This book analyses poverty and battering and the conventional wisdom that poses incentives to waged work as the best way to remedy women’s vulnerability in the economy and in relationships. The book presents findings from her multi-method approach to poverty, battering, and work in the policies and practices of the U.S. welfare and law-and-order states. The book draws from interviews with welfare recipients to distinguish conflicts about work and conflicts that interfere with work from conflicts that take place at work. It uses administrative data about earnings, welfare, and protective order to calculate the costs of taking a beating. It presents the narratives and analyses written by participants in a community literacy project to expand the possibilities for poor women to contribute to democratic deliberation about the policies and practices that most dramatically shape their lives. The book’s findings form the empirical basis for articulating a principle for reconciling the apparent contradiction between conventional and progressive ways of thinking about the role of work in U.S. policy and programs to end poverty and violence against women: Poverty and battering are both issues of human rights and social inclusion. A social justice approach includes safety and solvency among the social, civil and political, economic, and human rights that must be underwritten and guaranteed by democratic governments, without regard to marital status, immigration status, or employment status.