GSU Library Research Guides: Women's Collections: Subject Guide: Women at Work

Women at Work: Manuscript Collections

9to5 Atlanta Working Women Records, 1972-2009 (L2005-08)
The records, 1972-2009 (bulk 1984-2006), of non-profit organization 9to5 Atlanta Working Women consist primarily of correspondence, grant and funding proposals, meeting minutes and agendas, surveys and reports, membership records, campaign and project materials, photographs, reference files, and audio-visual material. The collection documents the major campaigns and activities of 9to5 while also detailing the day to day functioning of a major non-profit organization. The collection contains an assortment of reference/statistics files, including news clippings, reports and surveys, factsheets, pamphlets, booklets, legislative documents, and organizational resources related to non-profits and social organizing as well as major campaigns and legislation. Although the collection documents primarily the work of and interactions between the national board and Atlanta 9to5, the collection also includes administrative and campaign files from other state chapters.

Anne Deeley Papers, 1975-1983; undated (W026)
Anne Deeley has been a champion of women's rights both as an activist and a businesswoman. The Anne Deeley papers, 1975-1983, include material from two scrapbooks (dismantled for preservation purposes) of photographs, contact sheets, printed material (flyers, newsletters, newspaper clippings, pamphlets, invitations, programs and registration forms), and letters pertaining to Deeley-Fenton and Associates, Inc., the Atlanta chapter of the Feminist Action Alliance, women and work, and career training.

Lynn Hesse Papers, 1985; 2011 (W104)
Lynn Hesse is a former policewoman of DeKalb County, Georgia, as well as a playwright, dancer and short story author. The collection primarily documents the sex discrimination case of plaintiff Marsha Cofield, police officer, in 1985 against DeKalb County Government, but also includes some of Hesse's artistic works and her biography and resume.

Maria Getzinger Jones Papers, circa 1972-1997 (W021)
Maria Getzinger Jones' political activism and interest in equal rights originated in her work experiences, as well as from the inspiration of local and national feminists and activists. The Maria Getzinger Jones papers consists of artifacts (bumper stickers, jewelry, lapel pins, a letter opener, name tags, a paperweight, pinback buttons, a ribbon), graphic materials (photographs, postcards and posters), and manuscript materials (correspondence, news clippings, notes, printed materials and publications) related to Jones' activism and interest in equal rights and feminism, through organizations such as Atlanta NOW and CLUW.

Susan A. Millen Papers, 1979-1998 (bulk 1980-1988) (W011)
Susan A. Millen has been an editor (Journal of Labor, 1979-1985), journalist, photographer, public relations specialist and communications consultant as well as a special education teacher and has been very active in organizations involving women's politics. The collection is organized to reflect Millen's activities with the National Women's Political Caucus (NWPC), the Georgia Women's Political Caucus (GWPC), and the Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW) from 1980-1988.

Women at Work: Oral Histories

Anne Deeley, interviewed by Janet Paul, May 20, 1999
Born in 1948, Anne Deeley earned a B.A. in psychology and a M.A. in occupational psychology at the University of Kentucky before making her home in Atlanta, Georgia. She has been a champion of women's rights both as an activist and a businesswoman. In 1971 Deeley was hired by the General Services Administration to be an Equal Opportunity Specialist and her job was to audit companies to ensure government contractors hired minorities and women. Deeley served as president of the Atlanta chapter of the Feminist Action Alliance, Inc., and as Steering Committee chairwoman in 1975. As a partner of Deeley-Fenton & Associates, Inc., an Atlanta-based career consultant firm, she was a frequent speaker at regional and national conferences, meetings, and seminars. In 1983 she was selected as one of the Outstanding Young People of Atlanta. As of 2000, Deeley was owner of Deeley Trimble & Company. She continues to volunteer for community organizations.

Sarah Butler, interviewed by Sue Millen, October 23, 2004
Sarah Butler was born in Atlanta, Georgia. The fourth of six children, her mother was a homemaker and her father was a barber. She graduated from the Girl's High School of Atlanta in 1939, and later attended Georgia Evening College, leaving in 1949 to marry Bob Butler. Butler had two children, and quit her work at Sears Roebuck to take care of them. Once the children were grown, Butler began her 18-year association with the labor movement, and in particular, the AFL-CIO. A member of the Office and Professional Employees Union, Butler was also involved with ERA Georgia, Inc., NOW, AARP, Southwest Atlantans for Progress, her PTA, and the Democratic Party. While her husband was president of the Atlanta Labor Council, she served as the secretary of the council. Soon after she retired, Butler was inducted into the Labor Hall of Fame.

Jean Davis, interviewed by Sue Millen, January 22, 2005
Born in the segregated South to politically active parents, Jean Davis became politically aware as a young girl in Newnan, Georgia. Her early aspiration was to work as a missionary in Africa but instead, she attended Morris Brown College and taught public school in Atlanta. As a student at Morris Brown, Davis was involved in the Civil Rights Movement and participated in boycotts of Rich’s Department Store and sit-ins at Woolworth’s. Davis also worked with the A. Philip Randolph Institute as well as the Georgia AFL-CIO and the National AFL-CIO. Through her work with different union organizations and her activism in civil rights, Davis became interested in the Equal Rights Amendment. She felt strongly that the Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW) was necessary in order to bring union women on board with the ERA and also to establish an organization that would place women in leadership positions. In addition to her work with the ERA, Davis worked on a number of campaigns from local school boards to notable politicians and continues the struggle for human rights.

Maria Getzinger Jones, interviewed by Charlene Ball, June 8, 1998
Maria Getzinger was born in 1919 into a German-American family in Woodcliff, South Georgia, where her father owned a cotton farm. In 1936, after graduating from high school, she spent two years in Germany with her father's family, then returned to the United States where she lived for a year on the family farm. In 1939, she took her first job at the Curtis Printing Company in Atlanta, Georgia, where she met her future husband Charles Jones, and where she joined the International Typographical Union -- the first non-discriminatory union that paid men and women the same salaries. In the late 1940's Jones and her husband transferred to the printing department of Park & Baird law firm in Los Angeles. Until her retirement in 1985, Maria Getzinger Jones worked in leading print shops such as Curtis, Stein, and Darby printing companies. Raised a Roman Catholic, Jones joined the Unitarian Universalist Church. Her political activism and interest in equal rights originated in her work experiences, as well as from the inspiration of local and national feminists and activists. In the late 1960's Jones became an early member of Atlanta NOW and was a founding member of the Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW). In the 1970's she served in various capacities and actively participated in conferences and events held by both NOW and CLUW, and in 1974 she represented the International Typographical Union on the CLUW National Coordinating Committee. Maria Getzinger Jones continued to be active as a member of NOW and other feminist organizations, attending the 1998 and 2000 NOW conferences and taking part in the events surrounding the 150th anniversary of the Seneca Falls Declaration. Jones passed away in August 2005.

Lynn Hesse, interviewed by Janet Paul, September 23, 2020 and Mary Riddle, February 2, 2012
Lynn Hesse is a former policewoman of Dekalb County, Georgia, as well as a playwright, dancer, and short story author. Born in 1951 in Chanute, Kansas, she moved with her parents to the Buckhead area of Atlanta when she was a pre-teenager. After reading The Feminist Mystique by Betty Friedan at the approximate age of 15, she self-identified as a feminist. Hesse graduated through Clayton County Academy and went to work for Georgia State University as a police officer (post-certified) in circa 1977, and subsequently became a DeKalb County police officer, rising through the ranks of Master Officer and Field Training Officer to Sergeant. During her tenure as a Dekalb County Police Officer, she was denied her application for promotional testing and her compensation for arrests was diverted to other male officers. She and several other female officers were equally discriminated against. When a class action suit could not be organized, policewoman Marsha Cofield filed an individual law suit, in which Lynne Hesse was actively involved. Cofield won her case. Following her law enforcement career, Hesse has focused on her artistic pursuits which include dance and writing. In 1996, she was graduated (cum laude) in Dance from Georgia State University. She has created an "oral history performed in dance," and play she wrote, based on her own short story, was staged at Emory's Schwartz Center.

Susan A. Millen, interviewed by Janet Paulk, July 7 and 9, 1999
Susan Ann Millen, activist, journalist, and producer, was born in Aurora, Illinois in 1951. She attended Southern Illinois University in Carbondale (journalism; BS, 1972), and Columbia College in Chicago (photography; BFA, 1978), after which she moved to Atlanta. Millen has been an editor (Journal of Labor, 1979-1985), journalist, photographer, public relations specialist and communications consultant as well as a special education teacher and has been very active in organizations involving women's politics. She was president of the Georgia chapter and a board member of the National Woman's Party (1981-1984), an organizing member and first vice-president of the Atlanta chapter of the Coalition of Labor Union Women (1983-1985), and an officer of the Georgia Women's Political Caucus (1986-1990). In addition, she coordinated a Political Skills Workshop (1987) and the Georgia Women and the Law Conference (1987) for the GWPC; she produced a GWPC television series on prime cable that began in 1987; was a National Women's Political Caucus officer (1989); and was a board member of ERA Georgia, Inc. as well as editor of its Newsletter. Millen continues to be a community activist and teaches at Tucker High School in Dekalb County, Georgia. In 2004, she and her class were selected as an AT&T CARES Youth Service Action Award.