Vivian Price Collection

The papers and audiovisual materials comprising the Vivian Price collection (ca. 1970-2014, bulk 1990-1997) document her career as an advocate for women's rights in the trades' workforce.

The collection is primarily composed of legal documents, business letters, union records, and training and educational materials depicting Dr. Price's affiliations and contributions to various tradeswomen organizations. They also reflect her active participation in the promotion and awareness of gender related issues in the workplace and educational system. Organizational papers primarily document the activities of these trades organizations and unions such as: WINTER, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), and Electric Women. They also document their liaisons with the US Labor Department Bureau and other related organizations. Also included are relevant Women In Non-Traditional Employment Roles (WINTER) records created in the course of its foundation, administration, and management during the 1995-1997 period. Additionally, a wealth of records depicts the activities and history of the IBEW and support groups such as Electric Women and the Southern California Tradeswomen Network (SCTN).

Research papers and audiovisual materials document the role women played in building California's I-105 Century Freeway (1982 - mid.1990s), unions, homosexuality in the military, and other topics. The Century Freeway papers include administrative and legal records within the Century Freeway files noting lawsuits and legislation directly affecting women's labor conditions as well as equal opportunity employment for women within the freeway construction process.

Research and academic records also illustrate Dr. Price's track record towards affirmative action, the roles played by women in the construction industry nationally, and the promotion of diversity within these non-traditional roles. Many of these issues have been translated into films such as In My Own Words ; Against All Odds , the story of the first African-American journey-woman in the Los Angeles electrician's union, and Gender in the Global Construction Site, which was developed for the 1994 Beijing Women's Conference (United Nations, 1995). Records from the Fourth World Conference on Women center on Vivian’s involvement with the conference as an attendee, speaker, and documentarian.

The reference subject file gathers publications, pamphlets, articles, and newspapers clippings covering several themes including: affirmative action, women apprenticeship programs, sexual harassment, safety and health in the workplace, civil and workers' rights, gender films, political science, LGBT issues, women’s studies, feminism, unions and labor relations. The collection also includes a selection of rare Lesbian/Feminist newsletters from Long Beach, California.

Formats include organizational records, legal records, flyers, promotional materials, scholarly articles, academic papers, newsletters and other publications, newspaper clippings, books, correspondence, receipts and financial documents, photographs, film negatives, VHS tapes, U-Matic cassettes, audio cassette tapes, and Mini Digital Cassette tapes.