Regulating the poor

1932

Frances Fox Piven was born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Her family moved to the United States in 1933. She became a naturalized citizen in 1953, the year she received an undergraduate degree in City Planning from the University of Chicago. She received her master's degree in 1956 and her doctorate in 1962, also from the University of Chicago. She married Herman Piven, with whom she had a daughter. After graduating, she became a city planner in New York City, but soon left her profession to become a research associate at Mobilization for Youth, one of the country's first anti-poverty agencies. In 1965 she co-authored the paper "Mobilizing the Poor: How It Can Be Done," which helped her becom…