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For printable image click here. Jennifer J. Armiger UD photo by Tyler Jacobson

Jennifer J. Armiger, doctoral candidate and Hagley Fellow in the Department of History at the University of Delaware, has been awarded several prestigious fellowships to support the completion of her dissertation during the 2007-08 academic year. Her dissertation, “The Women of Western Electric: Reconsidering Gender Discrimination, Deindustrialization and Title VII in Post-1960s America,” uses a prominent class action gender discrimination case as a lens to examine political and economic changes of the 1970s.

Armiger, of Woodbury, N.J., has received a $20,000 American Fellowship from the American Association of University Women (AAUW), one of 63 such fellowships awarded nationally. Candidates are evaluated on the basis of scholarly excellence, teaching experience and active commitment to helping women and girls through service in their communities, professions or fields of research. While scholars engaged in researching gender issues are encouraged to apply for the fellowship, Armiger's adviser, Arwen Mohun, associate professor of history, noted that the bulk of the fellowships are awarded in the sciences in a concerted effort by AAUW to encourage women in fields in which they are underrepresented.

In addition, Armiger was offered a $14,000 University of Delaware Dissertation Completion Award from the Office of Graduate Studies, which she had to turn down to accept the Women's Studies Dissertation Completion Award, a $14,000 award newly established by the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences to encourage interdisciplinary research on women.

Armiger's interest in the history of women and labor in post-industrial America was born of her own experiences as a self-described “New Jersey working girl.” She worked as a waitress and in clerical positions to finance her undergraduate education at the College of New Jersey. After graduating in 1999, she took a position as a research associate with a financial firm in Princeton, N.J. During this time, Armiger also became active in the National Organization for Women (NOW), eventually becoming president of her local chapter.

“Two years in corporate America convinced me that it was time to send in those applications to grad school,” Armiger said.

Media contact: Martin Mbugua, (302) 831-8749, [mbugua@udel.edu]
June 5, 2007