User:Mstutman/Labor history of the United States

Women of color played a significant role in the American labor movement of the 20th century, helping to advance workers' rights in a variety of workplace environments, including fields, factories, and homes. They used instruments including labor unions, strikes, and legislative campaigning to improve their working conditions, pay, and hours. These women took part in neighborhood projects addressing labor rights in addition to being involved in the women's suffrage and civil rights movements. Their principal battle was for equal treatment in society. A particularly famous leader of the African-American community was Ella Baker who helped organize the Young Negroes Cooperative League in the early 1930s, a group that was help pool community resources and provide cheaper goods and services to members. She later cofounded In Friendship, an organization that raised money for the civil rights movement. She went on to help form the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. Two other important leaders, Dorothy Height and activist Dolores Huerta, were essential in promoting social justice and fair labor standards. Their combined efforts made a big difference in creating a more diverse and equal workplace.

One must also recognize the significant role Jewish women played in the American labor movement of the 20th century. Jewish mass immigration came to the United States in the early twentieth century, just as the ready-made clothing industry skyrocketed. In the Old Country, most Jewish women were married off as quickly as possible; in America, that was no longer an option. Families counted on women’s wages, sometimes sending that money back to their families in Europe or using it to pay the rent, buy food and clothing, bring relatives from Europe to America, or keep the men in their family in school. Most women learned to sew in the workshops of the Old Country and they utilized this skill to help them find jobs in the United States.

Unfortunately, women who worked in garment factories were often subject to sexual harrasment, unsafe conditions, exploitation, and wage discrimination. And yet, as Jews who emerged from a left-wing progressive tradition, these female garment workers nurtured a commitment to social justice, one that catalyzed the labor organizing that these women later led.

A number of unions were created in the Lower East Side during the beginning of the 20th century. Most were organized by the International Ladies Garment Workers Union, an organization that was founded in 1900 and, while initially founded by and only accessible to men, went on to be run by many Jewish women who advocated for education as a means of shaping a society that could support the working class.

Strikes in the women's garment industry occurred almost yearly in one city or another. A notable example took place in 1909 and was led by Rose Schneiderman. Schneiderman worked as a cap maker in New York City and, after encountering poor working conditions, decided to organize a local union of the United Cloth and Cap Makers in New York City. Soon after, Schneiderman began serving as vice president of the New York Women’s Trade Union League, where she organized the “Uprising of the 20,000” a landmark garment workers’ strike that took place from 1909-1910 and eventually led to basic improvements for workers.