Ruth Milkman
Encyclopedia
Ruth Milkman is a professor of sociology
at the University of California, Los Angeles
(UCLA), where she is also director of the UCLA Institute of Industrial Relations.
. Milkman obtained a bachelor's degree
in 1975 from Brown University
. She was awarded a Master of Arts
in sociology in 1977 and a Ph.D.
in sociology in 1981, both from the University of California, Berkeley
.
In 1981, Milkman was appointed an assistant professor, then associate professor, of sociology at Queens College and the CUNY Graduate Center
in New York City
. In 1986, she was a visiting lecturer in American labor history at the University of Warwick
in Coventry
, United Kingdom
, a visiting professor at the University of São Paulo
in São Paulo
, Brazil
in 1990, a visiting research scholar at Macquarie University
in Sydney
, Australia
in 1991, and a visiting research associate at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
in Paris
in 1993. She won an appointment as an associate professor at UCLA in 1988, where she is now a full professor of sociology.
She was appointed director of the UCLA Institute of Industrial Relations in 2001. From 2001 to 2004, Milkman also was director of the UC Institute for Labor and Employment prior to its restructuring as a research fund.
and labor history
. She has also published extensively on low-wage workers and the sociology of gender in the U.S. Milkman writes from a "new labor history
" perspective, and often uses socialism
as a theoretical framework.
One of Milkman's earliest published works, Women, Work and Protest: A Century of U.S. Women's Labor History, was widely praised for its cross-disciplinary focus and for highlighting the important role women played in the American labor movement. The book was cited for being "rich in the variety of detailed case material offered in exploring the experiences of women employed in many occupations and industries around the country. Also included are two excellent chapters on the role of on women's auxiliaries in strike initiatives of male unions." It is now considered a "classic work" in the field of labor studies. Her second major work, Farewell to the Factory: Autoworkers in the Late Twentieth Century, questioned the common assumption that technological changes are almost always negative for skilled and unskilled blue-collar workers, and was well-reviewed within the industrial relations and labor history academic communities.
In 2004, Milkman co-edited Rebuilding Labor: Organizing and Organizers in the New Union Movement with Kim Voss
. The book was highly influential within the American labor movement for its empirical nature and focus. As one reviewer noted, "Rebuilding Labor breaks new ground in providing rich empirical material and careful analysis for understanding the dynamics of contemporary labor organizing. The book as a whole is a very persuasive demonstration of the crucial value of systematic empirical research for the labor movement." Labor union activists pointed to the chapters by Bronfenbrenner
and Hickey, DiNardo and Lee, Sharpe, Penney and Lopez as important in improving organizing practices. The chapter by Daisy Rooks on the nature and culture of organizing work has also generated much discussion.
In 2006, Milkman released L.A. Story, a case study
of four organizing campaigns in Los Angeles, California
, which drew some remarkable conclusions. First, Milkman argues that emergence of relatively innovative unions such as the Service Employees International Union
(SEIU), UNITE HERE
and the United Food and Commercial Workers
from the conservative AFL-CIO
is as noteworthy as the creation of the Congress of Industrial Organizations
in 1935. Second, Milkman's analysis of four SEIU Los Angeles-area organizing campaigns concludes that the most effective organizing strategy is a top-down one. Milkman doesn't discount extensive worker involvement, but argues that it is less important than other studies have found. Third, Milkman argues that the primary factor in the failure of union organizing campaigns is lack of resources (money and staff) rather than employer opposition, legal factors or the failure to use or improper implementation of good organizing tactics.
L.A. Story elicited debate in the academic community and labor movement for two reasons. First, Milkman's conclusion about the top-down nature of effective union organizing flies in the face of the "new labor history
", which argues that workers should not only be the focus of academic research but in fact are the most important facet of the labor movement. In some ways, Milkman's conclusions are reminiscent of the institutionalist
and Hegelian historicist
perspective of older labor theorists such as Selig Perlman
, Philip Taft
and John R. Commons
. Milkman's findings also contradict to a significant degree the conclusions of other scholars such as Bronfenbrenner and Juravich
, who find that greater levels of worker involvement in union organizing can be equated with a higher degree of union success. For labor activists, Milkman's book is controversial because it seems to suggest that union democracy
is not an important factor in either union organizing success or in the revitalization of the labor movement.
Milkman co-authored a 2009 study of low-wage workers in New York City
, Los Angeles
, and Chicago
which found that these laborers are routinely denied overtime
pay and often illegally paid less than the minimum wage
.
She has served on the editorial board for a number of scholarly journals, including Feminist Studies, Politics and Society, the American Journal of Sociology, Gender and Society, International Labor and Working-Class History, Contemporary Sociology, the British Journal of Industrial Relations, Industrial Relations and Work and Occupations.
Her book, Gender at Work: The Dynamics of Job Segregation by Sex during World War II, won the 1987 Joan Kelly Memorial Prize in Women's History from the American Historical Association
(AHA). The Joan Kelly Memorial Prize draws more submissions than most other AHA competitions, with an estimated 45 to 70 books competing in any given year.
Sociology
Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...
at the University of California, Los Angeles
University of California, Los Angeles
The University of California, Los Angeles is a public research university located in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, USA. It was founded in 1919 as the "Southern Branch" of the University of California and is the second oldest of the ten campuses...
(UCLA), where she is also director of the UCLA Institute of Industrial Relations.
Education and career
Milkman's grandparents emigrated to the United States around 1910, and the family's last name was bestowed on them by an immigration official at Ellis IslandEllis Island
Ellis Island in New York Harbor was the gateway for millions of immigrants to the United States. It was the nation's busiest immigrant inspection station from 1892 until 1954. The island was greatly expanded with landfill between 1892 and 1934. Before that, the much smaller original island was the...
. Milkman obtained a bachelor's degree
Bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...
in 1975 from Brown University
Brown University
Brown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...
. She was awarded a Master of Arts
Master of Arts (postgraduate)
A Master of Arts from the Latin Magister Artium, is a type of Master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The M.A. is usually contrasted with the M.S. or M.Sc. degrees...
in sociology in 1977 and a Ph.D.
Doctor of Philosophy
Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...
in sociology in 1981, both from the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
.
In 1981, Milkman was appointed an assistant professor, then associate professor, of sociology at Queens College and the CUNY Graduate Center
CUNY Graduate Center
The Graduate Center of the City University of New York brings together graduate education, advanced research, and public programming to midtown Manhattan hosting 4,600 students, 33 doctoral programs, 7 master's programs, and 30 research centers and institutes...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. In 1986, she was a visiting lecturer in American labor history at the University of Warwick
University of Warwick
The University of Warwick is a public research university located in Coventry, United Kingdom...
in Coventry
Coventry
Coventry is a city and metropolitan borough in the county of West Midlands in England. Coventry is the 9th largest city in England and the 11th largest in the United Kingdom. It is also the second largest city in the English Midlands, after Birmingham, with a population of 300,848, although...
, United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, a visiting professor at the University of São Paulo
University of São Paulo
Universidade de São Paulo is a public university in the Brazilian state of São Paulo. It is the largest Brazilian university and one of the country's most prestigious...
in São Paulo
São Paulo
São Paulo is the largest city in Brazil, the largest city in the southern hemisphere and South America, and the world's seventh largest city by population. The metropolis is anchor to the São Paulo metropolitan area, ranked as the second-most populous metropolitan area in the Americas and among...
, Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
in 1990, a visiting research scholar at Macquarie University
Macquarie University
Macquarie University is an Australian public teaching and research university located in Sydney, with its main campus situated in Macquarie Park. Founded in 1964 by the New South Wales Government, it was the third university to be established in the metropolitan area of Sydney...
in Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
in 1991, and a visiting research associate at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
Centre national de la recherche scientifique
The National Center of Scientific Research is the largest governmental research organization in France and the largest fundamental science agency in Europe....
in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
in 1993. She won an appointment as an associate professor at UCLA in 1988, where she is now a full professor of sociology.
She was appointed director of the UCLA Institute of Industrial Relations in 2001. From 2001 to 2004, Milkman also was director of the UC Institute for Labor and Employment prior to its restructuring as a research fund.
Research focus
Milkman's research focus is on the sociology of work. She has a strong interest in the American labor movementTrade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
and labor history
Labor history (discipline)
Labor history is a broad field of study concerned with the development of the labor movement and the working class. The central concerns of labor historians include the development of labor unions, strikes, lockouts and protest movements, industrial relations, and the progress of working class and...
. She has also published extensively on low-wage workers and the sociology of gender in the U.S. Milkman writes from a "new labor history
New labor history
New labor history is a branch of labor history which focuses on the experiences of workers, women, and minorities in the study of history. It is heavily influenced by social history....
" perspective, and often uses socialism
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
as a theoretical framework.
One of Milkman's earliest published works, Women, Work and Protest: A Century of U.S. Women's Labor History, was widely praised for its cross-disciplinary focus and for highlighting the important role women played in the American labor movement. The book was cited for being "rich in the variety of detailed case material offered in exploring the experiences of women employed in many occupations and industries around the country. Also included are two excellent chapters on the role of on women's auxiliaries in strike initiatives of male unions." It is now considered a "classic work" in the field of labor studies. Her second major work, Farewell to the Factory: Autoworkers in the Late Twentieth Century, questioned the common assumption that technological changes are almost always negative for skilled and unskilled blue-collar workers, and was well-reviewed within the industrial relations and labor history academic communities.
In 2004, Milkman co-edited Rebuilding Labor: Organizing and Organizers in the New Union Movement with Kim Voss
Kim Voss
Kim Voss is a professor of sociology at the University of California, Berkeley whose main field of research is social movements and the American labor movement.-Education and career:...
. The book was highly influential within the American labor movement for its empirical nature and focus. As one reviewer noted, "Rebuilding Labor breaks new ground in providing rich empirical material and careful analysis for understanding the dynamics of contemporary labor organizing. The book as a whole is a very persuasive demonstration of the crucial value of systematic empirical research for the labor movement." Labor union activists pointed to the chapters by Bronfenbrenner
Kate Bronfenbrenner
Kate Bronfenbrenner is the Director of Labor Education Research at the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations. She is a leading authority on successful strategies in labor union organizing, and on the effects of outsourcing and offshoring on workers and worker rights.-Life...
and Hickey, DiNardo and Lee, Sharpe, Penney and Lopez as important in improving organizing practices. The chapter by Daisy Rooks on the nature and culture of organizing work has also generated much discussion.
In 2006, Milkman released L.A. Story, a case study
Case study
A case study is an intensive analysis of an individual unit stressing developmental factors in relation to context. The case study is common in social sciences and life sciences. Case studies may be descriptive or explanatory. The latter type is used to explore causation in order to find...
of four organizing campaigns in Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
, which drew some remarkable conclusions. First, Milkman argues that emergence of relatively innovative unions such as the Service Employees International Union
Service Employees International Union
Service Employees International Union is a labor union representing about 1.8 million workers in over 100 occupations in the United States , and Canada...
(SEIU), UNITE HERE
UNITE HERE
UNITE HERE is a labor union in the United States and Canada with more than 265,000 active members The union's members work predominantly in the hotel, food service, laundry, warehouse, and casino gaming industries...
and the United Food and Commercial Workers
United Food and Commercial Workers
The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union is a labor union representing approximately 1.3 million workers in the United States and Canada in many industries, including agriculture, health care, meatpacking, poultry and food processing, manufacturing, textile, G4S Security, chemical...
from the conservative AFL-CIO
AFL-CIO
The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, commonly AFL–CIO, is a national trade union center, the largest federation of unions in the United States, made up of 56 national and international unions, together representing more than 11 million workers...
is as noteworthy as the creation of the Congress of Industrial Organizations
Congress of Industrial Organizations
The Congress of Industrial Organizations, or CIO, proposed by John L. Lewis in 1932, was a federation of unions that organized workers in industrial unions in the United States and Canada from 1935 to 1955. The Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 required union leaders to swear that they were not...
in 1935. Second, Milkman's analysis of four SEIU Los Angeles-area organizing campaigns concludes that the most effective organizing strategy is a top-down one. Milkman doesn't discount extensive worker involvement, but argues that it is less important than other studies have found. Third, Milkman argues that the primary factor in the failure of union organizing campaigns is lack of resources (money and staff) rather than employer opposition, legal factors or the failure to use or improper implementation of good organizing tactics.
L.A. Story elicited debate in the academic community and labor movement for two reasons. First, Milkman's conclusion about the top-down nature of effective union organizing flies in the face of the "new labor history
New labor history
New labor history is a branch of labor history which focuses on the experiences of workers, women, and minorities in the study of history. It is heavily influenced by social history....
", which argues that workers should not only be the focus of academic research but in fact are the most important facet of the labor movement. In some ways, Milkman's conclusions are reminiscent of the institutionalist
Institutionalism
Institutionalism can refer to:* Old Institutionalism: An approach to the study of politics that focuses on formal institutions of government* New institutionalism: a social theory that focuses on developing a sociological view of institutions, the way they interact and the effects of institutions...
and Hegelian historicist
Historicism
Historicism is a mode of thinking that assigns a central and basic significance to a specific context, such as historical period, geographical place and local culture. As such it is in contrast to individualist theories of knowledges such as empiricism and rationalism, which neglect the role of...
perspective of older labor theorists such as Selig Perlman
Selig Perlman
Selig Perlman was an economist and labor historian at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.-Early life and education:Perlman was born in Białystok in Congress Poland in 1888...
, Philip Taft
Philip Taft
Philip Taft was a noted labor historian whose research focused on the labor history of the United States and the American Federation of Labor.POORLY WRITTEN NEEDS MUCH IMPROVEMENT-Early life:...
and John R. Commons
John R. Commons
John Rogers Commons was an American institutional economist and labor historian at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.-Biography:Born in Hollansburg, Ohio, John R. Commons had a religious upbringing which led him to be an advocate for social justice early in life...
. Milkman's findings also contradict to a significant degree the conclusions of other scholars such as Bronfenbrenner and Juravich
Tom Juravich
Tom Juravich is a professor of Labor Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He is also the director of the UMass Amherst Labor Relations and Research Center , and director of the LRRC's Union Leadership and Administration program....
, who find that greater levels of worker involvement in union organizing can be equated with a higher degree of union success. For labor activists, Milkman's book is controversial because it seems to suggest that union democracy
Union democracy
Union democracy is a school of thought within organized labor which argues that sound unionism requires adherence to principles and practices of democratic trade unionism; that internal democracy and greater membership control make unions stronger and better able to fight for the rights and...
is not an important factor in either union organizing success or in the revitalization of the labor movement.
Milkman co-authored a 2009 study of low-wage workers in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, and Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
which found that these laborers are routinely denied overtime
Overtime
Overtime is the amount of time someone works beyond normal working hours. Normal hours may be determined in several ways:*by custom ,*by practices of a given trade or profession,*by legislation,...
pay and often illegally paid less than the minimum wage
Minimum wage
A minimum wage is the lowest hourly, daily or monthly remuneration that employers may legally pay to workers. Equivalently, it is the lowest wage at which workers may sell their labour. Although minimum wage laws are in effect in a great many jurisdictions, there are differences of opinion about...
.
Memberships and awards
Milkman has received a number of honors in her career.She has served on the editorial board for a number of scholarly journals, including Feminist Studies, Politics and Society, the American Journal of Sociology, Gender and Society, International Labor and Working-Class History, Contemporary Sociology, the British Journal of Industrial Relations, Industrial Relations and Work and Occupations.
Her book, Gender at Work: The Dynamics of Job Segregation by Sex during World War II, won the 1987 Joan Kelly Memorial Prize in Women's History from the American Historical Association
American Historical Association
The American Historical Association is the oldest and largest society of historians and professors of history in the United States. Founded in 1884, the association promotes historical studies, the teaching of history, and the preservation of and access to historical materials...
(AHA). The Joan Kelly Memorial Prize draws more submissions than most other AHA competitions, with an estimated 45 to 70 books competing in any given year.
Solely authored books
- Farewell to the Factory: Autoworkers in the Late Twentieth Century. Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press, 1997. ISBN 0520206770
- Gender at Work: The Dynamics of Job Segregation by Sex During World War II. Champaign, Ill.: University of Illinois Press, 1987. ISBN 0252013522
- L.A Story: Immigrant Workers and the Future of the U.S. Labor Movement. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2006. ISBN 0871546353
Solely edited books
- Organizing Immigrants: The Challenge for Unions in Contemporary California. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2000. ISBN 0801436974
- Women, Work and Protest: A Century of U.S. Women's Labor History. Boston: Taylor and Francis, 1985. ISBN 0415065925
Co-edited books
- Milkman, Ruth and Voss, Kim, eds. Rebuilding Labor: Organizing and Organizers in the New Union Movement. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2004. ISBN 0801442656
Solely authored book chapters
- "American Women and Industrial Unionism During World War II." In Behind the Lines: Gender and the Two World Wars. Margaret Randolph Higonnet, Jane Jenson, Sonya Michel and Margaret C. Weitz, eds. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1987. ISBN 0300036876
- "Gender and Trade Unionism in Historical Perspective." In Women, Politics, and Change. Patricia Gurin and Louise Tilly, eds. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1990. ISBN 0871548844
- "Immigrant Organizing and the New Labor Movement in Los Angeles." In Unions in a Globalized Environment. Bruce Nissen, ed. Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe, 2002. ISBN 0765608693
- "Labor and Management in Uncertain Times: Renegotiating the Social Contract." In America at Century's End. Alan Wolfe, ed. Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press, 1991. ISBN 0520074769
- "The New American Workplace: High Road or Low Road." In Workplaces of the Future. Paul Thompson and Chris Warhurst, eds. London: Macmillan, 1998. ISBN 0333728009
- "The New Deal, the CIO, and Women in Industry." In The New Deal 50 Years After: A Historical Assessment. Wilbur J. Cohen, ed. Austin, Tex.: LBJ School of Public Affairs, 1986. ISBN 0899404154
- "Organizing Immigrant Women in New York's Chinatown." In Women and Unions: Forging a New Partnership. Dorothy S. Cobble, ed. Ithaca, N.Y.: ILR Press, 1993. ISBN 0875463002
- "Rosie the Riveter Revisited: Management's Postwar Purge of Women Auto Workers." In On the Line: Essays in the History of Auto Work. Nelson Lichtenstein and Stephen Meyer, eds. Champaign, Ill.: University of Illinois Press, 1989. ISBN 0252015398
- "Union Responses to Workforce Feminization in the United States." In The Challenge of Restructuring: North American Labor Movements Respond. Jane Jenson and Rianne Mahon, eds. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1993. ISBN 0877229813
- "Women Workers and the Labor Movement in Hard Times: Comparing the 1930s with the 1970s and 1980s." In Women, Households and the Economy. Lourdes Beneria and Katherine Stimpson, eds. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1988. ISBN 0813512638
- "Women Workers, Feminism, and the Labor Movement Since the 1960s." In Women, Work and Protest: A Century of U.S. Women's Labor History. Ruth Milkman, ed. Boston: Taylor and Francis, 1985. ISBN 0415065925
Co-authored book chapters
- Milkman, Ruth and Wong, Kent. "Organizing Immigrant Workers: Case Studies from Southern California." In Rekindling the Movement: Labor’s Quest for 21st Century Relevance. Lowell Turner, Harry Katz and Richard Hurd, eds. Ithaca, N.Y.: ILR Press, 2001. ISBN 0801438748
- Milkman, Ruth and Wong, Kent. "Organizing the Wicked City: The 1992 Southern California Drywall Strike." In Organizing Immigrants: The Challenge for Unions in Contemporary California. Ruth Milkman, ed. Ithaca, N.Y.: ILR Press, 2000. ISBN 0801436974
- Waldinger, Roger; Erickson, Chris; Milkman, Ruth; Mitchell, Daniel J.B.; Valenzuela, Abel; Wong, Kent; and Zeitlin, Maurice. "Helots No More: A Case Study of the Justice for Janitors Campaign in Los Angeles." In Organizing to Win. Kate Bronfenbrenner, Sheldon Friedman, Richard Hurd, Rudolph A. Oswald and Ronald L. Seeber, eds. Ithaca, N.Y.: ILR Press, 1997. ISBN 0801484464
Solely authored articles
- "The Anti-Concessions Movement in the UAW." Socialist Review. 65 (1982).
- "Divided We Stand." New Labor Forum. 15:1 (2006).
- "Female Factory Labor and Industrial Structure: Control and Conflict over Woman's Place in Auto and Electrical Manufacturing." Politics & Society. 12:2 (1982).
- "Linking Research and Advocacy: The Case of Paid Family Leave." Contexts. 5:1 (2006).
- "The New Labor Movement: Possibilities and Limits." Contemporary Sociology. 27:2 (March 1997).
- "New Research in Women's Labor History." Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society. 18:2 (Winter 1993).
- "Organizing the Sexual Division of Labor: Historical Perspectives on Women's Work and the American Labor Movement." Socialist Review. 49 (1980).
- "Redefining Women's Work: The Sexual Division of Labor in the Auto Industry During World War II." Feminist Studies. 8:2 (Summer 1981).
- "Win or Lose: Lessons from Two Contrasting Union Campaigns." Social Policy. 35:2 (2004/2005).
- "Women's History and the Sears Case." Feminist Studies. 12:2 (1986).
- "Women's Work and Economic Crisis: Some Lessons of the Great Depression." Review of Radical Political Economics. 8:1 (Spring 1976).
Co-authored articles
- Erickson, Christopher; Fisk, Catherine; Milkman, Ruth; Mitchell, Daniel J.B.; and Wong, Kent. "Justice for Janitors in Los Angeles: Lessons from Three Rounds of Negotiations." British Journal of Industrial Relations. 40:3 (September 2002)
- Milkman, Ruth and Pullman, Cydney. "Technological Change in an Auto Assembly Plant: The Impact on Workers' Tasks and Skills." Work and Occupations. 18:2 (May 1991).
- Milkman, Ruth; Reese, Ellen; and Roth, Benita. "The Macrosociology of Paid Domestic Labor." Work and Occupations. 25:4 (November 1998).
- Milkman, Ruth and Voss, Kim. "New Unity for Labor?" Labor: Studies in Working-Class History of the Americas. 2:1 (2005).