EDITORS: To arrange an advance telephone interview, contact Elisha Dermont, (734) 332-7990, [email protected]

ANN ARBOR—Author and social critic Barbara Ehrenreich will present the 2002 Mullin-Welch lecture, sponsored by the University of Michigan’s Center for the Education of Women (CEW). The lecture, based on her book “Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America,” will take place on Feb. 7, 4-5:30 p.m., in the Pendleton Room of the Michigan Union, located at 530 S. State St.

[Central Campus map, Michigan Union lower left center]

“How would I manage if I had to go out there and take any job I could find?” This is the question that led Ehrenreich to enter the world lived every day by millions of Americans—that of entry-level, unskilled employment—and to support herself on minimal wages. Ehrenreich’s odyssey took her across the country, waiting tables, cleaning hotel rooms, working as a nurses’ aide and as a sales clerk. In her lecture, she will describe her attempts to make ends meet and her discovery that she could not. Ehrenreich speaks empathetically and eloquently for the masses of workers who are often too tired, overwhelmed, and manipulated to speak for themselves. Her compelling message is timely in light of welfare reform, a faltering economy and the persistence of many other challenges women face economically and socially in our society.

Ehrenreich said of her experience: “This was an extremely challenging project for me—the work was hard and the conditions often rugged. But I learned things I couldn’t have experienced any other way, like how it feels to work two shifts in a row and what it’s like to have a supervisor yelling in your face. The tragic thing is that, for many Americans, this kind of experience isn’t a journalistic experiment, it’s real life, year after year. I wouldn’t recommend that other middle-class people go out and try it for themselves; I only hope they’ll start paying attention to America’s working poor—the cleaning people, the busboys, the waitpersons, the nurses’ aides, the retail clerks, etc.—whose hard work and sacrifice is the all-too-invisible side of affluence.”

Ehrenreich’s book, “Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America,” a chapter of which appeared in the January 1999 issue of Harper’s, won the Sydney Hillman Award for Journalism.

The Mullin-Welch Lecture Series was established in 1989 by Frances Daseler and Marjorie Jackson in memory of their sister Elizabeth Charlotte Mullin-Welch, a 1939 U-M graduate and successful journalist and businesswoman. The lectures were created to bring to the U-M campus speakers who exemplify Mullin-Welch’s characteristics—creativity, strength of character and expansive vision.

A reception will follow the public lecture. For more information, call (734) 998-7080.

The Center for the Education of Women was established in 1964 with a three-fold mission that continues today—dedication to research, service and advocacy for women. The Center is committed to the advancement of women’s academic and professional goals, offering assistance to students and community members through counseling, workshops, and a resource library and scholarship opportunities.

[email protected]Barbara EhrenreichCentral Campus mapHarper’s