Bio: (1941-) American sociologist. Barbara Ehrenreich did not have a classical sociological education, she studied chemistry and received a doctorate in cellular immunology. In the 1970s, she began to deal with the problems of the position of women in the health care system. During her career, she worked at several universities and institutes and was also involved in journalism. As of 2013, Ehrenreich is an honorary co-chair of the Democratic Socialists of America. Although not originally a sociologist by education, Ehrenreich made an outstanding contribution to many areas of sociology.

In the book The American Health Empire (1970), Ehrenreich introduces the term "medical-industrial complex". This complex represents an industry worth hundreds of billions of dollars and consists of doctors, hospitals, nursing homes, insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, companies that produce equipment for hospitals, the construction industry, health insurance systems, and banks. The essence of the medical-industrial complex is to make a profit, while research and education are secondary goals. Ehrenreich later turned her attention to the history of women in medicine and found that in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, women were systematically excluded from the medical profession. This was achieved by banning women from enrollment in medical schools, as well as formal bans for unlicensed persons to practice medicine. Medical teachings have also been used as a justification for subordinating the role of women.

Barbara and her husband, John Ehrenreich, introduced the concept of the professional-managerial class in their article “The Professional-Managerial Class”, which was published in the book edited by Pat Walker Between Labor and Capital (1979). This class consists of well-paid experts and managers, who do not own the means of the production, but who, within the reproduction of capitalism, play the role of maintaining capitalist culture and capitalist social relations. This class acts against the interests of the working class in many ways. Engineers produce technologies that benefit the ruling class, while managers introduce a higher level of social control of workers within the production relationship. This class also directly affects the reduction of autonomy and skills of workers (deskilling), because it eliminates the need for highly qualified workers (the position of foreman) who previously organized the production process.

Teachers and social workers indoctrinate children and control adult "problematic" people who do not fit into the capitalist system. Advertising professionals, managers, and entertainers spread capitalist and consumerist ideology among the general population. This class has high rates of intergenerational reproduction and interclass marriage. The final effect of this class is to increase the economic and organizational power of capital. Although not all members of this class have the consciousness and desire to act against the working class, by the very effect they have on the working class, the position they occupy within production, and the inherent lifestyle, they make up a diverse but unique class. The uniqueness of the interests of this class is reflected in the need to appropriate the surplus labor created by the working class, while, at the same time, they want to preserve autonomy in relation to the ruling class.

Barbara and John Ehrenreich also studied the feminization of poverty. They determined that the salaries of workers are characterized by what they called the "family salary" system. This system is a consequence of the workers' struggles from the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century. It strengthened gender segregation by occupation, positioned women as a secondary labor force, and legitimized systemic gender discrimination in terms of earnings. The family salary system enabled a male worker to earn enough to feed his family, and on the other hand, a woman, although working, could not contribute to a significant increase in the family budget. Barbara Ehrenreich also studied the identity crisis that men experienced after the Second World War in the book The Hearts of Men (1983). Men also needed an identity outside the profession, and men's magazines, such as Playboy, allowed men to build such an identity. Such magazines also had the effect of increasing men's spending. In her book Global Women (2003), Barbara Ehrenreich and Arlie Hochschild explored the global economic migration flows of women, primarily in the professions of nanny, housekeeper, and sex worker. Such processes increase the economic and sexual exploitation of women around the world.

Barbara Ehrenreich is best known to the general public for her empirical research into the work of unskilled women, which was later published in the book Nickel and Dimed (2001), which was intended for a wider audience. In this short book, written in the spirit of investigative journalism, Ehrenreich describes the preparation, course, and consequences of research into unskilled labor. The author, under a false name and with a false biography, worked on low-paid manual jobs for several months, while covering all living expenses only with the money she earned from those jobs. Although this research is interesting in methodological terms, it also has important theoretical implications. Ehrenreich concluded that it is extremely difficult for a woman who does low-paid jobs to survive on her salary, even if she lives alone because there are many hidden costs. On the other hand, the work process itself was subjected to great control, stress, and mobbing. The constant demand for new labor (even when there is no need for it), personality tests, as well as testing for illicit substances, are also aspects of the control and domination that employers exercise over unskilled labor. In the end, the author concluded that persons who perform such tasks suffer great exploitation and domination, make great personal, emotional, social, and health sacrifices, and receive extremely small economic or any other kind of reward.

Main works

Long March, Short Spring: The Student Uprising at Home and Abroad  (1969);

The American Health Empire (1971);

Witches, Midwives, and Nurses: A History of Women Healers (1972);

Complaints and Disorders: The Sexual Politics of Sickness  (1973);

For Her Own Good: Two Centuries of the Experts' Advice to Women (1978);

“The Professional-Managerial Class”, in ed. Walker, Pat. Between Labor and Capital (1979). Women in the Global Factory (1983);

The Hearts of Men (1983);                                                             

Re-Making Love: The Feminization of Sex (1986);

The Mean Season (1987);

Fear of Falling: The Inner Life of the Middle Class (1989);

The Worst Years of Our Lives: Irreverent Notes from a Decade of Greed (1990);

Blood Rites: Origins and History of the Passions of War (1997);

Nickel and Dimed (2001);

Global Woman (2003);

Bait and Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream (2005);

This Land Is Their Land: Reports From a Divided Nation (2008);

Bright-sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America (2009);

Living with a Wild God: A Nonbeliever's Search for the Truth about Everything (2014);

Natural Causes: An Epidemic of Wellness, the Certainty of Dying, and Killing Ourselves to Live Longer (2018).