Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Abramovitz, Mimi

Titel

Interview with Mimi Abramovitz, DSW, Hunter College, City University of New York

Ist Teil von

• Reflections (Long Beach, Calif.), 2004-10, Vol.10 (4), p.14-31

Erscheinungsjahr

2004

Quelle

Sociological Abstracts

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• In Aug 2004, I sat down with Mimi Abramovitz, DSW, at the Policy Conference in Charleston, SC, where she had delivered the keynote address. My interview with her covered a wide range of themes, beginning with the childhood influences that helped form her commitment to social justice, which has guided her career as an activist, academic, & researcher. My first introduction to Abramovitz was through the seminal article published in Social Work in 1983, "Everyone's on Welfare: The Role of Redistribution in Social Policy." Her insights were revelatory for a beginning social policy teacher & profoundly influenced a generation of academics & activists. Her analysis was updated in 2001 & appeared in Social Work as "Everyone Is Still on Welfare." In between these articles Abramovitz developed powerful & nuanced analyses of the impact of the welfare state on women in two books: Regulating the Lives of Women: Social Welfare Policy from Colonial Times to the Present (1996) & Under Attack, Fighting Back: Women and Welfare in the United States (2000). She has published many other articles analyzing the family ethic in welfare policy. She is a national leader in the debate over welfare reform & the relationship between gender & poverty. In examining the welfare state through a gender lens, Abramovitz has made a significant contribution not only to social work, but also to women's studies, social history, & sociology. She continues to be active in welfare rights organizations in New York City, where she lives & teaches at Hunter Coll, CUNY. A hero of mine since I began teaching social policy, Abramovitz offered a moving & passionate account of a life spent committed to social activism. Adapted from the source document.