Frances Fox Piven


Frances Fox Piven is an American professor of political science and sociology at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, where she has taught since 1982.
Piven is known equally for her contributions to social theory and for her social activism. A public advocate of the war on poverty and subsequent welfare-rights protests both in New York City and on the national stage, she has been instrumental in formulating the theoretical underpinnings of those movements. Over the course of her career, she has served on the boards of the ACLU and the Democratic Socialists of America, and has also held offices in several professional associations, including the American [Political Science Association] and the Society for the Study of Social Problems. Previously, she had been a member of the political science faculty at Boston University.

Early life and education

Piven was born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, of Russian-Jewish parents, Rachel and Albert Fox, a storekeeper. Both had emigrated from Uzlyany, a shtetl near Minsk. Piven's family moved to the United States when she was one. She would later become a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1953.
Piven's childhood was spent in Jackson Heights, Queens, New York. She went to P.S. 148 and she exhibited rebelliousness at an early age: Next, she attended Newtown High School and then went away to college in Chicago. She received a B.A. in City Planning in 1953, an M.A. in 1956, and a Ph.D. in 1962, all from the University of Chicago. She attended on a scholarship and waitressed for living expenses. Her dissertation was directed by Edward C. Banfield.

Career

Piven was married to her long-time collaborator Richard Cloward until his death in 2001. Together they wrote an article in the May 1966 issue of The Nation titled "The Weight of the Poor: A Strategy to End Poverty". The article advocated increased enrollment in social welfare programs in order to collapse the system and force reforms, leading to a guaranteed annual income. This political strategy has been referred to as the "Cloward–Piven strategy". During 2006/07, Piven served as the President of the American Sociological Association.
While teaching at Boston University, she and four of her political science department colleagues, including Murray Levin and Howard Zinn, refused to return to the workplace after the settlement of the 1979 Boston University strike by the AAUP. The university's clerical and support staff had struck at the same time, but their strike was not resolved yet. Piven, Levin, Zinn, et al. refused to cross their picket line, instead holding classes elsewhere in solidarity with the unresolved strike. The "B.U. Five" were threatened with dismissal by Boston University President John Silber. Silber later backed down, and Piven and the others returned to the classroom. Piven eventually left Boston University for City University of New York at the Graduate Center.

Activism and legislation

Throughout her career, Piven has combined academic work with political action. In 1968, she signed the "Writers and Editors War Tax Protest" pledge, vowing to refuse tax payments in protest against the Vietnam War. In 1983 she co-founded Human SERVE, an organization with the goal of increasing voter registration by linking voter registration offerings with the use of social services or state Departments of Motor Vehicles. Human SERVE's initiative was incorporated by the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, colloquially known as the "Motor Voter Bill".
She is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, and was one of its Honorary Chairs.
In 1980, Piven tangled with Milton Friedman and Thomas Sowell in a debate televised on PBS as part of its series, Free to Choose.

Writings

Among Piven's major works are: Regulating the Poor written with Richard Cloward, first published in 1972 and updated in 1993, it analyzes government welfare policy and how it has been used to exert power over the lower classes; Poor People's Movements, published in 1977, a chronicle of rebellious social movements in the U.S. and how some were able to induce important reforms; Why Americans Don't Vote, published in 1988 and a follow-up book Why Americans Still Don't Vote published in 2000, each of which look at U.S. electoral practices that tend to discourage poor and working-class Americans from exercising their right to vote; The War at Home, a critical examination of the domestic results of the wars initiated by the Bush administration; and Challenging Authority: How Ordinary People Change America, a look at the interaction of disruptive social movements and electoral politics in generating the necessary political momentum for democratic reform in American history.

Honors and awards

Works

  • Labor Parties in Postindustrial Societies
  • The War at Home: The Domestic Costs of Bush's Militarism
  • Challenging Authority: How Ordinary People Change America
  • Lessons for Our Struggle
with Richard Cloward:
with Lee Staples and Richard Cloward:
  • Roots to Power: A Manual for Grassroots Organizing
with Lorraine Minnite and Margaret Groarke:
  • Keeping Down the Black Vote: Race and the Demobilization of American Voters
The Frances Fox Piven Papers are held by Smith College.