The Civil Rights History Project: Survey of Collections and Repositories

Jean Tepperman papers

Repository: Harvard University. Radcliffe Institute. Schlesinger Library

Collection Description (CRHP): Transcripts of interviews with clerical workers, notes, questionnaires, etc., of Jean Tepperman, poet, teacher, writer, and secretary . . . . This collection consists of 51 transcripts of interviews with office workers conducted by JT during the winter of 1974-75 in preparation for her book, Not Servants, Not Machines: Office Workers Speak Out (Boston: Beacon Press, 1975); notes on the interviews, notes without transcripts, questionnaires, and leaflets are also included. All the interviewees except #3 and 18 are women; they ranged in age from their twenties to their eighties. Many were working in offices in the Boston area; they were employed in various kinds of companies and institutions, including telecommunications, insurance, and publishing companies, banks, hospitals, universities, and municipalities. The interviews contain descriptions of working conditions, pay inequities, race discrimination, sexual harassment and discrimination, and union organizing efforts.

The full names of the interviewees have been expunged on the research copies of the interview transcripts. The originals are closed to research until January 1, 2035. Researchers must sign a special form stating that they will not try to identify, find, or contact any person mentioned in an interview, and that they will not use in any publication the correct name or initials of any person mentioned in an interview.

Date(s): 1974-1975

Digital Status: No

Extent: 1+1/2 file boxes

Finding Aid URL: http://oasis.lib.harvard.edu/oasis/deliver/deepLink?_collection=oasis&uniqueId=sch00939

Language: English

Rights (CRHP): Contact the repository which holds the collection for information on rights

Subjects:

Affirmative action programs
African American women--Employment
Discrimination in employment
Labor movement
Labor unions
Race discrimination
Women--Employment

Genres:

Interviews
Manuscripts
Transcripts