Below you'll find organizations and individuals who made efforts to improve women's working lives available at the Schlesinger Library, including archival material, books, and journals and newsletters covering the topic. Materials that have been digitized and are available for remote access are listed first for each category, and materials that must be accessed in-person are listed second.
During World War II, employers looked to fix shortages of workers in areas of the workforce traditionally reserved for men by hiring women; therefore, researchers interested in this time period in American history should also explore the Schlesinger Library's World War II Guide. Additionally, researchers working on projects related to this topic will find the Schlesinger Library's Industrial Labor Guide and Domestic Labor and Home Economics Guide and Harvard University's open access collection on "Women and Work" of interest.
Further material on the topic can be found by searching HOLLIS, Harvard's online library catalog, for "women at work," "working women," "labor laws," "wages," "employment," and "employment discrimination."
The library's published material collections are a rich source of information. Below, you'll find a sampling of books available to researchers online and researchers able to visit the library in-person, but a much larger selection is available through HOLLIS, Harvard University's catalog. To find material available at the Schlesinger Library, use the "Advanced Search" feature and limit your search to "Library Catalog. Choose "Schlesinger" from the "Scope" drop-down menu. Finally, select "Books" or "Journals" from the "Resource Type" drop-down menu. This search results list for the keyword "organized labor" serves as an example of the breadth of books available in the Schlesinger Library's collection.
Please note that some materials labeled as available "Online" in the library catalog may require HarvardKey access for remote access. During an in-person visit, you can access those materials on the Library's public computers.