Based on my ethnographic research in Contra Costa County, California (CCC), I propose a new way of examining and comparing welfare-to-work programs. I argue that within the confines of welfare reform, the best programs—those with the greatest benefits for recipients—provide welfare-reliant women with significant economic, social, and cultural capital. In addition to making such capital available, these programs deploy the dominant and subjugated capital participants already possess in order to effectively transmit the dominant capital most likely to lead to success in the labor market. I argue that empowering programs, including CCC’s, are successful in transmitting dominant capital to participants, while repressive ones focus on pushing women off the welfare rolls rather than preparing them for "self-sufficiency."