Faculty and Staff News

Diana Pearce Makes Presentations on Poverty and Economic Justice

On April 9, Dr. Diana Pearce, Senior Lecturer and Director of the Center for Women's Welfare at UW, presented findings from a study on the Self-Sufficiency Standard for 2008 in the state of New Jersey. “The stark contrast between actual wages and necessary wages leads to tough choices and sacrifices,” said Pearce, the author and the study’s principal investigator.

“People are struggling,” Pearce said, “but with income over the poverty level, you’re not officially ‘poor,’ and thus not eligible for most programs. And yet families who are below the Standard do not have enough money to meet their basic needs, and some even become homeless.”

Pearce presented these findings in a press conference in Trenton, New Jersey, which was widely covered by media in the area.

This is the fourth such report conducted by Pearce and the Poverty Research Institute at Legal Services of New Jersey. She has conducted self-sufficiency reports for 35 other states.

In early April Pearce also made a presentation at the national Women's Economic Justice Summit in Atlanta, Georgia, on “A New Agenda for the New Poverty: An Approach Integrating Gender, Race/Ethnicity, and the Working Poor.” About 200 women from both academia and advocacy groups attended. Co-sponsors were the Institute for Women's Policy Research, the National Council of Negro Women, and the NOW Foundation for Women.