Ehrenreich\'s Nickel and Dimed Barbara

Ehrenreich's Nickel And Dimed

Barbara Ehrenreich's investigative-style book on what it's like to try (and ultimately fail) to meet living expenses with a minimum wage job delves into many of the major socio-economic issues facing the country today, despite the research being done nearly a decade ago. Her approach was not strictly sociological, and this may be part of the reason that the general attitude she displays in her retelling of her life on the lower end of the economic ladder does not display a strict adherence to any specific theoretical perspective of sociology. Instead, there is a curious mixture of functionalism and conflict theory. On the one hand, Ehrenreich undertakes this research project as a way of figuring out how the various social institutions will enable minimum-wage workers, and largely women, to make a living in the most literal sense when the numbers simply don't seem to add up.

Though she goes into much greater depth further into the first chapter, Ehrenreich (2001) sums up her first day at work as a waitress thusly: "For the next eight hours, I run after the agile Gail, absorbing bits of instruction along with fragments of personal tragedy" (p. 16). This betrays the generally functionalist attitude she takes at the outset of her research; she automatically connects Gail's job with the external circumstances and demands of her life, attempting to see how the two balance, and how the institution of Gail's job serves her needs as an individual. As it becomes increasingly clear to Ehrenreich that these individual needs are barely met, and on terms that would not seem acceptable to many in the middle-class or even the higher reaches of the lower class, Ehrenreich's perspective also subtly -- and not so subtly -- shifts to one that more closely aligns with conflict theory. A clear "us against them" attitude exists, Ehrenreich discovers, between management and the service workers. She also notes, however, that the managers make only slightly more than the employees they hold in such contempt (Ehrenreich, 2001).

The sharpness of the division that Ehrenreich perceives might be at least partially a symptom of her ultimate lack of subjectivity. In her introduction, Ehrenreich admits that she has many advantages over actual minimum-wage workers, not the least of which is the knowledge that even should she fail in this endeavor, she has a nice home and a "real" job to return to, and that she is not in any danger of going hungry or cold (Ehrenreich, 2001).. This presents the major limitation to her mode of study; no matter what, she is bringing an incredibly subjective and judgmental eye to her research. This shows up as a strength in hr writing, making the stories far more human and interesting, not to mention intentionally provocative, but is an immense detriment to her scholarship.