Ruth Sidel received her B A. from Wellesley College, her M.S.W. from the Boston University School of Social Work, and her Ph.D. from Union Graduate School. Her research interests center around poverty, particularly its impact on women and children, and the need to develop a comprehensive, universal family policy in the United States. She has made several study visits to China and has written extensively on health care and human services in China as well as in Great Britain and Sweden. She teaches Introduction to Sociology, Child Welfare and special seminars such as Childhood in New York and Women and Leadership.

Publications

She is the author of several books including On Her Own: Growing Up in the Shadow of the American Dream and Keeping Women and Children Last: America's War on the Poor. Her most recent book, Unsung Heroines: Single Mothers and the American Dream, was published by the University of California Press in 2006.