Ruth Sidel (1933–2016)

Ruth Sidel, née Grossman, received her B A. from Wellesley College, her M.S.W. from the Boston University School of Social Work, and her Ph.D. from Union Graduate School. Her research interests centered around poverty, particularly its impact on women and children, and the need to develop a comprehensive, universal family policy in the USA. She began her career as a social worker in Boston. With their two young children, she and her husband Victor Sidel, MD, moved to New York City when he was hired to head Social Medicine and Community Health at Montefiore Hospital. She made the first of several study visits to China in 1971 -- the result was her first book, Women and Childcare in China: A Firsthand Report (1972), which became a bestseller. During her career, she wrote extensively on health care and human services in China as well as in the UK and Sweden. Her numerous books included On Her Own: Growing Up in the Shadow of the American Dream (1990), Urban Survival: The World of Working-Class Women (1978), and Women and Children Last: America's War on the Poor (1986, updated edition 1992). Her last book, Unsung Heroines: Single Mothers and the American Dream, was published shortly before her death. As professor of sociology at Hunter College of the City University of New York from 1978 to 2012, she taught courses on child welfare and women and leadership. She was also a co-founder of the Welfare Rights Initiative.