The purpose of Ehrenreich’s experience was not to undergo the hardships of poverty and share how it feels to be in this social class in fact, the reporter struggled with several periods of poverty in her lifetime. Despite Ehrenreich’s preferences for a “bustling trailer park,” her home had a “gleaming white” floor, an adequate mattress for sleeping, and a few temporary insect problems. The cabin that she purchased is in the back yard of a mobile home, where her landlord resides.

The reporter was more mortified by the idea that she aspired to obtain “trailer trash” commodities rather than more upscale ones.Ĭonsequently, Ehrenreich sacrificed affordability and convenience for a home with a monthly rent of $500 and a commute about forty-five minutes from her workplace assuming there’s no road construction or traffic. She had come to the realization that any area in America, whether it was New York City or the Bay Area, was expensive to inhabit. Even worse, the monthly went was $675, which was far from what Ehrenreich could afford. One of the homes that Ehrenreich’s liked was a home with no television, windows, screens, fans, or air conditioning. With her experience as a housekeeper, she could possibly earn a salary of $7 an hour, allowing her to spend $600 maximum on rent.Įhrenreich was in the Key West area, where she was limited (by her monetary means) to flophouses and trailer homes as a form of shelter. The reporter in disguise first sought a place to call her home. Ehrenreich’s next objective was to look set up her new life – find her basic needs for survival.

Women in this faction have a monthly income of approximately 50,000. Her experiment was design allowed her to personally experience the hardships of a worker with minimal skills living on minimum wage.īarbara’s poses as a divorced homemaker with experience primarily consisting of housekeeping for private households ultimately, she is categorized as a mother on welfare. Ehrenreich initiated her research in June 1998, in the form of participant observation. In Barbara Ehrenreich’s book, Nickel-and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America, she investigates whether welfare reform programs are appropriate in aiding women in poverty and that these institutions will affect their economic and social mobility in the future.

Nickel and dimed cliff notes