A Historical Review
In 1996, The Department of Health and Human Services created strict welfare-to-work initiatives in order to remove poor mothers and children from the dole, all the while claiming to promote independence. Not coincidentally, political interest and promotion of the father's role, especially in poor families, emerged at the time mothers receiving public assistance were being demonized by draconian welfare reform. Also not coincidentally, most of the people affected by this trend are black and Hispanic.
Fatherhood ideologues David Blankenhorn and Wade Horn have bemoaned the what they refer to as the crisis of "fatherlessness."Blankenhorn has specifically cited the two-parent, married home with the visible and active presence of the father has head of household as the remedy



