Barbara Ehrenreich

Balance We have been taught at a young age how to feel towards our experiences. Seems like everyone is always asking one another, "Did you like that?", or "How was your day?". Was it good or bad? On the surface, it’s common for human beings to categorize their everyday experiences. However, rather than choosing one side over the other, people must learn the importance of balancing both positive and negative thinking as an important aspect of their life. This is especially important to those who…

Did the passage of years affect how society views the role of women, or do we still view women as housewives? In the United States, women earned the right to vote in 1920s and after couple of years they were able to become involved in the society. Even though women have equal rights as men, there are certain expectations that society forces on the women, such as, house chores.When we see men as house husband, we see this act as heroic and we get amazed by those acts. However, when we see women…

line, which is 14.5% of the American population (huffingtonpost). In the book Nickel and Dimed, author Barbara Ehrenreich wrote about her quest to determine if those who were a part of the 14.5% were stuck with no chance out. In the end, her findings pointed to this being true and that starting ground, which is money, background, and property such as a house or vehicle, is everything. Ehrenreich meets numerous homeless people who did not have a very good starting ground and she finds that she,…

Throughout history there have been many ideals about a woman’s body – what an “attractive” woman should look like, act like, smell like, be like. A woman’s body has been appreciated for its beauty as well as objectified based on what that body can do for society --whether or not it is truly fruitful and multiplying; whether or not it is visually pleasing; whether or not it makes money. Women’s health has been at the mercy of male physicians and women’s minds kept as unexercised and out of…

A person or family’s socioeconomic class can affect achieving this goal. Barbara and John Ehrenreich discuss the collapse of the middle class during the Great Recession in their article The Making of the American 99% and The Collapse of the Middle Class. It is suggested that race and ethnicity played an even bigger role in the loss of homeownership…

culture, starting in the workplace and moving to society as a whole, has perpetrated this idea that people can’t be negative, can’t embrace a negative outlook, and can’t criticize something. Doing so often results in being relieved of your duties. Barbara Ehrenreich, in her lecture “Smile or Die”, mentions a few examples in recent years: “...you know people who try, let's say, within Lehman Brothers to point out that the housing prices…

17 Capitalism: Enemy of Social Welfare Ideologies have existed for the purpose of how a society should function by using ethical principles and methods to serve the people. The United State lives under the ideals of capitalism which is a system focus on wealth and making profit. However, this ideology has caused social problems within the welfare of others, in the sense of healthcare and poverty in the country. Unlike the U.S some countries, Russia and Canada, have dealt with poverty and…

proved those who thought the American Dream was unattainable wrong. Though both of these individuals are unique in their own ways, McCandless’s story was more admirable and impactful. Adam Shepard was an educated young man who wanted to prove Barbara Ehrenreich wrong for her claiming that the American Dream was unattainable now in days. Chris McCandless was also an educated young man, though he had a different perspective and goal. He wanted to find himself by going to live in Alaska’s…

Around the world, various cultures perform rituals at monumental stages of one's life. Numerous occasions such as marriages and birthdays are ritualized and have distinct celebratory traditions that are unique to specific cultures and groups. In particular, the transformation of a person from an ordinary citizen to a warrior, has many unique and diverse celebrations and responses. Cultures around the world acknowledge this transformation through celebratory traditions often including dancing,…

book Nickel and Dimed the main character Barbara Ehrenreich, who is also the author, goes out and tries to work a low wage job to see if people can survive off of minimum wage. Ehrenreich is a white middle aged woman, and in the book she notices that a lot of the low wage employees are other races than white. In these low wage jobs, Ehrenreich wasn’t used to being treated with such disrespect and was shocked by the way she was talked to and treated. Ehrenreich said, “Maybe, it occurs to me, I’m…