Responsible Bodies

Self-Care and State Power in the U.S. Women, Infants, and Children Program

Bibliographic Data

ID12426549
AuthorsKatherine Mason (0000-0001-7246-7804, Miami University, corresponding author)
Year2015
Volume23
Issue1
Pages70-93
Publication date2015-07-04
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueSocial Politics International Studies in Gender State & Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1072-4745 • E-ISSN: 1468-2893
PublisherOxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1093/sp/jxv014
OpenAlexW2325473287
LanguageEN
Citations received9
References cited26

While previous scholarship examining the U.S. Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) Program has focused on its cost-effectiveness and health outcomes, this article analyzes the social implications of WIC policy. Extending theories of neoliberal welfare and biomedicalization, I argue that WIC aims to produce health-conscious, self-surveilling subjects. Primary document analysis and interviews with WIC staff and clients reveal how WIC counselors pursue these aims through tactics of habituation, responsibilization, and empowerment. This multi-pronged strategy increases mothers' inclination to adopt WIC-approved health norms and practices as their own, and it disguises (but does not eliminate) the workings of state power

Developmental psychology · Health care · Physics · Political science · Power (physics · Self care · State (computer science · Child Welfare and Adoption · Children's Rights and Participation · Computer Science · Medicine · Psychology · Reproductive Health and Technologies

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