Employment collection
Scope and Contents
The Employment Collection is comprised primarily of printed materials and includes publications, pamphlets, periodicals, handbooks, statistics, bibliographies, biographies, reports, and newsletters pertaining to the employment of women. There are also unpublished writings and correspondence, photographs, and ephemera. The collection dates from 1817 to 1991, with the bulk dating from 1920 to 1976. Major topics include affirmative action, sex discrimination, labor organizing, married women, child labor, minority women, protective legislation, volunteer services, and specific occupations in relation to women. A section on the status of women in labor is arranged by country, primarily England and the U.S., then by states in the U.S.
There is general material related to women in over eighty different occupations, including a large amount on women in academic occupations, as well as women in the armed services, aviation, government and politics, law, science, social work, and philanthropy. There are also materials related to women domestic workers, immigrant workers, women in industry, jury duty, wartime work, Social Security, and day care. There is a substantial amount of information on women labor leaders and union members, primarily in the Women's Trade Union League, United Electrical Workers, and the Working Women's Protective Union. There are also numerous publications by the Women's Bureau of the United States Department of Labor. Other items of interest include a photographic collection entitled "Women at Work: Views and Visions from the Pioneer Valley, 1870-1945"; a board game from 1890, "Round the World with Nellie Bly"; interviews of Samuel Gompers and Jane Addams about Hull House conducted by Lucy Robbins Lang; a payroll ledger from Ashuelot, NH, circa 1870s; and posters from Geraldine Ferraro's vice-presidential campaign.
Dates of Materials
- Creation: 1817 - 2000
- Creation: Majority of material found within 1920-1976
Creator
- Sophia Smith Collection of Women's History (Organization)
Conditions Governing Access
This collection is open for research use without restriction beyond the standard terms and conditions of Smith College Special Collections.
Conditions Governing Use
Materials in this collection may be governed by copyright. For reproductions of materials that are governed by fair use as defined under U. S. Copyright Law, no permission to cite or publish is required. Researchers are responsible for determining who may hold materials' copyrights and obtaining approval from them. Researchers do not need anything further from Smith College Special Collections to move forward with their use.
Extent
36.129 linear feet (82 containers)
Language of Materials
English
Abstract
Primarily printed materials and books, plus some unpublished writings, correspondence, photographs, and ephemera, pertaining to employment issues and specific occupations of women primarily in the U.S. and England. Topics include affirmative action, sex discrimination, labor organizing, child labor, immigrant workers, women in industry, jury duty, wartime work, Social Security, and protective legislation. Over eighty occupations represented include: law, academics, social work, sciences, domestic work, industrial labor, business, the armed services, government and politics, and philanthropy.
Arrangement
This collection is organized into fourteen series:
- I. GENERAL
- II. COUNTRIES
- III. DOMESTIC SERVICE
- IV. INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS
- V. OCCUPATIONS
- VI. ACADEMIC WOMEN
- VII. COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES
- VIII. ARMED SERVICES AND AVIATION
- IX. GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS
- X. LABOR LEADERS
- XI. LAW
- XII. SCIENCES
- XIII. SOCIAL WORK AND PHILANTHROPY
- XIV. TRADE UNIONS
- OVERSIZE MATERIALS
- BOOKS ON SHELF
Additional Finding Aids Available
Handwritten title list for U.S. Department of Labor, Women's Bureau publications (boxes 10-10d) available in Sophia Smith Collection Reading Room.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Materials in this subject collection were either purchased or given to the Sophia Smith Collection by various donors.
Processing Information
Finding aid revised by Jessica Lawson, intern, 2004. Introductory text by Gayla Spaulding.
Subject
- United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (Organization)
- United States. Women's Bureau -- Periodicals (Organization)
- Working Women's Protective Union (New York, N.Y.) (Organization)
- Goodwin, Mary (Person)
Genre / Form
- Bibliographies
- Financial records
- Interviews
- Manuals
- Newsletters
- Oral histories
- Pamphlets
- clippings
- photographs
- reports
Geographic
Topical
- Business executive
- Domestic workers
- Historians
- Industrial relations -- United States
- Labor movement
- Lawyers
- Periodicals
- Professors
- Public officers
- Publications
- Scientists
- Sex Discrimination in employment
- Social workers
- Social workers -- United States
- Universities and colleges -- United States
- War relief workers
- Women -- Economic conditions
- Women -- Employment
- Women -- Political activity -- United States
- Women college teachers
- Women domestics -- United States
- Women government executives
- Women historians
- Women in STEM
- Women in the labor movement
- Women in the professions
- Women labor union members -- United States
- Women lawyers -- United States
- Women philanthropists
- Women scientists -- United States
- World War, 1914-1918 -- Women -- United States
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Women -- United States
- Title
- Employment collection
- Subtitle
- Finding Aid
- Date
- 2005
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Revision Statements
- 07/26/2017: This resource was modified by the ArchivesSpace Preprocessor developed by the Harvard Library (https://github.com/harvard-library/archivesspace-preprocessor)
- 2017-07-26T17:48:12-04:00: This record was migrated from InMagic DB Textworks to ArchivesSpace.
- 2020-12-07: Updated 3 flat file folders and added 2 flat file folders, updated dates and extents
Repository Details
Part of the Sophia Smith Collection of Women's History Repository
