About the Author:
Barbara Alexander was born in Butte, Montana, in 1941. Her father, initially a copper miner pursued an education and escaped blue collar work to a successful private sector career. Barbara graduated at Rockefeller University in 1968 with a doctorate in cell biology.
Her foray into science ended with the Vietnam War. In New York she met her first husband, John Ehrenreich and became involved in anti-war protests. Barbara Ehrenreich discovered a passion for writing and editing with Health PAC, writing articles about health-care options for low-income earners.
In 1970 she gave birth to Rosa in a public facility where her labour was induced “because the doctor wanted to go home.” Her attention on medical care, as an instrument of social control, established her reputation as a feminist.
In the 1970's, Ehrenreich joined the New American Movement. She engaged in strike support and union organizing, political strategizing and consciousness-raising.
In the early 1980's following her divorce, Ehrenreich met second husband, Gary Stevenson. Money was a problem and in the 1990's her acerbic commentary became directed at yuppie values and materialism.
Ehrenreich has been published in many reputable magazines including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Harper's, The Nation, The New Republic and Social Policy.
She has also written numerous books and received grants, fellowships and awards including a Ford Foundation Award and a Guggenheim Fellowship.
Locally, she is an honorary graduate of Latrobe University, Melbourne.
In 2000, she received the Sydney Hillman Award for Journalism following publication of Nickel & Dimed in Harper's magazine.
About the Book:
In 1996 public welfare reforms in the U.S., “ended welfare as an automatic federal entitlement and required states to oblige able-bodied recipients to work.” In 1998 over lunch with Harper's editor, Lewis Lapham, Ehrenreich angry at this government betrayal, wondered, "how the roughly four million women affected by welfare reform were going to make it on $6 or $7 an hour?” Her suggestion that “someone”should do a story about life on the minimum wage pointed the bone back at her as the best journalist for the job.
Lapham commissioned the piece. Ehrenreich would go undercover into low-wage U.S.A, get a job, rent a home and survive. She convinced herself it was an experiment and developed a set of controls to keep to this paradigm: She would not rely on skills or education, she would always take the highest paying job and the cheapest accommodation and she would not unionize. In addition her “get out clause” would assure her escape if things got tough: she would always have a car, never be homelessness and never go hungry.
Nickel and Dimed covers recurring themes: meagre wages, backbreaking jobs, nutrition, health and the simple maths of economic survival.
The book is divided into sections. Like a scientific report the “Introduction” provides an abstract or overview; “Getting ready” is the methodology and the three parts that follow, Florida, Maine and Minnesota are detailed observations of the experiment and cover Ehrenreich finding work, accommodation and managing survival. The final “Evaluation” reviews her effectiveness, the experience and insights overall.
Literary Journalism:
In crafting the expose, Ehrenreich follows the literary tradition established as early as Jack London's (1903) The People of the Abyss.
With the British Empire at its most prosperous, London's aim was to highlight the plight of the poor in the East End. London too, kept an “emergency sum … a gold sovereign in the armpit of his stokers singlet” and had a “port of refuge” to remind himself “good clothes and cleanliness still existed.“ In slipping into working class garb and then the masses, he marvelled how quickly “all servility vanished.”
Ehrenreich takes readers into a “parallel universe. “ She meets various characters: some male and many single working mothers, all of whom accept their fate and continue to “give and give.” There are facts and figures, analysis, quotes and emotion but the book's main focus is Ehrenreich herself. Naturally, the voice is colored by her character as a ferocious feminist, irascible idealist and stubborn socialist.
The writing is clear, easy to read and precise. The research is timely, footnoted throughout and pre-empts reader questions. Occasional confrontations dwelling on topics like “cleaning shit” off toilet bowls often provide relief into humor.
Undercover Journalism:
Florida:
“Out of laziness” Ehrenreich starts work in Florida. Her story to potential employers is plausible: a divorced housewife returning to work. No one really cares about her background as long as she is obedient and tests negative for drugs. She learns quickly that job ads are not opportunities but rather employer insurance against turnover. Waitressing at the Hearth side family restaurant pays a meagre $2.43 per hour plus tips, meaning a second job is a necessity. Hardly lazy, Ehrenreich's pace between 8am-2pm shifts at Jenny's and 2.10pm -10pm shifts at Hearth side ends in “Ibuprofens” for back pain. Her accommodation search also ends a similar fate and “trailer trash” becomes a shocking demographic to aspire to.
