White women on welfare have largely been absent from both the public discourse on welfare and sociological research on racism, poverty, inequality and mobility. This dissertation contributes to these areas of inquiry by providing an empirical study of the operation and reproduction of racial privilege among impoverished women living in the hypersegregated communities of Greater Boston, Massachusetts. In particular, my research examines the role white welfare recipient's play in the construction and reproduction of racism, white privilege and white racial identities. This study is guided by the following questions: 1) How do white women on welfare conceptualize racial identity within the US context of a historically racialized welfare state? How do they manage this racialized institution? 2) How do women on welfare cope with social stigma in their public and private lives? How does race impact how women on welfare negotiate social stigma? What types of boundary work do women on welfare create, maintain and reproduce? 3) Do white women use whiteness as a resource? How do they deploy whiteness as a resource? In what particular contexts can white women on welfare use whiteness as a resource?

Drawing from eight-five in-depth qualitative interviews with women who receive Transitional Assistance for Families with Dependent Children (TAFDC) and ethnographic observations of Department of Transitional Assistance (DTA) offices in Greater Boston I argue that welfare legislation and policy reflects the dominant gendered, racist and classist discourses of our society and structures the identity and lived experience of welfare recipients in profoundly racialized ways. In particular, racial privilege shapes white women on welfare's access to a range of public and private benefits and resources. My research finds that white women on welfare conceptualize their whiteness within larger discourses of hegemonic whiteness and within the context of a racialized welfare system. I empirically demonstrate that whiteness can be deployed as a form of embodied capital that offers welfare recipients with section eight housing vouchers access to greater housing opportunities, and as a result numerous social, economic and symbolic resources for their families. Furthermore, white women on welfare are able to utilize social stigma management strategies, such as passing, that often facilitate the social and economic mobility of their families.