| Betsy Leondar-Wright | |
| Birth Name: | Betsy Wright |
| Birth Date: | 15 January 1956 |
| Birth Place: | Summit, New Jersey, U.S. |
| Occupation: | author, activist |
| Nationality: | American |
| Education: | Princeton University |
| Alma Mater: | Boston College |
| Subject: | Classism, Economic stratification, economic justice |
| Spouse: | Gail Leondar-Wright |
| Awards: | Gustavus Myers Outstanding Book Award[1] |
Betsy Leondar-Wright (born January 15, 1956) is an American economic justice activist,[2] sociologist,[3] and author, who writes on class and economic inequality.[4]
Leondar-Wright was raised in a middle-class family, and dropped out of Princeton University to become a full-time activist.[5] She completed her Bachelor of Arts, MA and PhD in Sociology at Boston College.[3]
She was a member of Movement for a New Society (MNS), where she was a member of the Keystone Alliance, organizing rallies and occupations at the Limerick, PA Nuclear Power Plant.[6] While involved with MNS, she published the "Study Guide on Multinational Corporations and the World Economy".[7]
From 1986 to 1988 she was Program Coordinator at Women for Economic Justice, where she organized a coalition for pay equity for women. From 1988 to 1993 she was Executive Director at the Anti-Displacement Project, an affordable housing organization; three of the tenant groups she organized bought and now manage their apartment complexes as permanently affordable housing. From 1994 to 1997 she served as Executive Director of the Massachusetts Human Services Coalition.[8]
From 1997 to 2006 she was Communications Director for United for a Fair Economy, where she co-authored The Color of Wealth: The Story Behind the U.S. Racial Wealth Divide.[9]
She serves on the board of Class Action, a non-profit that raises consciousness about class and money. As Program Director from 2010 to 2015, she edited the blog "Classism Exposed".[10]
Currently she is an assistant professor of sociology at Lasell College.[11] Her current research and writing focus on cross-class alliances in movements for social change. Her 2012 PhD dissertation focuses on class culture differences in U.S. social change groups. Her latest book, "Missing Class: Strengthening Social Movement Groups by Seeing Class Cultures" was published by Cornell University Press in April 2014 and was made into a website, the Activist Class Cultures Kit http://www.activistclasscultures.org.
She and her spouse, progressive book publicist Gail Leondar-Wright, are one of the first lesbian couples to be legally married in the United States.[12]
| Date(s) | Role | Title | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | co-author | Mass Billions: The Changing Role of Federal Support for Human Services in Massachusetts for the Massachusetts Human Services Coalition | |
| 1999 | co-author | Shifting Fortunes: The Perils of the Growing American Wealth Gap for United for a Fair Economy[13] | |
| 1999, 2007 | co-author | Classism curriculum design, chapter in Teaching for Diversity and Social Justice, co-written with Felice Yeskel[14] | |
| 2004 | co-author | Black job loss deja vu: think the typical job-loser in today's economy is a white computer programmer whose job has been outsourced to India? Think again. An article from Dollars and Sense | |
| 2004 | author | Climbing the White Escalator[15] | |
| 2004 | co-editor | The Wealth Inequality Reader in Dollars and Sense[16] | |
| 2005 | co-author | "Who are the elites?" Chapter in Inequality Matters | |
| 2004–2006 | co-author | three annual "State of the Dream" reports on racial inequality for United For a Fair Economy | |
| 2005 | author | Class Matters: Cross-Class Alliance Building for Middle-Class Activists[17] | |
| 2006 | co-author | The Color of Wealth:The Story Behind the U.S. Racial Wealth Divide - winner of the Gustavus Myers Outstanding Book Award[18] | |
| 2014 | author | Missing Class: How Seeing Class Cultures Can Strengthen Social Movement GroupsBook: Leondar-Wright , Betsy . Missing Class: Strengthening Social Movement Groups by Seeing Class Cultures. Cornell University Press. 2014. 9780801479205. |