Sad News: Hilda Kahne
May 7, 2020
Dear Colleagues:
I write to share with you the sad news that Hilda Kahne, retired Heller Professor and long-time Resident Scholar at the Women’s Studies Research Center, passed away last month, just shy of her 98th birthday. She leaves behind her husband Merton, and three sons David, Daniel, and Joseph.
Hilda was born in 1922 in Milford, Connecticut. As shared with me by her long time Heller colleague, co-author, and friend, Janet Giele, the study of women and work was central to Hilda’s life—a theme that began in childhood when her father died at the age of 37 and her mother had to support the family. Hilda’s first important public action on behalf of working women occurred in the early 1940s while she was a student at the University of Michigan. As a result of joining a protest to support women window washers who had to work without necessary protective equipment, Hilda was expelled from the University (reportedly because a prominent Detroit industrialist was upset with the student protests). Hilda’s mother Sarah Rosenbaum, a Russian immigrant with leftist leanings, was said to have been “delighted” when she heard the news. After Michigan, Hilda enrolled at the University of Wisconsin where she was drawn to the brand of institutional economics and support for labor that was championed by John R. Commons, the leading light of the economics department.
Following graduation from Wisconsin in 1943, she received her Ph.D. in economics from Harvard-Radcliffe in 1953 and worked for a time with her friend and mentor, the esteemed Ida C. Merriam at the Social Security Administration in Washington. Between 1948 and 1958 she taught economics at Wellesley College, and there formed a lifelong friendship with the formidable economist Carolyn Bell, who was also interested in women and work. The connection with Wellesley continued for many years as Hilda served on its Board of Trustees. She also served as assistant dean at Radcliffe Institute from 1966-77, and was a professor of economics at Wheaton College in Norton, MA from 1977 until her retirement in 1992.
Hilda came to Brandeis in 1992 to teach the courses of Janet Giele who was going on sabbatical that year and ended up staying on as a faculty member in the Family and Children’s Policy Center at the Heller School until 2002. She was also active in the Brandeis Women’s and Gender Studies program. Following her second "retirement" in 2002, she became a scholar at the Women’s Studies Research Center. There she continued her research and writing on social policy related to part-time work and low-wage women workers. WSRC founding director Shula Reinharz shared, “My stand-out memories of Hilda were her devotion to social justice and her commitment/pleasure to working with students. Hilda always wanted to work with students, and they gave her high marks. Hilda was a very warm, kind person; she was a reliable committee member, and I think she derived a true sense of belonging at the WSRC.”
In the fall of 2009, in Anita Hill’s course on “Social Justice in the Obama Administration”, Hilda gave a guest lecture that was greatly appreciated by the students because, according to Anita Hill, “Kahne’s training as an economist provided invaluable context as to where current policy proposals fit with earlier initiatives. And they were even more impressed when she told her story of how she came to get a Ph.D. in a field where few women of her generation succeeded. Hilda shared her story of bucking the rising tide of econometrics and daring to focus her work as she saw fit. One student summed it up for the entire class. ‘She is amazing!’”
Hilda will be remembered for her meticulous scholarship as a labor economist and her dedication to social justice as her paramount purpose. I count myself fortunate to have first worked with Hilda when I was an undergraduate at the Wellesley Centers on Women, and she was my supervisor on a project focused on women returning to paid employment and their volunteer work experience. She taught me a great deal about the stories behind the data and to never lose sight of that in my scholarship.
But her gift to all is best summarized by Janet Giele, “She could lift one out of defeat or despair by a reminder of one’s strengths and long-term interests and accomplishments. She took genuine interest in the personal lives of one’s family, children, and spouse or partner and was always willing to share something of her own triumphs and defeats in turn.” From another Heller colleague, Pamela Joshi, “Hilda Kahne was a tenacious pioneer in economics and a great mentor to many undergraduate and Heller graduate students. Once you knew Hilda, you never left her network, and if she called, you better answer because she would not stop until you joined her cause.”
From Anita Hill, “My respect, admiration and fondness for her as both colleague and friend was instant and grew over the years. After her retirement, Hilda continued to be intellectually engaged and engaging, organizing talks at Brookhaven, whether leading the WGRS Gender and Social Policy Group or ‘attending’ WGS webinars. Of my work, not too long ago, she reminded me ‘Yes, we have come a long way, but we are not yet "home free."’ That seems to be how she viewed her own work and her life as well."
Hilda Kahne was deeply committed to the values and mission of Brandeis, and she will be sorely missed.
Sincerely,
Lisa M. Lynch, Provost