How America's threadbare welfare state enables sexual predators

A strong safety net reduces women's dependence on abusive men

Women sometimes feel forced to depend on someone who makes more money.
(Image credit: Ikon Images / Alamy Stock Photo)

Donald Trump is an absolute brute. In a now sadly familiar ritual, the revelation that Trump had boasted about sexual assault opened the floodgates for many other women to share their story. On Wednesday, The New York Times got two more women on the record as having been groped by Trump; Jessica Leeds on a flight where she happened to be seated next to him, and Rachel Cooks when she was a receptionist for a business in Trump Tower. Natasha Stoynoff, a writer for People, accused Trump of groping her in 2005 when she was covering him for the magazine. (Trump furiously denies the accusations and has threatened to sue the Times.)

But one of the stories of Trump's victims illustrates an important fact: How the threadbare American welfare state enables misogynist abuse and harms American women.

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Ryan Cooper

Ryan Cooper is a national correspondent at TheWeek.com. His work has appeared in the Washington Monthly, The New Republic, and the Washington Post.