Barbara Ehrenreich, author of more than 20 books on social justice issues ranging from women's rights to inequality and the injustices of the American healthcare system, died at the age of 81.
On Friday, her son, Ben Ehrenreich, announced that Ehrenreich had died on September 1.
Ehrenreich fought for over a half-century as an author committed to fighting injustice and giving a voice to people who had previously gone unheard.
The book aided in raising awareness of an economic system in which it was necessary to work two or three jobs just to survive, and it served as a spark for the minimum wage movement.
She founded the Financial Hardship Reporting Initiative, which assists unbiased journalists to write about their life, including in poor rural parts of the United States.
Ehrenreich, who earned a PhD in cell biology before turning to social action and literature, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2000. In response to the knowledge, she published the award-winning essay Welcome to Cancerland.
Ben Ehrenreich reiterated that moment on Twitter, claiming his mother's death. “She was, she made clear, able to go,” he stated.