“No job, no matter how lowly, is truly ‘unskilled.'”-Barbara Ehrenreich from the book Nickel an Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America
On September 1st, we lost one of my favorite writers, Barbara Ehrenreich. Best known for her seminal book Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America, Ehrenreich was also an activist, journalist, and all-around bad ass muckraker. Her work encouraged us to look at a host of societal ills and ask ourselves, “What can we do?”
I first became familiar with Ehrenreich when I read her books Fear of Falling: The Inner Life of the Middle Class and The Worst Years of Our Lives: Irreverent Notes from a Decade of Greed back in the 1990s. Finally someone was giving a voice to how many of us were feeling in the wake of the Reagan Bush years. A lot of us were pissed off over the erosion of women’s rights, the lack of a proper response to the AIDS crisis, corporate malfeasance and greed, and the growing chasm between the haves and the have nots. Ehrenreich understood our frustration and anger.
As mentioned, Nickel and Dimed is probably one of Ehrenreich’s best known works. In this iconic book, Ehrenreich went undercover as a low wage worker at various jobs. She wondered how anyone could make it on such little pay. Guess what? Many of them couldn’t. Nickel and Dimed shed a light on the difficult jobs many people do that keep our live going, but are never paid properly.
Ehrenreich didn’t ignore the plight of the professional, educated class either. Her book Bait and Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream focused on white collar workers who thought they did everything right but were falling down the career ladder. As someone who spent time in the low wage trenches and in so-called lofty office jobs, I totally related to the work woes Ehrenreich wrote about in both Nickel and Dimed and Bait and Switch.
Ehrenreich came to her career in an honest way. She was raised by two hardworking parents who told her to never vote for a Republican and never cross a picket line. She studied physics and later graduated with a degree in chemistry from Reed College. She later achieved a Ph.D from Rockefeller University.
After she received her education, Ehrenreich worked many jobs-analyst at the Bureau of the Budget in New York City and with the Health Policy Advisory Center. She was a professor at State University of New York at Old Westbury. She worked in healthcare related research and was an advocate for women’s causes.
Ehrenreich was also a freelance writer, having her articles published in The Nation, Mother Jones, The New York Times Book Review, The New Republic, Salon, The New York Times, and Ms. These articles often focused on social and political issues.
Personally, Ehrenreich was married and divorced two times. She was the mother of Rosa Brooks, who is a law professor and journalist, and Ben Ehrenreich, who is a journalist and novelist.
However, Ehrenreich is probably best known for her books, especially Nickel and Dimed, which is often assigned in college courses. Her books focused on a wealth of topics including the America workplace, women’s issues, politics, and health. Her last book Had I Known: Collected Essays was published in 2020 and I reviewed it last year.
I was fortunate to have seen Barbara Ehrenreich at several book discussions here in Milwaukee, the last for her book Bright-Sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking has Undermined America. I was fortunate to have met her and have her sign my copy, and she couldn’t have been more welcoming and kind.
I’m in deep grief over the death of Barbara Ehrenreich, and I am so glad we have her books, which make us think and inspire us to action. I’m sure Ms. Ehrenreich is muckraking somewhere in the universe making it a better place.
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