Assistant Teaching Professor
Ph.D., History, Wayne State University, 2019.
M.A., History, Wayne State University,
2013.
B.A., History and Art History, University
of Michigan-Dearborn, 2010.
Modern United States
Gender
Labor
Amanda Walter joined the Department of History in 2019. In 2019, Walter earned her Ph.D. from Wayne State University in Detroit. Her dissertation, 鈥溾�業鈥檝e Always Had a Voice. Now I鈥檓 Going to Use It!鈥�: The Working Women鈥檚 Movement and Clerical Unionism in Higher Education,鈥� shows how clerical workers, influenced by the working women鈥檚 movement, sought to address their problems through unionization starting in the 1970s. Despite the conflicted history of the labor movement and women鈥檚 rights, unions slowly recognized the opportunity to organize women and the largely non-union clerical sector, both to address workers鈥� needs and to shore up losses. Through an examination of clerical organizing campaigns in higher education, she contends that unions had to adopt new and diverse organizing styles to meet a new constituency of women clericals. The working women鈥檚 movement had a tremendous impact on the labor movement鈥檚 efforts in this sector, including improving organizing methods, identifying what workplaces would serve as targets for new organizing campaigns, and expanding what issues should be prioritized in campaigns and contracts. Walter is currently working on expanding her dissertation into a book.
As a member of an interdisciplinary working group on a grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Walter helped analyze existing research on the question of how to increase the civic and political participation of women, especially in developing countries, and the risks women face to participation. This work shows the multitude of barriers women face to civic and political participation due to their gender. The group completed a white paper to support the expansion of efforts to encourage women鈥檚 political participation internationally.
Walter is currently also working on a collaborative research project on women鈥檚 occupational health, focusing on the emergence of the field and fetal protection policies.
Walter, Amanda, and Elizabeth Faue. 鈥淩esponding to the Shadow of Tragedy: Jeanne Stellman and the Work of the Women鈥檚 Occupational Health Resource Center.鈥� Journal of Women鈥檚 History (Spring 2022).
Gerring, Nicole, Kristin Eckert, Kyu-Nahm Jun, Matt Lacouture, Sharon Lean, Juan Liu, and Amanda Walter. 鈥淪trengthening Women鈥檚 Civic and Political Participation in the Developing World: A Synthesis of the Scholarly Literature.鈥� Journal of International Women鈥檚 Studies 21 (August 2021).
Cassedy, Ellen, Amanda Lauren Walter, and Karen Nussbaum. 鈥淥rganizing 9to5.鈥� The Forge: Organizing Strategy and Practice (April 2021).
Faue, Elizabeth, Josiah Rector, and Amanda Walter. 鈥溾�楩ix the Workplace, Not the Worker鈥�: Labour Feminism and the Shifting Grounds of Equality in the U.S. Workplace.鈥� Labour History, no. 119 (November 2020): 95-117.
Walter, Amanda. 鈥淩ights and Respect: The Working Women鈥檚 Movement鈥檚 Influence on Clerical Unionization in the United States.鈥� Journal of Labour and Society 22, no. 2 (2019): 381-397.
Eckert, Kristin, Nicole Gerring, Kyu-Nahm Jun, Matt Lacouture, Sharon Lean, Juan Liu, and Amanda Walter. Strengthening Women鈥檚 Civic and Political Participation: A Synthesis of the Scholarly Literature. Washington, D.C.: United States Agency for International Development, 2017.
鈥淐hanging Tactics for Changing Times: SEIU Clerical Organizing in Higher Education,鈥� Our Daily Work/Our Daily Lives Brown Bag Series, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, January 2020.
鈥淎lliances in Higher Education Organizing: Faculty, Students, and Staff at Cornell University.鈥� Social Science History Association Annual Conference, Chicago, Illinois, November 2019.
鈥淯nderstanding Workplace Risk through a Gendered Lens.鈥� Continuing the Struggle, The International Labor Organization (ILO) Centenary and the Future of Global Workers Rights, Georgetown University, Washington D.C., November 2019.
鈥淢anagement Consultants in the Academy: Clerical Organizing at Boston University.鈥� Labor and Working-Class History Association Conference, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, May/June 2019.
鈥橝t Work, At Home, Women Count:鈥� Jeanne Stellman and the Work of the Women鈥檚 Occupational Health Resource Center.鈥� Social Science History Association Annual Conference, Phoenix, Arizona, November 2018.
鈥淭hey Just Use Your Mind, and You Never Get Credit鈥�: 9 to 5鈥檚 Impact on the Working Women鈥檚 Movement,鈥� North American Labor History Conference, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, October 2017.
鈥淕ender Quotas Bring Risk and Rewards,鈥� Strengthening Women's Civic and Political Participation, Women's History Month Event, President鈥檚 Commission on the Status of Women, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, March 2017.