This is an accepted version of this page Progressive Era Repression and persecution Anti-war and civil rights movements Contemporary Frances Fox Piven (born October 10, 1932)[1] is an American professor of political science and sociology at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, where she has taught since 1982.

A public advocate of the war on poverty and subsequent welfare-rights protests both in New York City and on the national stage, she has been instrumental in formulating the theoretical underpinnings of those movements.

Over the course of 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.

Piven was born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada,[2] of Russian Jewish immigrant parents,[4] Rachel (née Paperny) and Albert Fox, a storekeeper.

[2] Together with Cloward, she wrote an article in the May 1966 issue of The Nation titled "The Weight of the Poor: A Strategy to End Poverty" advocating increased enrollment in social welfare programs in order to collapse that system and force reforms, leading to a guaranteed annual income.

Piven also engaged Milton Friedman and Thomas Sowell in a debate in the PBS television series Free to Choose.

[17] Some of Piven's major works include[18] Regulating the Poor written with Richard Cloward, first published in 1972 and updated in 1993, which is a scrutiny of government welfare policy and how it is used to exert power over lower class individuals;[19] Poor People's Movements, published in 1977, an analysis of how rebellious social movements can induce important reforms;[20] Why Americans Don't Vote, published in 1988 and a follow-up book Why Americans Still Don't Vote published in 2000, each of which look at the role of current American electoral practices which tend to discourage the poor working class from exercising their right to vote;[21]The War at Home published in 2004, a critical examination of the domestic results of the wars initiated by the Bush administration;[22] Challenging Authority: How Ordinary People Change America, a look at the interaction of disruptive social movements and electoral politics in generating the political force for democratic reform in American history.