Frances Fox Piven is a scholar and political activist who teaches political science and sociology at the City University of New York. Her book, Regulating the Poor, co-authored with Richard Cloward, is a landmark historical and theoretical analysis of the role of welfare policy in the economic and political control of the working class and the poor. She also co-authored Poor Peoples' Movements with Richard Cloward, along with several other works, including The Breaking of the American Social Compact, and Why Americans Still Don't Vote.