When discussing the history of the labor movement, people often fall into a trap. Sometimes unconsciously, sometimes not, we talk of women’s part in the creation of organized labor as a contribution to a cause that is inherently male and concerning mostly men. After all, those not versed in their history will often say, women did not truly join the workforce until the last half century or so. This is of course false. Pioneers in workers’ rights who happen to be women are all too often seen as “helping out” while male labor leaders are often immortalized as titans of the working class. Women built the modern labor movement, and that’s not an understatement.
To celebrate international women’s month, we here at KRC will be looking at the immense contributions of women to the struggle for labor justice in the United States. We will be examining the amazing women who organized, rallied, and inspired us to fight for professional fair treatment and the dignity of work. From the foundation of the Lowell Female Labor Reform Association in 1844 to Liz Shuler becoming the first president of the AFL-CIO this past year, women of every stripe have blazed the path of the labor movement.
The list is by no means exhaustive, but we will do our best to highlight a few women who we have to thank for the chance to continue the fight for workers’ rights.
Sarah Bagley (1806-1889)
Sarah Bagley was born in Candia, NH in 1806. Growing up in a farming family, she eventually relocated to Lowell, Massachusetts to seek work in the textile mills of the growing factory town. While initially happy working as a weaver, she quickly grew alarmed by the working conditions that she and her fellow workers endured. Bagley published her first work, the facetiously titled “The Pleasures of Factory Life” in the early 1840’s, commenting on the long hours, dangerous conditions, and meager pay. Her true start in organizing came in 1844, when the mill where she worked raised the wages of male employees but neglected to give the ladies any raises. With a few like-minded women, Bagley founded the Lowell Female Labor Reform Association (LFLRA). The LFLRA would achieve significant successes in the subsequent years, such as forcing the mill owners to agree to a 10-hour workday. Badgely was also a successful columnist, writer, and advocate for social and economic justice causes beyond the labor movement, such as health care, voting rights, prison reform, and women’s rights.
Mother Jones (1837-1930)
The namesake of today’s popular progressive magazine, Mary Harris Jones was born in 1837 in Cork, Ireland. A tireless advocate for the rights of child workers in Philadelphia, she is most famous for the “March of the Mill Children” where she and a group of child workers attempted to confront then-President Theodore Roosevelt at his Long Island Home. Her advocacy for working people persisted throughout her life, with the organizing of strikes for the Knights of Labor and the United Mine Workers. Later in life, she received perhaps the most auspicious award that can be given to a labor organizer. She was denounced on the floor of the United States Senate and called “the grandmother of all agitators.”
Hattie Canty (1933-2012)
Hattie Canty once said that the struggle for civil rights and the struggle for labor rights could not be separated. She would know, having lived that reality as a young woman in Alabama in the 1960’s and as a labor advocate in Las Vegas later in life. She, her husband, and their rapidly growing family moved to Las Vegas from rural Alabama in 1961 in search of a better life. After her husband’s premature death in 1975, Hattie was left to try and support their ten children. She joined a local Culinary Union, hoping to find a job as a hotel housekeeper. Quickly, it became apparent that Hattie meant for much more than cleaning rooms. A gifted organizer (you must be when you have ten children), Canty became an outspoken voice in her union, and was elected to the Executive Board in 1984. After several years of organizing, she was elected president of in 1990. As president of Las Vegas Hotel and Culinary Workers Union Local 226, Canty fought for workers in Sin City with the same determination that had always defined her, organizing strikes and walkouts at some of Las Vegas’ most famous institutions and helping secure worker rights in the entertainment industry. Without Hattie Canty, Las Vegas as it is today would simply not be possible.
Dorothy Day (1897-1980)
A slightly unconventional inclusion on this list, Dorothy Day was a journalist, organizer, anarchist, and women’s rights advocate. A devout Catholic from an early age, Day found that her faith contradicted the prevailing economic systems of her day. After a bohemian young adulthood, Day then devoted her remaining years towards the betterment of the working classes and attempting to convince her fellow Christians to do likewise. In 1933, Day, along with Peter Maurin, founded the Catholic Worker movement, which seeks to reconcile modern Catholicism with more left-leaning ideology. The CWM emphasizes communal living, voluntary poverty, mutual aid, and advocacy for the oppressed. Over her 60+ years of activism, Dorothy Day advocated for everything from women’s right to vote (she was arrested for picketing at the White House in 1916) to leading marches against the proliferation of nuclear weapons in the 1970’s. The Catholic Worker Movement is still active today, more than two hundred Catholic worker houses and farms continue to carry out her vision.
Dolores Huerta (1930-)
A true titan of labor if ever there was one, Dolores Huerta was born in Dawson, New Mexico to a family of miners and migrant farm workers. After her parents separated, she was raised with her brothers in the agricultural town of Stockton, California. Initially following her dream of becoming a teacher, Dolores quickly realized she could do more good for the impoverished children in her classes by helping their parents, mostly Mexican and Chicano migrant workers, organize for better conditions and wages. In 1955, she co-founded the Stockton Community Services Organization, which fought for voting rights and economic improvement for the local migrant farm workers. An incredible organizer known for her seemingly limitless energy, serious demeanor, and strict focus on the needs of farm workers, their children, and Hispanic communities. In 1962, she co-founded the National Farm Workers Association with Caesar Chavez. After leading the first successfully CBA between farm workers and an agricultural corporation, Huerta moved on to sit on the board of the United Farm Workers (UFW), leading many more successful strikes and negotiations. At the age of 93, and having received numerous awards and accolades, including fourteen honorary doctorates, Dolores Huerta remains at the heart of the UFW’s mission.