Professors Sandra Morgan, Joan Acker and Jill Weigt

A book about poor families and welfare written by three feminist scholars — an anthropologist and two feminist sociologists—is a finalist for the prestigious C. Wright Mills Award from the Society for the Study of Social Problems. Stretched Thin was written by Sandra Morgen, Joan Acker, and Jill Weigt and published by Cornell University Press in December 2010.

Sandra Morgen is vice provost for Graduate Studies/associate dean of the UO Graduate School, professor of anthropology, and former director of the Center for the Study of Women in Society. Joan Acker is professor emerita of the UO Department of Sociology and the first director of CSWS. UO graduate Jill Weigt is associate professor of sociology at California State University-San Marcos. This book is based on a three-year, multi-method study of welfare restructuring in Oregon.

Stretched Thin gives an “on the ground” account of managing welfare reform from the perspectives of clients, agency workers, and administrators. The authors assess the outcomes and suggest new policies to deal with poverty and economic disparities. The study, a project of the CSWS Women in the Northwest Research Initiative, was partially funded by CSWS, with other funds from the Oregon Department of Human Resources.

The C. Wright Mills Award, established in 1964, is made annually and carries with it a stipend of $500 for the author(s) of the winning book. The 2010 award will be presented at the 61st Annual Meeting in Las Vegas, NV, August 19-21, 2011.