Katherine Pollak Ellickson (September 1, 1905 – December 28, 1996) was an American labor economist. For much of her career, she worked for the
Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO). During the Kennedy administration, she was executive director of the
Presidential Commission on the Status of Women
The President's Commission on the Status of Women (PCSW) was established to advise the President of the United States on issues concerning the status of women. It was created by John F. Kennedy's signed December 14, 1961. In 1975 it became th ...
and helped create the
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is a federal agency that was established via the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to administer and enforce civil rights laws against workplace discrimination. The EEOC investigates discrimination ...
.
Early life
Katherine Pollak was born on September 1, 1905, in Yonkers, New York, and grew up in Manhattan in the midst of the
Ethical Culture
The Ethical movement, also referred to as the Ethical Culture movement, Ethical Humanism or simply Ethical Culture, is an ethical, educational, and religious movement that is usually traced back to Felix Adler (1851–1933). movement. Her father, Francis D. Pollak, was a lawyer as was her uncle, Walter Heilprin Pollak; her mother, Inez Cohen, was an activist involved in labor, feminist, and consumer issues. She attended the
Ethical Culture School
Ethical Culture Fieldston School (ECFS), also referred to as Fieldston, is a private independent school in New York City. The school is a member of the Ivy Preparatory School League. The school serves approximately 1,700 students with 480 facul ...
, a private preparatory school in New York City, and studied economics at Vassar, where she earned an A.B. degree in 1926. She pursued graduate studies at
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
.
Career
Ellickson started her career in the workers' education movement, teaching and writing for
Brookwood Labor College
Brookwood Labor College (1921 to 1937) was a labor college located at 109 Cedar Road in Katonah, New York, United States. Founded as Brookwood School in 1919 and established as a college in 1921, it was the first residential labor college in the co ...
(1929–1932), the
Bryn Mawr Summer School for Women Workers in Industry
The Bryn Mawr Summer School for Women Workers in Industry (1921–1938) was a residential summer school program that brought approximately 100 young working women—mostly factory workers with minimal education—to the Bryn Mawr College campus, i ...
(1927–1949), and the
Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) Southern teachers' training school in 1934. She also did field work in the textile mills of the South and the coal mining camps of West Virginia.
In the late 1930s she worked for the fledgling
Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) as assistant to director
John Brophy at the national office, doing organizational work, research, and speechwriting.
She also worked as an associate economist for the
National Labor Relations Board
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is an independent agency of the federal government of the United States with responsibilities for enforcing U.S. labor law in relation to collective bargaining and unfair labor practices. Under the Na ...
. She became the CIO's Associate Director of Research in 1942, serving as liaison to the federal
Bureau of Labor Statistics and representing the CIO on government advisory committees. After the merger with the
American Federation of Labor (AFL) in 1955, she became assistant director of the
AFL–CIO
The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL–CIO) is the largest federation of unions in the United States. It is made up of 56 national and international unions, together representing more than 12 million ac ...
's Social Security Department. Later she recalled that the AFL–CIO was much less welcoming to women than the CIO had been.
In 1961 she was appointed by president
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination ...
to the
President's Commission on the Status of Women
The President's Commission on the Status of Women (PCSW) was established to advise the President of the United States on issues concerning the status of women. It was created by John F. Kennedy's signed December 14, 1961. In 1975 it became the ...
and served as its executive director under former first lady
Eleanor Roosevelt
Anna Eleanor Roosevelt () (October 11, 1884November 7, 1962) was an American political figure, diplomat, and activist. She was the first lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945, during her husband President Franklin D. Roosevelt's four ...
and assistant secretary of labor
Esther Peterson from 1963 to 1965. She also helped create the federal
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is a federal agency that was established via the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to administer and enforce civil rights laws against workplace discrimination. The EEOC investigates discrimination ...
(EEOC). She worked briefly for the
United States Department of Health and Human Services
The United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is a cabinet-level executive branch department of the U.S. federal government created to protect the health of all Americans and providing essential human services. Its motto is ...
before retiring in 1967.
Personal life
Pollak married John Chester Ellickson, an agrarian economist, in 1933. The couple had two children and three grandchildren. Ellickson recalled in a 1976 interview that as a woman in the labor movement, being middle-class helped her career: early on, she was able to gain valuable experience working in low-paying positions, and later, she could afford to hire help to raise her children and nurse her husband through tuberculosis.
Ellickson's husband died in 1970. She died on December 28, 1996, at the White Sands retirement community in La Jolla, California.
She was inducted posthumously into Labor's International Hall of Fame.
Publications
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References
External links
Ellickson speaking to West Virginia mine workers, 1931.Jacqueline Kennedy, Katherine Ellickson, and Jane Hoey, 1960.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ellickson, Katherine Pollak
1905 births
1996 deaths
Labor economists
Trade unionists from New York (state)
American feminists
American women's rights activists
People from Yonkers, New York
American women trade unionists