Joyce Hannah Dannen Miller (June 19, 1928 – June 30, 2012) was an advocate for women in the labor movement, and a founding member of the

Coalition of Labor Union Women The Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization of trade union women affiliated with the AFL-CIO. The CLUW is a bridging organization that seeks to create connections between the feminist movement and the labor ...

. A vice-president of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, she was the first woman elected to the executive board of the American Federation of Labor – Congress of Industrial Organizations ( AFL-CIO).

Early life and education

Born Hannah Joyce Dannen in Chicago in 1928, her mother was a teacher at the Spalding school, "Chicago's first public school exclusively for children with disabilities," and her father the owner of a shoe store on Chicago's West Side. She attended the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

, earning a bachelor's degree in 1950 and a master's degree in social sciences and education in 1951.

Career

Unable to find a professional union job despite her education, she took a secretarial position with the

Cooperative League of America The National Cooperative Business Association (NCBA) is a United States membership organization for cooperatives, which are businesses that are jointly owned and democratically controlled. The association was founded in 1916 as the Cooperative L ...

. Her brother is Avrum H. Dannen, esq. She married Jay A. Miller, who also worked for unions, in 1952 (they divorced in 1965). She had three children: Joshua, Adam, and Rebecca. She became education director for the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America in 1962, and later rose to vice-president. She helped set up day care, legal assistance and college scholarship programs for union members and their children. She was a founding member of the

(CLUW) in 1974, and later served as its president. In 1980 she was the first woman to be elected to the executive board of the AFL-CIO. President

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...

in 1993 appointed her the executive director of the Glass Ceiling Commission established by the

Civil Rights Act of 1991 The Civil Rights Act of 1991 is a United States labor law, passed in response to United States Supreme Court decisions that limited the rights of employees who had sued their employers for discrimination. The Act represented the first effort since ...

to study the barriers to the advancement of women and minorities in large corporations.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Miller, Joyce D. 1928 births 2012 deaths University of Chicago alumni Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America people American women trade unionists 21st-century American women Vice presidents of the AFL–CIO