Her writing focuses on political and social issues from a left-leaning perspective, including abortion, racism, welfare reform, feminism, and poverty.

She has appeared on NPR's Fresh Air and All Things Considered, Charlie Rose, The McLaughlin Group, CNN, Dateline NBC and the BBC.

[8] In 2020, she was one of the signers of the Harper's Letter, which expressed support for protests for social justice while criticizing the growing number of disproportionately severe punishments for perceived slights or offenses.

The book's title was a reference to a line in Mary Wollstonecraft's 1794 treatise, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman – "I wish to see women neither heroines nor brutes; but reasonable creatures.

"[11] Most of her Nation essays from 1994 to 2001 were collected in Subject to Debate: Sense and Dissents on Women, Politics and Culture, published by the Modern Library in 2001.

[13] In 2007, Pollitt published Learning to Drive: And Other Life Stories (Random House), a collection of personal essays.

[18] Politt has said that Pro: Reclaiming Abortion Rights (2014), was intended as a response to the "feeling among many pro-choice people that we need to be more assertive, less defensive".

[19] While the topic is always in debate, Pollitt posits that it needs to be discussed in a way that recognizes abortion as an integral component of women's reproductive lives.

[21] She argues that the issue brings about how we discuss menstrual cycles with young girls and the number of resources we have available for families, both single parent and two-parent.