SPRINGFIELD – The University of Illinois at Springfield will host a discussion of Barbara Ehrenreich's book Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, November 14, in the Capitol Perks coffee bar area of the Public Affairs Center lobby at UIS.
The event is free and open to the public and is presented in observance of National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week – November 11 through 17.
Ehrenreich's 2001 New York Times bestseller is a look at low-wage America and the realities faced by people who work in these positions. Posing as a minimally skilled homemaker reentering the workforce, Ehrenreich set out to illuminate the lives of the working poor, especially the estimated 4 million women forced into the labor market by welfare reform.
Working in a variety of positions – including waitress, hotel maid, house cleaner, and sales clerk – Ehrenreich found that even as a white, physically fit, native English speaker with no dependents, the odds of becoming financially secure were not in her favor.
Nickel and Dimed has been called "an insightful, thought-provoking book" that "provides a painful but necessary glimpse into our culture's proclivity toward classism, sexism, and racism … ."
The first 10 people who sign up for the discussion will receive a free copy of the book. For more information, contact Kathy Guthrie, director of service learning programs in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at UIS, at kguthrie@uis.edu or 206-6640.
