Frances Fox Piven

Frances Fox Piven was born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, to Russian Jewish immigrant parents. The family moved to the USA when she was a baby and she became naturalized citizen. She was raised in the Jackson Heights neighborhood of Queens, New York, and earned a BA degree in City Planning in 1953, an MA in 1956, and a PhD in 1962, all from the University of Chicago. She became a political scientist and sociologist and taught at Boston University and The Graduate Center, City University of New York, where she has been since 1982. She is internationally renowned for her contributions to social theory and for her social activism on behalf of the poor and working people. During 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. Dr. Piven is the author or co-author of more than 200 articles published in academic journals, books, popular publications and journals since 1965, some of which have been republished numerous times. Her scholarship has been translated into many languages, and is noted for its boldness, analytical power, and clarity. Her books include Poor People's Movements: Why They Succeed, How They Fail (1977). She was married to her long-time collaborator Richard Cloward, a professor at Columbia University, until his death in 2001.