The question of work could be the largest obstacle to reimagining federal support for families. “When Black women attempt to stay home and care for their children, if they don’t have the means or the husband to do so, they’re vilified.” “What it means essentially is that when white women stay home and work without pay for the family, that’s a great thing,” said Jacqueline Jones, a historian at the University of Texas at Austin. The answer, in American policies, has long depended on characteristics like their income, family structure and, especially, race, researchers said.

The debate over time has not been about whether mothers should work or stay home with their children, but which mothers should work or stay home. Policymakers disagree on whether all families merit direct financial assistance from the government, or whether it should be reserved for parents - including single mothers - who work for pay. Yet the thing that makes the Biden child credit so revolutionary, its universality, is also what makes it controversial. Instead, the proposal “just makes sure parents have the resources they need to raise their families.” The simplicity of the plan cuts through old ideas of who’s deserving, “narratives that we know are grounded in stereotypes and moral measuring sticks,” said Celeste Watkins-Hayes, a sociologist at the University of Michigan. It would be locked in through 2025 as part of the American Families Plan that President Biden is expected to unveil this week, the next step in what proponents hope will be a permanent expansion of the American safety net for families. The benefit, an expansion of the child tax credit, is in place through the end of the year. It will go to families whether they have one parent or two, and whether their mothers have an income or not. American mothers have always been sorted and divided - deemed worthy of aid or not - by race, by class, by marital status, by what their husbands do, by whether they’ve had too many children or not enough.Īll these fault lines, though, will be ignored by the federal government this summer when it begins delivering a monthly check of $250 to $300 per child to all but the richest families in the United States.

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