Swift, Kate

Casey Geddes Miller was born on February 26, 1919 in Toledo, Ohio. Miller was a feminist author, editor, activist and philanthropist. One of three girls, she attended St. Margaret’s School until 1936. Miller graduated with a philosophy major from Smith College in 1940 and soon began working in the publishing field as an editorial assistant. Miller also served in the women's section of the U.S. Naval Reserve as a part of the Women Appointed (later Accepted) for Volunteer Emergency Service, often referred to by its acronym, WAVES. She became the curriculum editor of the publishing house of the Episcopal Church, Seabury Press. Miller worked as a freelance editor while living in Greenwich, Connecticut. By 1970, she formed an editorial partnership with Kate Swift and began what would become both a successful business, and the inspiration for a proliferation of published work together.

Kate Swift was born December 9, 1923 in Yonkers, New York. Swift was a feminist editor, author, linguist, and activist known for her influence on the critical modification of language to recognize and include women. She studied at Connecticut College and University of North Carolina. Swift worked for several years as an editorial assistant and a writer for various organizations. Swift began her influential work with Casey Miller in 1970 when they formed a freelance editorial partnership. They write, “We have an editorial partnership known as Miller/Swift, and it was out of our work as freelance editors that we became interested on the effect of language on women” ( Words and Women ). The pursuit of this interest soon became the focus of both Swift's and Miller’s careers.

As they edited vast numbers of articles, textbooks, and manuscripts, Miller and Swift identified a theme in much of the work they read: sexist language and stereotypes. When publishing their first article on this subject (in the first issue of Ms. magazine) they realized the unlimited potential of this unexplored field of linguistics. They both began to focus their scholarly work on the underlying sexism inherent in published work and in turn challenged the use of vocabulary that reinforced misogynist messages. Publishing articles in contemporary venues such as New York Magazine and The Washington Post, Swift and Miller were overwhelmed with demand to produce their first book, Words and Women . Collaborating with countless women and organizations, they continued on their overlapping projects to create shifts in the English language to include and prioritize the presence of and concerns of women, producing a great deal of original research that eventually contributed to their groundbreaking 1980 work, The Handbook of Nonsexist Writing .

As feminists in theory and practice, Miller and Swift devoted themselves to women’s freedom through language. Miller and Swift together contributed to the growing community of women writers reviewing one another’s work and creating academic and social space for feminist voices to be heard and legitimated. Miller struggled with her health for the last years of her life. She died of complications related to Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) on January 5th, 1997. Kate Swift died on May 7, 2011 of cancer.

From the guide to the Casey Miller and Kate Swift papers, 1919-2000, (Special Collections and University Archives, University of Oregon Libraries)