Betsy Leondar-Wright (born January 15, 1956) is an American economic justice

activist Activism (or Advocacy) consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived greater good. Forms of activism range fro ...

, sociologist, and author, who writes on class and economic inequality.

Early life and education

Leondar-Wright was raised in a

middle-class The middle class refers to a class of people in the middle of a social hierarchy, often defined by occupation, income, education, or social status. The term has historically been associated with modernity, capitalism and political debate. Comm ...

family, and dropped out of

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

to become a full-time activist. She completed her

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

, MA and PhD in Sociology at

Boston College Boston College (BC) is a private Jesuit research university in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. Founded in 1863, the university has more than 9,300 full-time undergraduates and nearly 5,000 graduate students. Although Boston College is classifie ...

Activism

She was a member of

Movement for a New Society The Movement for a New Society (MNS) was a U.S.-based network of social activist collectives, committed to the principles of nonviolence, who played a key role in social movements of the 1970s and 1980s. According to a description from the MNS pub ...

(MNS), where she was a member of the Keystone Alliance, organizing rallies and occupations at the

Limerick, PA Limerick Township is a Township (Pennsylvania), township in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, United States. History The township was named for the hometown of early settler William Evans, whose family arrived in t ...

Nuclear Power Plant A nuclear power plant (NPP) is a thermal power station in which the heat source is a nuclear reactor. As is typical of thermal power stations, heat is used to generate steam that drives a steam turbine connected to a electric generator, generato ...

. While involved with MNS, she published the "Study Guide on Multinational Corporations and the World Economy". 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. From 1997 to 2006 she was Communications Director for

United for a Fair Economy United for a Fair Economy (UFE) is an American left-leaning nonprofit organization. Co-founded by Chuck Collins and Felice Yeskel in 1995, it describes itself as "raising awareness that concentrated wealth and power undermine the economy, corrup ...

, where she co-authored ''The Color of Wealth: The Story Behind the U.S. Racial Wealth Divide''. She serves on the board o
Class Action
a non-profit that raises consciousness about class and money. As Program Director from 2010 to 2015, she edited the blog "

Classism Class discrimination, also known as classism, is prejudice or discrimination on the basis of social class. It includes individual attitudes, behaviors, systems of policies and practices that are set up to benefit the upper class at the expense of ...

Exposed".

Current work

Currently she is an assistant professor of sociology at Lasell College."Betsy Leondar-Wright, Ph.D."
Academic Departments, Lasell College. Her current research and writing focus on

cross-class alliance A cross-class alliance is a term for an organisation that bypasses social-economic classes in pursuit of its aim. It is often used by Trotskyists as a term of abuse towards popular fronts as they prefer working class united front A united front ...

s 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 Ki

Personal life

She and her spouse, progressive book

publicist A publicist is a person whose job is to generate and manage publicity for a company, a brand, or public figure – especially a celebrity – or for a work such as a book, film, or album. Publicists are public relations specialists who ...

Gail Leondar-Wright, are one of the first lesbian couples to be legally married in the United States.

Publishing history

References

External links

*
Interview
with ''

Z Magazine Z Communications is a left-wing activist-oriented media group founded in 1986 by Michael Albert and Lydia Sargent.Max Elbaum''Revolution in the Air: Sixties Radicals Turn to Lenin, Mao and Che'' London, England, UK; New York, New York, US: Verso, ...

''
As forum speakerInterview
on Progressive Radio

on Rag Radio with

Thorne Dreyer Thorne Webb Dreyer (born August 1, 1945) is an American writer, editor, publisher, and political activist who played a major role in the 1960s-1970s counterculture, New Left, and underground press movements. Dreyer now lives in Austin, Texas, whe ...

(53:07)
consulting
gail leondar public relations {{DEFAULTSORT:Leondar-Wright, Betsy Living people American women's rights activists LGBT rights activists from the United States American sociologists American women sociologists American non-fiction writers American community activists American anti-racism activists 1956 births 21st-century American women