president clinton signed into law. everyone loved the idea of welfare reform. everyone bragged about it. everyone has tried to take credit for it. even a little known state senator from illinois and his running meat. >> he passed a law fo move people from welfare to work. slashed the roles by 80%. >> more people have moved from welfare to the dignity of work and he got it done. >> work equals dignity. that's a bipartisan position. it's been a bipartisan position for a long time. fine. that is not exculpatory. in fact, it only further proves what's important about this national debate which sometimes feels like a lot of silly semantics. everybody understands, every speaker of the english that the word work has different means in different contexts. when applied to women and the things they do, their labor inside the house and out, it has a whole host of different meanings for different kinds of women doing different kinds of labor at different points.