Johnnie Tillmon

The wage discrimination women faced led many to rely on funding from the government to survive. Johnnie Tillmon’s “Welfare is a Women’s Issue”, published in Liberation News Service in 1972, examines the unfair treatment women on welfare faced, and called for a restructuring of the entire welfare system of the 1960s. Tillman begins the essay bluntly stating, “I’m a woman. I’m a black woman. I’m a poor woman. I’m a fat woman. I’m a middle-aged woman. And I’m on welfare” (106). Her choppy lines demand that the reader attend to each component of her description. She goes on to explain that if you qualify as any of those previous statements, “you count less as a human being,” and if you are all of them, “you don’t count at all. Except as a statistic” (106). As a 45-year-old mother of six who is on welfare, Tillmon has seen the inequity women face first hand, especially those in the working class. Tillmon paints a moving image of the direct discrimination women face, and how they are actively pushed into this position. She explains that “44% of all families are headed by women” (107), meaning there is no man in the picture. In this case “a woman with just three kids,” who is “earning the full federal minimum wage of $2.00 an hour, is still stuck in poverty” (108). And that only if this woman is paid the full minimum wage, which is unlikely. As Tillmon writes, “There are some ten million jobs that now pay less than the minimum wage, and if you’re a woman, you’ve got the best chance of getting one” (108). Working class women had no way of supporting themselves, or their families. The oppression they faced was insurmountable, made worse by the vicious stereotypes (their laziness, for instance) to which they were subjected.

Tillmon’s document challenges the unfair policies of the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (A.F.D.C), an organization that decided welfare aid at this time. As she discusses the unfairness of the A.F.D.C’s current system, she describes a welfare woman’s relationship with the A.F.D.C as a “supersexist marriage” where “you trade a man for the man” (107). In this example “the man” is the current welfare system in place that controls exactly how much money women receive. Tillmon discusses the rule that no family with an “able-bodied” man in the home is allowed to qualify. Thus, if a family is poor and needs welfare, the man must leave the house. The family must disband in order to get enough money from the government to survive, perpetuating inequality and stereotypes against the working class. The wage discrimination women face already strips them of the ability to support themselves and a family. As Tillmon argues, “The problem is that our country’s economic policies deny dignity and satisfaction of self-sufficiency” to “the millions who suffer every day in underpaid dirty jobs—and still don’t have enough to survive” (108). No matter what she does as a black woman who is poor, Tillmon will never be self-sufficient because of the intersectional oppression she faces as a black working class woman.

Tillmon’s organization was the National Welfare Rights Organization (N.W.R.O). It was founded by George Wiley in 1966, and Tillmon was appointed as the leader in 1972. This group “put together [their] own welfare plan, called Guaranteed Adequate Income (G.A.I), which would eliminate sexism from welfare” (109). In this new plan there would be no discrimination or categorization of any kind: “you’d get paid according to need and family size only,” and it would pay attention to the department of labor’s estimates on what sufficient costs of living would be. Overall, Tillmon’s fight for women’s welfare fit more than perfectly into the feminist movement, and empowered working women to fight for what they deserved.

Tillmon, Johnnie. “Welfare is a Women’s Issue.” Rpt. in The American Women’s Movement, 1945-2000: A Brief History with Documents, edited by Nancy Maclean. Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2009. Print.

Cover of Equality on Trial by Katherine Turk

In 1964, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, prohibited sex discrimination in employment. While this law did not clearly define sex discrimination, or how to cure it, it set a foundation of the working woman’s fight for equality. In the following decades, Title VII revolutionized women’s status in the American workplace (2). In her book Equality on Trial, Katherine Turk explores how Title VII served simultaneously as an inspiration and detriment to progressive visions of workplace gender equality. She examines how numerous groups such as workplace caucuses, feminist organizations, and unions, use this law to, “reset the terms of economic citizenship from laboring women’s perspective” (9). Turk’s work fits in nicely with Edelman’s article “Unions on the Line: Myth vs. Reality”, as well as Johnnie Tillmon’s essay “Welfare is a Women’s Issue”, both works that were made possible after the discussion and controversy that different interpretations of Title VII inspired.

Turk, Katherine. Equality on Trial: Gender and Rights in the Modern American Workplace. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1btc5x9.

Judy Grahn’s, “III. Nadine, resting on her neighbor’s stoop” comes third in her seven-poem collection, The Common Woman, and accentuates the integral role common women play as mothers and leaders. Grahn details Nadine’s value to her community beginning with the title of the poem itself. The word “resting” is used deliberately in explaining why Nadine is there. She is exhausted from taking care of others and must take a break on her neighbor’s stoop. Grahn challenge’s the false notion of poor women being lazy, similar to Judy Edelman in her article “Unions on the Line: Myth vs. Reality”.

The poem begins by celebrating how Nadine “holds things together” in her community (line 1). While Nadine does keep things together, she is not perfect. No one is. As she hosts a “Sunday social she would spike / every drink, and offer you half of what she knows, / which is plenty’ (lines 3-5). Grahn’s description of Nadine is authentic, leaving no details out. She “holds things together”, but she also drinks too much. Nadine is still generous despite this shortcoming, as she “spike[s] every drink” as well as “offering” her knowledge and experience to others. Nadine’s supportive nature is further portrayed in the poem as she is, “raising 15 children, / half of them her own” (lines 13-14). Nadine cares for everyone in the neighborhood, not just her own family. Those in the community depend on her to the point that, “The neighborhood / would burn itself out without her” (lines 14-15), but frustration still arises in her experiences as, “one of these days she’ll strike the spark herself” (line 16). With all Nadine does to take care of the neighborhood, she may be the one to let it crumble. She holds everyone together, but that does not mean she does so with ease. Perhaps she ponders what life would be like if  her neighbors did not rely on her. What would happen if she stopped holding everything together? Would she go down in flames with it? Would she move on and forget it ever existed? Grahn invites the reader to think about these questions.

Throughout the poem, Grahn uses architectural and tool metaphors to describe Nadine. This imagery enhances Nadine, and reinforces the overarching idea of her strength and her role in “holding things together.” The speaker describes Nadine maneuvering herself around the city, “like an armored tank; but she thinks / of herself as a ripsaw cutting through / knots in wood” (lines 5-8). An armored tank can be useful, but it is large and lacks nuance or subtlety. In contrast, a ripsaw is a handheld device that is powerful, yet more subtle than a tank. Nadine may have a distorted view of her effectiveness, but she ultimately supports the community as a helpful tool, holding it together. The poem goes on to compare her to a shelter, describing Nadine as, “a mud-chinked cabin in the slums” (line 11). This comparison shows how Nadine is weathered from her experience, but remains sturdy and effective at holding the community together and providing a home for many. Nadine may not be perfect, but people depend on her, and she gets her job done with the consistency of a machine, “made of grease / and metal” (lines 17-18).  The poem concludes, “The common woman is as common as / a nail” (lines 20-21). Nadine is the embodiment of the common woman and, much like a nail, holds things together under pressure (family, friends, neighborhoods). As nails do in fact “hold things together,” we return to how the poem starts. The whole neighborhood depends on Nadine to keep moving forward. While she may want to give up at times, or must drink to cope at others, she continues to serve as a vital component, a powerful mother and leader within this impoverished neighborhood.

Grahn, Judy. “III. Nadine, resting on her neighbor’s stoop.” The Work of a Common Woman: the Collected Poetry of Judy Grahn 1964-1977. Crossing Press, 1980. (65).

As the final poem in this collection, “Vera” represents one of a number of Grahn’s “common women,” giving us an example in poetry of the numerous problems working class women faced. The poem stands as an ode to honor Vera’s story, and serves to help the women who follow. The poem begins with the speaker talking directly to Vera, “Solemnly swearing / to swear as an oath to you… as if an oath could be wrapped around / your shoulders / like a new coat” (lines 1-5). This oath to Vera is to make sure her story is told. The comparison of this oath to a “new coat” “wrapped around [her] shoulders” suggests the warmth and connection developed as the speaker shares Vera’s story. The speaker stands in solidarity with her and the experiences she endured as a working class woman. After swearing an oath, the speaker goes on to tell Vera’s story, “for your 28 dollars a week and the bastard boss / you never let yourself hate” (lines 6-7). Vera was a woman who worked for low pay and faced harassment in the workplace. She could not let herself hate her boss because she needed this job. Standing up for herself would just leave her jobless, unable to support herself, an enormous problem millions of women faced at this time. And while Vera worked all day for low wages, dealt with awful bosses, she must come home and face “all the work you did at home / where you never got paid” (lines 8-9). She also dealt with tragedy, watching her husband drink himself to death, as the speaker states Vera was “watching the hard liquor break your fine husband down / into a dead joke” (lines 12-13). The death of her husband leaves Vera on her own, left to try and make enough money to support herself and her children without a living wage.

Lines 26-32 of “VII. Vera, from my childhood” found in The Work of a Common Woman

This first half of the poem describes the insurmountable struggles Vera faced as a “common woman”. It is through this ode to Vera’s adversity that Grahn empowers the women who come after Vera. As we know from the title of the poem, this woman is from the speaker’s childhood and cannot be saved. The speaker retells this story to save the women who will come after Vera, however. Grahn returns to the repetition found at the end of each of her previous six poems in this collection, and drives this repetition home using it numerous times in the final lines. The poem reads, “the common woman is as common / as good bread / as common as when you couldn’t go on / but did” (lines 20-23). The common woman is compared to bread, the sustenance of life. While Grahn emphasizes her importance, she further commends the ability of the common woman to endure adversity and continue moving forward. As the poem wraps up, the final lines become an anthem for the feminist movement, “the common woman is as common as the best of bread / and will rise / and will become strong—I swear it to you” (lines 26-28). These lines were instrumental in pushing the women’s movement forward; often recited at rallies, meetings, on the radio, and in bookstores across the country.

Grahn puts the struggles of common women into poetry that can be passed on from woman to woman to help them “rise” and “become strong”.

Grahn, Judy. “VII. Vera, from my childhood,” The Work of a Common Woman: the Collected Poetry of Judy Grahn 1964-1977. Crossing Press, 1980. (73).