Betsy Wade Papers
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Abstract
Betsy Wade was a journalist who worked for many years for the New York Times, a member of the Newspaper Guild of New York, Local 3, and a founding member of New York Trade Union Women and of the Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW). The Betsy Wade Papers (dated 1966-1993) consists of materials created and collected by Wade documenting her career in journalism, her engagement with the Newspaper Guild of New York, and her involvement with labor organizing more broadly, with particular emphasis on gender discrimination. The collection also documents the activities and internal divisions within the Newspaper Guild of New York, Local 3.
Biographical Note
Betsy Wade (1929-2020) was a journalist and active member of the Newspaper Guild of New York, Local 3, as well as a founding member of New York Trade Union Women and of the Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW). Throughout her career, Wade was an active union organizer, serving as a shop steward, picket captain, and officer in the Newspaper Guild.
Wade joined The New York Times as a copy editor in 1956, making her the first woman to edit news for the publication. She was the first woman editor on the foreign copy desk, as well as the first woman deputy chief of the foreign copy desk, a position which she held during the Vietnam War.
In the fall of 1972, the Women's Studies Institute of Cornell University, in collaboration with the Region II Women's Bureau of the U.S. Department of Labor, held a meeting of labor union staff meetings to discuss issues concerning the role of women in unions. This group, which became known as New York Trade Union Women, began to meet monthly for "brown bag" lunches, and called the first New York Trade Union Women's Conference in January 1974.
CLUW was founded in March 1974 in Chicago, adopting four basic goals of action: to promote affirmative action in the workplace; to strengthen the role of women in unions; to organize unorganized women workers; and to increase the involvement of women in the political and legislative process. In 1974, Wade was one of seven plaintiffs in a successful class action suit against the New York Times for gender discrimination. In 1975, New York Trade Union Women became the New York City chapter of CLUW.
Wade was an active member of the Newspaper Guild of New York, and was nominated by petition both times she ran for the presidency of Local 3 (as-opposed to the union's more usual procedure in which a candidate is nominated by the local's Representative Assembly by a quorum of member representing a certain number of shops). Her election to her second term (which began in 1980) was challenged by the losing candidates, who forced a re-run of the election (supervised by the Department of Labor) in September 1982. Wade did not run for president in this election re-run; instead she ran for membership on the Local's Executive Committee. She and all the members of her insurgent Membership Slate were defeated in this election. In December 1982 Wade also ran unsuccessfully for the office of Local Executive Vice President. Wade also served three times as a regional president of the Guild's International. She ran unopposed for her first term (as was usual in elections for this position), but the elections for her next two terms were contested.
Sources:
Coalition of Labor Women. "About CLUW." 11 August 2008. http://www.cluw.org/about.html
Roth, Silke. Building Movement Bridges: The Coalition of Labor Union Women. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2003.
Columbia Journalism Alumni Journal, Winter 2002.
Arrangement
This collection is arranged into four series:
Series I. Coalition of Labor Women, 1972-1982
Series II. Photographs, 1978-1982
Series III. Newspaper Guild of New York, 1966-1984
Series IV. New York Walking Tours, 1979-1993
Scope and Contents
The Betsy Wade Papers (dated 1966-1993) consists of materials created and collected by Wade documenting her career in journalism, her engagement with the Newspaper Guild of New York, and her involvement with labor organizing more broadly, with particular emphasis on gender discrimination. The collection also documents the activities and internal divisions within the Newspaper Guild of New York, Local 3. Materials in this collection include photographs of demonstrations and other events; correspondence between Wade and other members of the Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW); administrative documents from the New York City CLUW chapter; subject files on occupational sexism and women's rights more broadly; and correspondence, meeting minutes, handwritten notes, and ephemera concerning Wade's involvement in the Newspaper Guild of New York.
Subjects
Organizations
Genres
People
Topics
Places
Donors
Conditions Governing Access
Materials are open without restrictions.
Conditions Governing Use
This collection is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use materials in the collection in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).
Preferred Citation
Identification of item, date; Betsy Wade Papers; WAG 020; box number; folder number or item identifier; Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, New York University.
Location of Materials
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Donated by Betsy Wade in 1982. The accession number associated with this gift is 1982.001. Wade donated an accretion of materials concerning the Newspaper Guild of New York in 1986; the accession number associated with this gift is 1995.004. Photographic materials were donated at a date that was not recorded; the accession numbers associated this collection are 1950.155 and 1995.004. In 2020, Wade donated an accretion of materials concerning labor history walking tours; the accession number associated with this gift is 2021.018.
About this Guide
Processing Information
Decisions regarding arrangement, description, and physical interventions for this collection prior to 2021 are unknown. In 2021, three discrete collections donated by Betsy Wade (Betsy Wade Photographs (PHOTOS 040), the Betsy Wade Files on the Coalition of Labor Union Women (WAG 020), and the Betsy Wade Files on the Newspaper Guild of New York (WAG 045)) were consolidated into a single collection to restore their shared provenance. The Betsy Wade Files on the Coalition of Labor Union Women were transferred to Series I of WAG 020, the Betsy Wade Photographs (PHOTOS 040) were transferred to Series II of WAG 020, and the the Betsy Wade Files on the Newspaper Guild of New York (WAG 045) were transferred to Series III of WAG 020. An accretion of materials concerning labor history walking tours was rehoused, and added to the collection as Series IV. The database records and online finding aids for PHOTOS 040 and WAG 045 were deleted, but researchers can refer to their file versions at the following addresses:
https://github.com/NYULibraries/findingaids_eads/commits/master/tamwag/photos_040.xml.
https://github.com/NYULibraries/findingaids_eads/commits/master/tamwag/wag_020.xml.
https://github.com/NYULibraries/findingaids_eads/commits/master/tamwag/wag_045.xml.