THE VFA PIONEER HISTORIES PROJECT

Caroline Dawson Davis

May 18, 1911–December 29, 1988

“The worst thing about any job to me was authority. I loved people and I believed in people. I never saw the difference between someone who had a title and a lot of money and Joe Doe and Jane Doe who swept floors and dug ditches. Unions give the people a voice for themselves. They help them make decisions, to not be robots that the boss could boss around.”

Union leader. Appointed to direct the UAW Women’s Department in January 1948 by President Walter P. Reuther. First female UAW local union president. Involved in numerous groundbreaking committees and organizations established to advocate for women, including the Department of Labor’s National Trade Union Women’s Advisory Committee, the National Committee for Equal Pay, President John F. Kennedy’s Commission on the Status of Women, Women’s Equity Action League and the National Women’s Political Caucus. A co-founder and national officer on the first board of the National Organization for Women (NOW).

Photo. Caroline Davis, Women’s Department Director, and Lillian Hatcher, the first African American woman to be appointed to International Staff.