Advocates Say Women Take Bigger Hit From State Cuts

State-level budget cuts in welfare, Medicaid, and other social programs disproportionately affect women, the primary recipients of such aid, Bloomberg writes.

In California, where women make up more than three-quarters of those getting assistance for low-income families, lawmakers cut monthly grants and reduced the amount of time recipients can receive aid from five years to four.

Because of the role they often play in rearing children, women “have costs and expenses for caring for their families that are having domino negative effects as the cuts are made,” said Mary Wiberg, head of the California Commission on the Status of Women, a state agency.

Several states are similarly reducing family assistance, according to a report by the nonprofit Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, and Arizona and Rhode Island have shrunk budgets for domestic-violence programs.

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