Edna Bonacich built her career around exploring the relationship between minorities and the economic system, especially in urban settings. She was born in the affluent suburb of Greenwich, Connecticut, on March 30, 1940, to Meyer Miller, a rabbi, and Shulamith (Wittenberg) Miller. Bonacich began her education at the University of Natal in Durban, South Africa, where she received a bachelor's degree in 1960. She later obtained both a master's of arts (1966) and doctorate (1969) from Harvard University. In 1964 she married fellow sociologist Phillip Bonacich, with whom she had two daughters, Emma and Jane.

In 1969 Bonacich became a faculty member at the University of California, Riverside (UCR), starting her academic career as an assistant professor of sociology. Her first published work was Deadlock in School Desegregation: A Case Study of Inglewood, California (co-authored with Robert F. Goodman, 1972). However, her attention soon turned to what became one of the cornerstones of her work: minorities...