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Article: Glenda Gilmore, PhD, History Professor at Yale University

Article Group List / Diversity / Glenda Gilmore, PhD, History Professor at Yale University

Glenda Gilmore, PhD, History Professor at Yale University

Career Background: Affirmative Action Officer, Human Resources Adviser, Entrepreneur, Accountant, Teacher, and Historian

Current Status: Professor of History at Yale University

Author of Gender and Jim Crow : Women and the Politics of White Supremacy in North Carolina, 1896-1920

Q: Tell me a little about your background.

A: Well, I was an undergraduate from 1966 to 1970.  When I graduated, I didn't give much thought to a career.  I got married quickly because I thought my fiance was going to Vietnam.  It turns out he was sent to Parris Island instead.  From 1970 to 1973, I taught public school in a 90% black high school in the Sea Islands of South Carolina.

Q: What did you do after that?

A: I moved to North Carolina, worked in business for 15 years with two publicly held companies, [one of them being] a retail drug store chain. I was an affirmative action officer, convincing white male drug store managers that they should hire females and African Americans.  It was an uphill battle. 

Q: From an early age, you seem to have had a prevailing interest in race and gender.

A: Well, I grew up in the South.  When I went to teach, my students were all black.  I was confused about the history of racial inequality, but I was determined to do something about it.  And I thought I could do something about it in business.  I felt that way up until the early 1980s.  Then the political climate shifted [during the Reagan era].  There were many judicial reversals and it was hard to see if I was making any progress [in promoting racial equality] or if [my headway] was linear. 

~ Q: Why did you think it might be linear?

A: We were making real progress at the retail chain where I was an affirmative action officer.  Then the retail drug company was bought by a large corporation.  The managers weren't as interested in hiring minority candidates, so I decided to look elsewhere.  But by the time I left, there tons of women and African Americans in at all stages of the company.

Q: Did you ever encounter problems of sexual harassment?

A: I can honestly say that I never encountered sexual harassment.  [Then again,] it would have been awfully stupid of anyone to sexually harass the affirmative action person!  I did encounter sexism, which was limiting and debilitating.  Senior vice presidents calling me "honey" and that sort of thing.

Q: What was your next career venture?

A: I had my own company for awhile-a personnel company. [At that time] I was becoming increasingly disenchanted with not being able to control my own destiny.  I was angry about having to face a structure that would, frankly, outlast me.  I wanted to escape the rigidity. 

I knew from a very young age that I had to be financially responsible for myself-and I was.  I supported myself through college.  I never had a joint bank account.  At the same time, I always hedged my bets.  I always looked at the worst case scenario, and if I couldn't live with it, I wouldn't go through with the plan.  I'm cautious in many ways. 

Fortunately, my business worked out: it bought me time and security to do the things I really wanted to do.  I was 36 at the time that I decided to go back to school.  I was only able to do so because I had scaled back my lifestyle.  But many women can't do that, which is why they have trouble changing or starting careers. 

~ Q: What was it like going back to school?

A: I started part time-step by step.  At that time I had no idea I would end up with a PhD; and if you had told me I was going to eventually teach at Yale, I would have laughed.  All I knew was that I was interested in history, and specifically, the history of women and African Americans. 

>From the beginning, I loved studying history.  It was fun.  It was like falling in love.