Discrimination in employment

Mildred Jeffrey Papers

drice — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 14:19:31 -0500

Mildred "Millie" Jeffrey worked as an organizer for the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, as Educational Director of the Pennsylvania Joint Board of Shirt Workers, as a consultant to the War Labor Board, as Director of the United Auto Workers (UAW) Women’s Bureau, and as Director for UAW Community Relations and Consumer Affairs Departments. Ms. Jeffrey was also active in the Democratic Party and was a founding member and chair of the National Organization of Women’s (NOW) political arm, the National Women’s Political Caucus.

Part 1 of Ms. Jeffrey’s papers document her extensive work for women’s rights and the labor movement and reflect her commitment to social justice. Part 2 primarily documents the last 30 years of her life during which Jeffrey became an activist in the many social and political movements of the time, including women’s rights, civil rights, reproductive rights and peace.

Damon J. Keith Papers

drice — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 14:20:02 -0400

Judge Damon Keith served in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, and in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Judge Keith delivered several landmark rulings in civil rights and civil liberties cases and played an active role in various civic, cultural and educational associations, including the Detroit YMCA, the United Negro College Fund, and the Detroit National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). He is the recipient of the NAACP’s Springarn Medal, the American Bar Association’s Thurgood Marshall Award, the Edward J. Devitt Award for Distinguished Service to Justice, and over thirty honorary degrees. Judge Keith’s papers document important milestones in his career, his precedent-setting judicial decisions, his role in ensuring equal justice for all Americans, and the many honors and awards bestowed upon him for his dedication to civil rights and to the City of Detroit.

SEIU Public Relations Records

aorchard — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 09:26:31 -0400

The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) was founded in 1921 as a union of flat janitors. Over the years it has grown in size and scope, now comprising three divisions: healthcare, property services, and public services. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, SEIU utilized the services of media consultants Abernathy and Associates for public relations and communication work. The collection consists of materials generated by Abernathy and Associates for SEIU, as well as source materials created by other entities (e.g., clippings) used for research and reference. The manuscript and audiovisual materials cover subjects including SEIU’s history and former SEIU President John Sweeney (speeches and the New Voices Slate), healthcare (including the Beverly and Kaiser campaigns), Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare, organizing, Justice for Janitors, and asbestos. Document types consist of correspondence, speeches, scholarly articles and book chapters, pamphlets, flyers, reports, and clippings. Audiovisual formats found within the collection include photographs, slides, negatives, cassettes, and DVDs, the contents of which document campaigns (including publicity spots), conventions, events, and speeches.

Jill Tietjen, Sandra Scanlon, and Kristy Schloss StoryCorps Interview, Clip 4, 2008

teller — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 11:55:50 -0400

Sandra Scanlon recalls that early in her career she was frequently mistaken for being an administrative assistant instead of an engineer and felt that her knowledge was tested more because she was a woman. She explains how she overcame those perceptions by ignoring these pressures and doing her job well. Jill Tietjen explains that during her first job at a power company she had to walk through a men’s locker room to get to the control room because the building designers had not considered that a woman would need access to the room. Kristy Schloss explains that women engineers earn their stripes by surviving these encounters and working to change negative perceptions of women engineers.

Tietjen is the president and CEO an electrical engineering consulting company. She is a Fellow and past president of the Society of Women Engineers and has received the Society’s Distinguished Service Award. Scanlon is the president of an engineering consulting firm. She is a Fellow of SWE and has received the Society’s Distinguished New Engineer and Entrepreneur awards. Kristy Schloss is the president and CEO of an environmental equipment design and manufacturing company. She is also SWE Fellow and a recipient of the Society’s Distinguished New Engineer and Entrepreneur awards.

This recording is Clip 4 of 4. Click on the "Tietjen / Scanlon / Schloss Interview" link above to find all clips from the interview. Click on the "2008 StoryCorps Interviews" link above to find all audio recordings from the 2008 SWE StoryCorps interviews.

This oral history interview was recorded November 7, 2008 at the Society of Women Engineers WE08 National Conference in Baltimore, Maryland as part of StoryCorps (www.storycorps.net), a nationwide initiative of Sound Portraits Productions to record and collect oral history interviews. This excerpt was selected and produced by the SWE Archivist. The excerpt may have been edited for length and clarity. Audio excerpts may be used for research and educational purposes only.

Renee Weisman, Marge Inden, and Bernice Brody StoryCorps Interview, Clip 4, 2008

teller — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 16:13:09 -0400

Bernice Brody asks Renee Weisman and Marge Inden what legacy they hope to leave the Society of Women Engineers. Renee Weisman explains that by talking about her professional experiences she hopes to guide and support the careers of younger generations. Brody explains that she wants to strengthen the Society's diversity and inclusion program so that women from underrepresented groups in SWE can have their voices better heard. Inden argues that while sexual discrimination in the engineering workplace is far more subtle than it used to be, organizations like SWE are still necessary to help women address those subtleties.

Weisman, Inden, and Brody all began their engineering careers at IBM. After nearly 40 years with the company, Weisman retired in 2007 as a distinguished engineer and director of engineering and has since started a leadership consulting firm. Inden transitioned from a career in engineering to one in the financial sector and is currently a senior registered client service associate at Morgan Stanley Smith Barney. Brody is currently and executive project manager at IBM Global Services. Inden is a Fellow of the Society of Women Engineers and a member of the Board of Trustees. Brody has served in numerous positions in SWE, and is currently the Speaker of the Senate.

This recording is Clip 4 of 5. Click on the "Weisman / Inden / Brody Interview" link above to find all clips from the interview. Click on the "2008 StoryCorps Interviews" link above to find all audio recordings from the 2008 SWE StoryCorps interviews.

Eleanor Josaitis — Hands Across the Racial Divide

wlefevre — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 09:32:36 -0400

As a symbol, it is exquisite in its simplicity. Two hands inside a circle, one black and one white, almost but never quite touching across the racial divide. This has been the logo of Focus: HOPE, an organization fighting for basic human rights in Detroit and Southeast Michigan for over forty years. And until her death last week, one of the leaders of the fight was Eleanor Josaitis. read more »

Harnessing Engineering Womanpower in the Cold War

teller — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 14:56:55 -0400

In 1955, in the midst of the Cold War, the U.S. Department of Labor Women’s Bureau hosted a Conference on the Effective Use of Womanpower. The Department of Labor was worried that the United States was producing too few engineers and scientists as compared to the number produced in the U.S.S.R., and found that the recruitment and training of women in science and engineering fields could help to alleviate the disparity. read more »

Women Engineers Moved the Midcentury Motor City

teller — Thu, 29 Mar 2018 16:04:11 -0400

While the number of women in engineering increased dramatically between 1900 and 1950, the actual number of women in engineering was still quite small: approximately 3,000 women, or just two-tenths of one percent of working engineers in the United States. Detroit's automobile industry presented a growing number of opportunities for women in engineering, however, and local papers in the 1950s and 1960s frequently published articles about these female curiosities in what was still very much considered "a man's world." The stories of Society of Women Engineers Detroit Section members provide a fascinating look at the opportunities and challenges faced by midcentury women engineers as they thrived–or not–in the Motor City. read more »

(DN_1122) NAACP, Pickets, Housing Discrimination, Detroit, 1963

eclemens — Wed, 11 May 2011 09:26:51 -0400

Demonstrators picket the General Motors Building to protest discriminative hiring practices, Detroit, Michigan.

(31924) Strike Against Racially Discrimintory Hiring Practices During World War II

aorchard — Sat, 31 May 2014 16:41:06 -0400

An African American man protests against racist hiring practices during WW2.

(35300) Jobs Now! Conference

ljones — Mon, 10 Apr 2017 16:28:12 -0400

Sponsored by the Citizens Committee for Equal Opportunity and the Virginia Park Citizens Committee, a jobs fair, called the “Jobs Now! Conference,” is held at Hutchins Junior High School, near the place where Detroit’s Civil Unrest will erupt exactly two months later. The jobs fair organizers described the neighborhood as being one of Detroit’s “areas of most critical unemployment.” May 23, 1967. Source: Wayne State University Office of Religious Affairs, Box 18.

[Podcast] Brewing a Boycott: Collective Activism and the Decades-Long Coors Beer Boycott

teller — Tue, 16 Nov 2021 11:49:07 -0500

Dr. Allyson Brantley explains how large and diverse groups joined together for a decades-long consumer boycott of the Coors Brewing Company to fight against its union busting, discriminatory hiring practices, and politics. read more »