When images of feminist activism flash across our screens, they often follow a familiar script — protesters with placards in the streets, marching for legislative change. For Julia Smith, a U of M labour studies professor, this common narrative captures only a fraction of a much richer and more diverse history. This history is one she has dedicated her research to uncovering.

Smith describes herself as an interdisciplinary historian and outlines her focus on the history of feminist labour organization. Her approach focuses on “women who have been working to advance gender equality through union activism,” she explained. Her research challenges the traditional idea of the feminist activist, revealing a world where the fight for equality has been persistently waged not only on the streets but within the very structures of the workplace.

Smith’s portfolio is deliberately wide-ranging. She has studied women who founded independent unions, as well as those who organized within existing male-dominated labour structures and campaigns across different professions, including the financial sector. This includes significant work on women in the banking industry and a current co-authored project on flight attendants. The latter holds particular significance, Smith noted, “given the high-profile strike by flight attendants at Air Canada recently.”

Smith’s research on flight attendants shows that the role was “literally divided by gender.” There were stewards, who held what she described as “more like the management position on the plane,” and stewardesses, who were positioned “below that.” This changed as women sought access to those higher-status jobs, leading to a merger of the roles into the single, gender-neutral title of flight attendant.

Despite this formal integration, Smith observed the profession still consists predominately of women, and the issues they fight for being deeply gendered. She connected the recent Air Canada strike’s focus on unpaid labour — being paid for only part of their work — to long-standing inequities in woman-dominated jobs.

According to Smith, this research represents more than an academic focus — it is a personal and intellectual journey that has fundamentally reshaped her understanding of social movements. Reflecting on her undergraduate introduction to feminism, she admitted a common initial perception. “Like many people, I felt like feminist activism kind of looks like one way. It’s women out in the street, picketing, fighting for things,” she admitted. Exposure to labour history, however, opened a new lens. Studying the intersection of gender and class activism, she said, “really opened [her] eyes to the diversity of what [feminist activism] looks like.”

That diversity is twofold. First, it concerns the activists themselves. “When we talk about feminist movements, we might think of women of a certain kind, that look a certain way,” Smith observed. Her research deliberately counters this, highlighting women from varied backgrounds, including many from the working class, who have identified as feminists and chosen the collective power of the union as their primary vehicle for change. “The women that I’ve spent a lot of time studying,” she said, “chose to basically advance their feminist activism through labour activism — by organizing in the workplace, or by joining unions.”

Second, this intersection reframes the very tactics of social change. It positions collective bargaining for pay equity, parental leave, protections against harassment and safe working conditions as core feminist achievements. The negotiation table becomes as significant a site of struggle as the rally. This perspective enriches labour history by centering gender justice as a driving force within union movements, while simultaneously expanding the feminist canon to include the sustained, organized efforts of women within their professions.

When asked about the role of men in this integrated struggle, Smith emphasized their critical importance. She noted that, while women constitute a majority of the population, systemic change requires broad-based alliance. “A lot of feminist activists will say this, that it’s really important that men are on board too and that men are participating in the feminist movement.” Achieving equitable workplaces demand allyship across genders, challenging entrenched norms and power dynamics that affect all workers. “We need men to understand those issues […] to help organize around them, especially when […] people who sit at decision-making tables are still predominantly men.”

For students of history, labour, gender studies and even technology, Smith’s research offers crucial insights. It demonstrates that the tools for building a more just world are often found in the spaces we already inhabit. Her project on flight attendants, a profession long defined by gendered expectations and now on the front lines of modern labour disputes, promises to further illuminate how feminized professions organize, blending traditional union strategy with urgent feminist concerns in the 21st century economy.

In documenting these stories, Smith’s work does more than archive the past. It provides a roadmap for understanding the present and strategically organizing for the future.