If I Had a Hammer

This book is about poor women, many of them single mothers, Aboriginal,or both, who have defied the odds to become apprenticing carpenters. Todo so they have juggled child-care schedules, left abusive partners,and kicked drug habits to participate in a unique intensive retrainingprogram. Through the voices of the women participants and theirinstructors, Margaret Little analyzes the program to reveal thestruggles and triumphs of low-income women. She demonstrates that thereis a desperate need for retraining programs that provide realopportunities for economic independence. She also argues that, in anera of workfare and time-limited welfare, such programs are aneffective strategy for welfare reform.