Myth of the Welfare Queen: A Pulitzer Prize-Winning Journalist's Portrait of Women on the Line

Myth of the Welfare Queen: A Pulitzer Prize-Winning Journalist's Portrait of Women on the Line by Zucchino, David. paperback edition. ISBN: 9780684840062.

Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter David Zucchino spent a year sharing the lives of Odessa Williams and Cheri Honkala -- two "welfare mothers" in Philadelphia -- to gain an intimate look at their day-to-day existence. Odessa, supporting an extended family, exhibits almost superhuman strength and resolve. Cheri, a single mother, is a tireless advocate for the homeless. Zucchino beautifully portrays them as figures of profound courage and quiet perseverance, systematically shattering all misconceptions and stereotypes about these women and so many others like them.