Born: Unknown, United States (assumed)
Died: Unknown
Country most active: United States
Also known as: NA
The following is excerpted from Infinite Women creator Allison Tyra’s book Uncredited: Women’s Overlooked, Misattributed, and Stolen Work.
Professor Lea Puymbroeck Miller became a symbol of [the impact of anti-nepotism rules on women’s careers] in 1938. Employed at the University of Washington, Miller was fired when the university adopted such a policy. The timing, in the midst of the US’s Great Depression, helped fuel a media storm that pitted women’s rights advocates against those who saw women in the workforce as stealing jobs that should belong to men. It was not new in the area, however—the city of Seattle and King County had implemented similar laws two years earlier. Indeed, the university’s own board of regents had decreed in 1928 that “no more wives of faculty men should be added to the faculty or office forces.” Edward and Theresa McMahon, whose employment pre-dated the rule and therefore was exempt, refused to concede. Theresa was both a longtime economics instructor and an outspoken advocate for labour rights. She publicly alleged that shortly after the policy’s inception, the university president had told her husband that while the ruling was “not [made] retroactive, [Mrs. McMahon’s] resignation would be welcome.” Miller, meanwhile, had been overseas when the policy was enacted in 1936 and, unknowingly, married another professor in 1938. This led to her being forced out after having taught at the university for seven years, in violation of her contract. Any argument about avoiding favouritism was also simply ridiculous, as Miller was an art professor, while her husband taught zoology. Her boss, Walter Isaacs, also pled her case, arguing that her dismissal would cause academic detriment to the institution, because she was a highly regarded and established professor—but also that it would cost more to replace her, as her wages were significantly lower than a male professor of her qualifications would earn.