Women of Bethlehem Steel - Kathleen Mills

Annotation Born and raised in Pittsburgh, PA, Kathleen Mills graduated from Duke University Law School in 1969 and began her over thirty-year career as an attorney for Bethlehem Steel in 1973. Mills specialized in labor law and her work at Bethlehem Steel dealt primarily with issues impacting employees and the relationship between employees and the corporation, including civil rights claims. Mills desired to work with and help people through her career, and she depicts Bethlehem Steel as also having done its best to prioritize the needs, professional and personal, of its employees. Mills worked at Bethlehem Steel until its bankruptcy in 2003. She reflects upon the emotional end of a corporation that she describes as having been central to her life and to the city of Bethlehem, PA. In this interview, Mills also discusses the challenges of being a working mother in the early 1970s. In addition, she reflects upon her experience entering the male-dominated worlds of labor law and the steel industry. This interview is part of a series of interviews conducted by Lehigh University and the Steelworkers’ Archives and supported by the Lehigh University Mellon Digital Humanities Initiative and the South Side Initiative. An oral history interview is an act of memory and hence both highly selective and highly subjective. While it accurately reflects what a narrator remembers (or chooses to tell) of his or her experience and viewpoints, it may not accurately represent what actually transpired or what another person may have experienced. As such, users should subject interviews to the same degree of critical scrutiny they would any other historical source