
often suffer from psychological difficulties
which they are unable to
master. In some women, for example,
the need to love, be loved,
and feel needed is so strong, or
has been so completely denied, that
considerations of illegitimacy do
not deter them from fulfilling their
needs by having children. I feel
that most women who behave like
this are unaware of their own
motives. The Maryland judge's
term for this behavior was "unstable
morality" and the CD spoke
of "subsidizing sin" and "unmoral
women." Besides being inaccurate
as descriptions of unwed mothers
and their activities, such phrases
are irrelevant and unhelpful with
regard to reducing welfare taxes.

The unwed mother is frequently
disabled in as real a sense as the
recipient of aid for the physically
handicapped, at whom welfare
critics level very little criticism.
That her difficulties are psychological
rather than physical is no reason
why we should not provide
for intelligent programs of rehabilitation
designed to prevent further
illegitimacies and eventually, when
she is ready, to help her off the
welfare rolls. Presently, overloaded
caseworkers, many with no special
training, see recipients on the average
of once every month. It will
be a long time, in my judgment,
before taxpayers consistently support
politicians who will initiate
programs for expert personnel to
treat unwed mothers receiving welfare
assistance. My experience this
summer, in fact, leads me to believe
in the possibility that this will
never come about. If I am right,
the mothers, their children, and the
taxpayers will all lose, for the problems
are multiplying rapidly.