Ileen A. Devault

People/Faculty
Professor of Labor History
Global Labor and Work
Missing alt

Contact

133 Statler Dr
370 Ives Hall Faculty Wing
Ithaca, NY 14853
United States

Tel
+1 (607) 255-3055
CV
Ileen A. Devault CV
Websites
Worker Institute
Overview

Ileen DeVault is Professor of Labor History at Cornell University’s ILR School in Ithaca, NY. She teaches classes on labor and working-class history. She is the author of two books, "Sons and Daughters of Labor" and "United Apart: Gender and the Rise of Craft Unionism," as well as many articles. Her current research involves examining the impact of workers’ family status on their workplace and union experiences between 1880 and 1930 and in the present. As part of this, she is working on a book manuscript which illustrates the complex ways in which the meanings of "family" changed as capital and workers came together in the logging industry of the Pacific Northwest.

Teaching Statement 

Most of my teaching is in the field of labor and working class history. I am interested in communicating to students the ways in which people's lives in the past were both the same as and different from our lives today. I also hope to convey an appreciation for the process of historical research.

Research Statement 

My overall research focus is on the interactions among gender, family, workplace, and community in US history. I look at the many manifestations of "family" and their impact for different groups of workers between 1880 and 1930, as well as in the present. I am currently working on a book on the logging industry in the Pacific Northwest from the 1910s through the 1930s.

Service Statement 

I serve on several ILR committees as well as serving as a core faculty member of the Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program. I am a member of the graduate fields of ILR, History, FGSS, and LGBT Studies.

Areas of Expertise

Collective Bargaining
Construction
Discrimination
Diversity and Inclusion
Gender and families
Immigration and the Labor Force
Labor History
Labor and society
Labor force composition and market trends
Labor in Europe and the U.S.
Labor relations
Labor rights
Occupational segregation
Occupations and Professions
Organizing
Rights of working people
Technology and work
Temporary and contract workers
Union leadership
Unions
Urban labor movements
Women and labor unions
Women in the workplace
Work and families
Workplace cultures
Workplace democracy

Other expertise

Gender Issues in Employment and Labor Unions; Social Mobility; Socioeconomic Class; Clerical Work

Publications

Books

  • . . United Apart: Gender, and the Rise of Craft Unionism, 1887-1903. Cornell University Press.
  • . . Sons and Daughters of Labor: Class and Clerical Work in Turn-of-the-Century Pittsburgh. Cornell University Press.

Journal Articles

  • . . 'Everybody Works But Father': Why the Census Misdirected Historians of Women's Employment. Social Science History, 40(3).
  • . . Review of Miriam Frank, Out in the Union: A Labor History of Queer America. Journal of American History, 102(1 (June 2015)), 310-311.
  • . . Family Wages: The Roles of Wives and Mothers in Working-Class Survival Strategies, 1880-1930. Labor History, 54(1), 1-20.
  • . . Review of Dorothy Sue Cobble, Sex of Class: Women Transforming American Labor. Labor History, 51(3), 506-507.
  • . . “Too Hard on the Women, Especially”: Striking Together for Women Workers' Issues. International Review of Social History, 51(3), 441-462.
  • . . Narratives Serially Constructed and Lived: Ethnicity in Cross-Gender Strikes, 1887-1903. International Review of Social History, 44(supplement, Eileen Boris and Angélique Janssens, eds., 'complicating categories: gender, class, race and ethnicity'), 33-52.

Book Chapters

  • . . 'To Sit Among Men': Skill, Gender, and Craft Unionism in the Early American Federation of Labor. In Labor Histories: Class, Politics, and the Working-Class Experience. University of Illinois Press.
  • . . 'Give the Boys a Trade': Gender and Job Choice in the 1890s. In Work Engendered: Toward a New History of American Labor. Cornell University Press.

Policy Report

Book Sections

  • . . Afterword.
  • . . Clerical Workers.
  • . . Craft Unions.
  • . . "AFL-CIO".

Professional activities

  • NA. Presented to ILR Alumni Association NYC Chapter. On-line. 2022.
  • Welcome and Introduction of State Senator Jackson. Presented to The Worker Institute. zoom. 2020.
  • Discussant. Presented to Worker Institute. Buffalo. 2018.
  • Rivers, Railroads, and Trucks: A historical look at technology and employment relations in the logging industry. Presented to Industry Studies Association. Seattle, WA. 2018.
  • “Railways in the Woods: Technology and Changes in Employment on the Olympic Peninsula, 1916-1935”. Presented to Industry Studies Association. Seattle, WA. 2018.
  • Family Business. Presented to History of Capitalism. Cornell University, Ithaca, New York. 2016.
  • Advancing Worker Rights: 80 Years After Passage of the NLRA, Chair. Presented to LERA. 2015.
  • "A Saint in FDR's Cabinet? The Life and Labor of Frances Perkins". Presented to CURW, Episcopal Church. Anabel Taylor Founder's Room. 2015.
  • Following the Women: Working Women, the Labor Movement, and Economic Justice. Presented to Labor and Working-Class History Association. New York city. 2013.
  • “Organizing Contingent Labor: Lessons from the Past and Struggles of the Future”. Presented to LAWCHA. New York city. 2013.
  • "Work-Family Issues in Historical Perspective". Presented to Cornell University. Barton Hall, Ithaca, NY. 2013.
  • Women in the Labor Movement--"What Would Mother Jones Say?". Presented to NYS Public Employees Federation. Syracuse, NY. 2012.
  • "'Let the Indian do it': Family, Ethnicity, and Industrial Paternalism in the Pacific Northwest, 1917-1931". Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 2012.
  • "Defining Ourselves as 'Other': Immigration, Class and the American 20th Century". Presented to Cornell Prison Education Program. Auburn State Penitentiary. 2011.
  • "Defining Ourselves as 'Other': Immigration, Class and the American 20th Century". Presented to Cornell University. Ithaca. 2011.
  • Panel Comment, “Hands Across the Border: Forging Identities and Intimacies in Transnational Service Work”. Amherst, Massachusetts. 2011.
  • Feminism, Low Wage Workers, and Organized Labor. Presented to Murphy Center . New York city. 2011.
  • Labor Themes: A Cultural and Historical Perspective. Presented to NYSUT. Saratoga Springs. 2010.
  • Married to the Union? Family responsibilities and labor activism, 1880-1930. Presented to ILR School/Queen Mary College University of London. Ithaca, NY. 2010.
  • Moderator. Presented to The History Center. The History Center, Ithaca, NY. 2010.
  • The Lens of the past. Presented to CSEA/AFSCME/Carroll Associates. Miami, Florida. 2010.
  • “Crisis and Oppportunity: Parallels and Possible Lessons. Presented to ILR ULI. Ithaca. 2009.

Honors and Awards

  • Cornell Class of 2017 Faculty Award, Cornell University 2017 Class Council.
  • Best Article Published in Labor History on a U.S. Topic, 2013, Labor History.
  • MacIntyre Award for Exemplary Teaching, ILR School.
Edit this profile if it's yours.