Frieds S. Miller

FSM, labor administrator and official, was born at La Crosse, Wisconsin, on April 16, 1889. Her parents, James Gordon, a lawyer, and Erna Segelke, died when FSM was small, leaving Frieda and her younger sister Elsie to be reared by their grandmother, Augusta (Mrs. Charles) Segelke of La Crosse. FSM received her BA from Milwaukee-Downer College (later Lawrence University), Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1911; she then spent four years doing graduate work in economics, sociology, political science, and law at the University of Chicago, but did not complete a degree.

FSM spent the next several years at a variety of jobs, including secretary to the Philadelphia branch of the Women's Trade Union League (1918-1923) where she met her lifelong friend Pauline Newman. In 1929 Frances Perkins appointed FSM director of the Division of Women in Industry and Minimum Wage at the New York State Department of Labor; she was instrumental in the passage of New York's Minimum Wage Law for Women and Minors in 1933. In 1938 Governor Herbert Lehman appointed FSM Industrial Commissioner of New York, a post she held until 1943 when she left to become special assistant for labor to John C. Winant, U. S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom.

Late in 1944 FSM became director of the Women's Bureau of the U.S. Department of Labor. Her major responsibility was the reintegration of women into the economy after their displacement by veterans returning to their pre-war jobs. She conducted studies to examine labor laws and vocational improvements in the conditions of women in the labor force. A Roosevelt appointee, FSM left the Women's Bureau in 1953 at the request of President Eisenhower.

During the 1950s and 1960s FSM focused on international labor issues. As early as 1936 she had begun representing the U.S. at International Labor Organization conferences; after leaving the Women's Bureau she went to work full-time for the ILO and conducted several major surveys in Asia and the Middle East of working conditions and opportunities for women and children. For a short period (1957-1958) she also represented the International Alliance of Women at the United Nations.

In the early 1960s FSM became UN representative for the European organization the International Union for Child welfare, conducting an International Child Welfare Survey (#227) and participating in various UNICEF projects. She left the UN in 1967 at the age of 78.

During her long professional life FSM was affiliated with a number of other organizations concerned with women's role in the economy, including the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, the International Council of Women, the Women's Trade Union League, and the International Ladies Garment Worker's Union. She was much in demand both as a speaker and a writer and maintained an international reputation in her field. Her contributions to women and labor were recognized in 1940 when she was awarded an honorary doctorate of humane letters by Russell Sage College.

FSM never married, but in 1923 while in Germany she adopted a daughter, Elisabeth. For most of her life she lived in New York, maintaining a summer home in Connecticut and later one in Pennsylvania; she spent the last four years of her life in a New York City nursing home where she died on July 21, 1973.

Labor administrator and official (Milwaukee-Downer College, A.B., 1911), Miller was appointed director of the Division of Women in Industry and Minimum Wage at the N.Y. State Dept. of Labor in 1929. In 1938 she was appointed Industrial Commissioner of N.Y., from 1943 to 1944 she was special assistant on labor to the U.S. ambassador in London, and 1944 to 1953, director of the Women's Bureau. She then worked for the International Labour Organisation conducting surveys of working conditions and opportunities for women and children in Asia and the Middle East, represented the International Alliance of Women at the United Nations, 1957-1958, and was UN representative in the International Union for Child Welfare, a European organization, until 1967. Never married, Miller adopted a daughter in 1923, and for many years lived in N.Y.C. with labor union official Pauline Newman.

Labor administrator and official (Milwaukee-Downer College, A.B., 1911), Miller was appointed director of the Division of Women in Industry and Minimum Wage at the New York State Dept. of Labor in 1929. In 1938 she was appointed Industrial Commissioner of New York, from 1943 to 1944 she was special assistant on labor to the U.S. ambassador in London, and 1944 to 1953, director of the Women's Bureau. She then worked for the International Labour Organisation conducting surveys of working conditions and opportunities for women and children in Asia and the Middle East, represented the International Alliance of Women at the United Nations, 1957-1958, and was United Nations representative in the International Union for Child Welfare, a European organization, until 1967. Never married, Miller adopted a daughter in 1923, and for many years lived in New York City with labor union official Pauline Newman.