Before welfare, girls in poverty had two choices: (a) convince a man with income to take her in, in exchange for her keeping him happy, or (b) starve.
Middle class women will NEVER go for cutting back on welfare, because they do not want competition for available desirable men.
Which is why they never should have been given the franchise. All things go in cycles. At some point in the near/far future, after the next domestic conflict, the victors will have to eliminate certain groups from public participation.