There is a stigma associated with women receiving government aid, especially single mothers. Women on welfare are often treated poorly because people think they are "working the system." Taxpayers feel like single mothers on welfare are perpetuating their own poverty by having children they can't support, just for a bigger welfare check. They often assume that these women do not work and simply live off government handouts. I know mothers who fit this stereotype; adults still living in their parents' homes, rent free, with several children from multiple fathers. The women I know don't work and are certainly not good parents. They fit the stereotypical description of the single mother on welfare; they are lazy and selfish and try to get more help than they actually qualify for. There are experts who have studied the relationship between women and welfare in depth. These experts have educational backgrounds in political science, economics, sociology, women's and gender studies, law and politics. The authors who most effectively address the problem of women's social condemnation of welfare have studied in the fields of women's studies and sociology; Respectively Joanne Goodwin, Diane Purvin and Kathleen Mullan Harris, Charles Reich. Joanne Goodwin's research and teaching interests are in 20th-century U.S. history, with a specialization in women's and gender history. Her major publications include: Gender and the Politics of Welfare Reform the Encyclopedia of Women in American History, 3 vols. which he co-edited. Goodwin earned his Ph.D. in U.S. History from the University of Michigan (Goodwin). Kathleen Mullan Harris is an associate professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of N...... middle of paper ......c.edu. August 2010. Web. 24 February 2012. .Harris, Kathleen Mullan. “Work and welfare among single mothers in poverty.” American Journal of Sociology 99.2 (1993): 317-52. JSTOR. Network. January 30, 2012. Purvin, Diane M. “At the Crossroads and in the Crosshairs: Welfare Policy and Low-Income Women's Vulnerability to Domestic Violence.” Social Problems 54.2 (2007): 188-210. JSTOR. Network. January 30, 2012. .Purvin, Diane M. "Diane M. Purvin." LinkedIn. Network. February 24, 2012. Reich, Charles A. “Individual Rights and Social Security: Emerging Legal Issues.” The Yale Law Journal 74.7 (1965): 1245-257. JSTOR. Network. January 30. 2012. .