The U.S. welfare state has never been a neutral safety net — it's been a rulebook. That was the central argument Fellow Mimi Abramovitz, DSW, put forward in a webinar on April 8, 2026, presented by the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare (AASWSW), the Center for Social Development (CSD) at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis, and a coalition of national social work organizations.

The event, which drew 415 registrants and 248 attendees, celebrated the 4th edition of Dr. Abramovitz's landmark book, Regulating the Lives of Women: Social Welfare Policy from Colonial Times to the Present. In a wide-ranging discussion, she traced how U.S. social policy has consistently shaped the lives of women — from the Colonial Poor Laws to the 1935 Social Security Act to present-day initiatives. Reframing the welfare state as an arena of political struggle, she described deep-seated gendered and racialized dimensions and argued that it simultaneously meets women's basic needs, controls their lives, and creates the conditions for their resistance.

Jessica Toft, PhD, associate professor at the University of Minnesota School of Social Work, provided expert commentary, focusing on how neoliberalism works to limit social work's professional authority and how democratic ideas can be used to counter those forces. Fellow Michael Sherraden, PhD, George Warren Brown Distinguished University Professor and CSD Founding Director, served as moderator.

Co-sponsors included the Congressional Research Institute for Social Work and Policy (CRISP), the Association for Community Organization and Social Action (ACOSA), the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE), Influencing Social Policy (ISP), the National Association of Social Workers (NASW), the Society for Social Work and Research (SSWR), and the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis.

Watch the recording on YouTube.