What Happened to "Welfare Mothers"?

http://www.thenation.com/article/what-ever-happened-welfare-mothers
Has anyone ever told this woman that life is hard? It's harder if you are stupid. Are women equal to men, and as liable for their choices, or are they weaker sex and in need of protection? Equal and capable? Or inferior and unable to be responsible for themselves?
"I asked Collins if she saw anything good in welfare reform. "It was always a stigmatized program, a football in racial politics. If it were possible to make unemployment and other entitlement programs gender sensitive-to take account of caregiving, for example, and the need for childcare-and put women into these mainstream programs instead of welfare, that would reconceive poor mothers as economic citizens, as workers with rights. And that would be good." But for that to happen, people would have to care."
--Trillions spent to sustain poverty, and disempower a generation; perhaps the problem is people "cared" too much.  I am not unsympathetic to the torturous difficulty of the demands associated with single parenthood.  I really wish it were not freaking hard to be a single parent.  I doubt any amount of government action will change the reality - it's freaking hard today, tomorrow, and always has been.  So salute the single mothers who did the job with bravery and style and managed somehow against all odds to facilitate the growth of a decent, capable human being.  Give them the respect of not pitying how hard they worked, the sacrifices they chose.