Review:: Without a Net: The Female Experience of Growing Up Working Class

Without a Net: The Female Experience of Growing Up Working Class released  February 6, 2004 from Seal Press

This book has been hanging out on my unread shelf for a VERY long time! After reading Barbara Ehrenreich's Nikel and Dimed and some other books exploring poverty and the working poor I picked this book up but it got shelved. I'm not sure why except to say I always have a huge queue of books and I have been focusing on frontlist titles for the last few years. Deciding to grab something from my backlist, I picked this off my shelf. While many books may explore the topic of the working class, too often we do not hear their stories firsthand--especially from women and girls. To dig even deeper, we don't hear the stories of LGBTQI woman-identifying people and women of color. Edited by indie icon Michelle Tea, Without a Net: The Female Experience of Growing Up Working Class contains raw and powerful first-hand accounts of working class experiences. The first essay alone will leave you with your jaw on the ground! While it was written in 2004, it is still relevant and provides insight into the daily sacrifices and struggles of an often disparaged demographic. I think an updated or additional volume of essays would be well received by the general public and anyone interested in America's economy and class systems.