Women and Poverty: Psychology, Public Policy, and Social Justice

Women and Poverty provides a social psychological analysis of social class and classism, particularly in relation to women’s poverty. The book offers a critical analysis of the social and structural factors that contribute to poverty among women, class–based power relations, and the sociocultural beliefs that legitimize economic injustice. Core questions include: How do diverse socioeconomic groups perceive social class and prospects for upward mobility? How do low–income women view interclass relations, economic inequality, and the welfare system? How are poverty, and class privilege and disadvantage explained and understood? How do sexist, racist, and classist attitudes and beliefs contribute to the hardships low–income women confront? How are these beliefs related to current welfare and other social and economic policies? What structural, social, and cultural changes would reduce poverty? To address these questions, Women and Poverty brings together research and theory from social psychology, policy studies, and critical and feminist scholarship. The synthesis and application of these perspectives to women’s poverty is one of the key features of this book, providing readers with a multifaceted appreciation of the underlying causes of poverty and the policies that promote economic justice. Positioning classism as a pervasive source of inequity, women’s experiences of poverty and class–based discrimination are examined at the individual, intergroup, and institutional levels. 

Heather E. Bullock, PhD, is professor and chair of the Psychology Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC), USA, and served as director of UCSC’s Center for Justice, Tolerance, and Community. She studies the social psychological causes and consequences of economic injustice, with special attention to poverty among women. Much of her research focuses on identifying the attitudes and beliefs that predict support for anti–poverty policies, and the impact of framing on policy preferences. Before joining the UCSC faculty, she served as an APA Congressional Fellow with the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions – Democratic Office.