Despite recent interest in the potential of the welfare system as a tool to affect marriage behaviors among low-income women, little is known about how welfare participation, as opposed to welfare policy, affects decisions to marry. We employ an event history approach to examine transitions to marriage over a three-year period among mothers who have had a non-marital birth. We find that welfare participation under the new Temporary Assistance to Needy Families program (TANF) reduces the likelihood of transitioning to marriage (hazard ratio is .60, p < .01) but only while the mother is receiving welfare. Once the mother leaves TANF, past receipt has little effect on marriage. We project that over an 18-year period, TANF participation results in a 4to 6 percentage point reduction in marriage and delays marriage by up to 31 months. We infer that the negative association between TANF participation and marriage reflects economic disincentives or stigma rather than differences in participants’ and non-participants’ orientations toward marriage. (Author abstract).