Teen Mothers

In this work, Ruth Horowitz examines one of the most critical questions of welfare policy: how can a United States government programme help teen mothers - one of the most needful groups of all welfare recipients - move from welfare dependency to employment, independence and responsible citizenship? The setting is Project GED, a year-long government-sponsored programme designed to help teen mothers earn high-school equivalency diplomas and to provide job-readiness training. As a participant-observer, Horowitz followed the women through each stage of the programme, recording their successes and failures, fears and dreams.