ipl-logo

Clara Lemlich And The Triangle Fire

487 Words2 Pages

Prior to the Triangle Fire, union-organized strikes offered new opportunities for women to take leadership roles and demanded better workplace conditions; the unsatisfactory results from the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory contributed to the factors that resulted in the countless deaths in the fire. One of the most influential unions during this period, the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU) was founded in 1900, originally embracing the values of conservative leadership and dismissing the role that women could play in the advancement of workers’ rights. On November 22, 1909, thousands of young women, strikers, and members of the ILGWU, gathered at Cooper Union, a college in New York, after a series of spontaneous strikes over working …show more content…

Clara Lemlich’s leadership in granting rights to thousands of workers despite being a poor, Jewish immigrant was a foreign concept at this time, as even American women had hardly ever risen to such roles. Not only did her actions create opportunities for women to participate in strikes and take leadership roles in unions, they also marked the start of a period of reformation in the workplace. The next day, on November 23, 1909, 15,000 workers, most of them being poor Jewish immigrants, went on strike, picketing in front of factories and through the streets in what is now known as the “Uprising of 20,000.” (Historic U.S. Events). The difference between this strike and others in the past was that both garment workers and cutters (who were traditionally men) went on strike, making employees impossible to replace. This unification of men and women in a time where patriarchy reigned in the workplace and women were not taken seriously shows the significance of this strike not only for factory workers but also for

Show More
Related

Triangle Shirtwaist Tragedy In The Industry During The Gilded Age

857 Words | 4 Pages

The labor and women’s movements challenged the nineteenth century meanings of American Freedom. The tragedy received widespread attention to dangerous conditions of the factories

Read More

Arizona Copper Miner Strike Essay

1296 Words | 6 Pages

Introduction The Arizona Copper Miner strike of 1983 began on July 1 when negotiations failed between labor unions and the Phelps Dodge Corporation. Shortly after the strike began, Phelps Dodge was granted an injunction restricting Strikers presence on and up to the line. The result of this was the presence of women on the line. These women became the face of the great strike. For purposes of this essay, I will examine the conflict at the root of the strike.

Read More

Ww1 Unit 2 Research Paper

694 Words | 3 Pages

The dangers of working in factories gave a great perspective of what it was like to do a man’s job, but women weren’t afraid. They desired equality and

Read More

What Are The Similarities Between Violence In The West And The Triangle Fire

1389 Words | 6 Pages

The waistmakers protested peacefully. Hundreds were arrested, including WTUL president Mary Dreier for discouraging strikebreakers from working in the factories. The women never utilized violent techniques, nor did they retaliate against the police arresting them. Instead, they forced the shops to listening to their demands by striking strategically and in such a strong force; by striking during the busy season, shops were desperate for employees and some were willing to agree to union demands. William Mailly, a writer sympathetic to the strikers, wrote on the strike: “The strike has been inspired by women; it is mainly women who have done the picketing, been arrested, fined, run the risk of assault, received ill-treatment from police and police courts alike, and shown themselves eager to sacrifice without stint to bring about better conditions in the shops and factories.”

Read More

Mary Harris Jones Dbq

899 Words | 4 Pages

Mary Harris Jones was known as “the miners’ angel” by thousands (Tonn 313). She was also called “Mother Jones” by many workers (World Book). She was born on May 1, 1830, and she died on November 30, 1930 (World Book). She organized strikes and groups to defend coal miners, especially for the children coal miners. She founded the Industrial Workers of the World, which is

Read More

The Lawrence Textile Strike Of 1912: Innovations In The Labor Movement

1037 Words | 5 Pages

The IWW should be studied more for its innovations than its failures, because many of the innovations set out by the IWW would set the tone for freedoms and rights to come in the labor movement. Two extremely important innovations that the IWW set into motion was the freedom speech fights in order to bring attention to the neglected rights of the labor movement. As well as the groundbreaking strategies of the Lawrence textile strike of 1912. That would shine a light on the horrible conditions that many immigrants would have to withstand in the United States during the Industrial Revolution. These innovations use tactics that show the injustices the working class had to endure.

Read More

Discussion Questions On Women's Suffrage Movement

906 Words | 4 Pages

These women worked in factories that were worked in by men before the war. Women working in factories and doing it extremely sufficient was an eye opener to everyone across the world. 2. Why would working in jobs traditionally reserved for men fuel the women's suffrage movement? Working in jobs that were traditionally reserved for men showed that women can do anything men can do just

Read More

Women's Rights Dbq Essay

886 Words | 4 Pages

A speech given by Julia Richman emphasized the necessity of women helping other women to succeed ( Document 6 ). Richman, a pro-women’s rights, pro-equality organizer, wanted all women to know it was their duty to stand up for each other and for immigrant women, who are incredibly vulnerable. Public speeches such as Richman’s convinced women that there was power in numbers and that by joining forces with other women, they could force employers to treat women better and make the workplace safer. Another factor that inspired a massive shift towards employee power was the national presence and influence of labor unions and other workplace-reform groups. An excellent example of this notoriety can be seen in Document 4, an article written by Samuel Gompers, the leader of the AFL, and a staunch advocate of the “closed shop” who spoke out constantly about the plight of workers.

Read More

World War II Dbq Essay

540 Words | 3 Pages

According to U.S. Department of labor, “If you have made buttonholes on a machine, you can spot-weld a plane bound for Berlin and take your place among the millions of American women on the labor front” . Women entered the labor force working on the line, and they would work eight hour shifts. These were new opportunities for women because they showed that they could do more than just cook and clean. Many individuals doubted that women could work as hard as men, women proved them wrong. They operated heavy machinery, just as a man would.

Read More

The Oppression Of Lowell Mill Women

669 Words | 3 Pages

The mill girls “…did not accept uncritically all that went on in the mills” and formed strikes to combat the wage reduction (Dublin 565). As outlined above, these strikes actually helped liberate women as it made them view themselves as important and free, helped them speak up for themselves, and proved their importance in the workforce, which they most likely would not have done by another means. Thus, even though women experienced oppression through wage cuts and more labor, they were ultimately liberated by the new ideas conducive of the strikes that this oppression

Read More

The Populist Movement: The Roots Of The Progressive Movement

670 Words | 3 Pages

Both working class and wealthy women joined together to rally and champion for union leagues, such as the Women’s Trade Union League specifically mentioned in Triangle. Leagues such as this one were fueled by the anger and injustice factory women felt toward their employers. One such worker was Clara Lemlich, a young factory worker who was “a model of a new sort of woman, hungry for opportunity and education and even equality; willing to fight the battles and pay the price to achieve it (7).” In the world Clara lived in, “men had the vote; men owned the shops…men ran the unions and political parties (7)” and she and her comrades wanted to change all of that. They knew that if they wanted to achieve change, they would have to do themselves, because male factory workers, even though they faced the same trials, often saw these women as a threat and police officers almost always sided with factory owners (12).

Read More

Labor Unions During The 1930s

731 Words | 3 Pages

It is a difficult task to challenge the social and economic policies of a country, especially one as patriotic as the United States during the post wartime Red scare era of the 1920 's. labor unions could account for this as they saw their membership fall from a high of 5 million in the 1920s to a mere 3.6 million by 1923(Rosenzweig 353). A combination of Supreme court decisions, Employer pressures and in many cases a lack of a strong leadership seen in previous individuals like Samuel Gompers contributed to this. Yet this trend surprisingly didn’t remain consistent as the great depression emerged around the 1930s. In fact they tripled there membership during the 1930s(Rosenzweig 429).They opened up, recruiting millions of women in their causes

Read More

Colonists During The Industrial Revolution

1279 Words | 6 Pages

During the Industrial Revolution, they were granted jobs at textile miles, factories and warehouses. “Counting outworkers, almost half of all manufacturing workers, and about two-thirds of those in New England, were women” (Clark et al, 347- 348). Women were still given lower wages and more hours than men, which encouraged to form women labor unions and go on strike to fight for their rights. “ …Pawtucket mill owners tried to extend the workday and lowered piece

Read More

World War I: Equal Opportunities For Women

973 Words | 4 Pages

“It recommended new labor standards and safeguarded existing ones, called for wage rates based on productivity rather than the sex of the worker, and especially fought for health and safety regulations.” (Boris, Michael) After decades of the women’s group demanded equality, they were finally rewarded a policymaking and advisory agency in July 1918. This was created to allow women to be paid by the quality of work rather than gender along with the health of the workers. To top it off, with the continuous movements, they continued to improve the equality that they were striving for to the point where women’s safety and well-being become a permanent agency in the Labor apartment.

Read More

Equal Pay Act Of 1963 Essay

649 Words | 3 Pages

¥ History ¥ 1869, a letter was present to the editor of the New York Time, it brought to light that female government employees were not receiving the compensation as their male counter partners.   ¥ 1883, a majority of the workers of the Western Union Telegraph Company went on strike, impeding communications across the country, in an attempt to seek equal pay for their female employees. ¥ By 1911, after a long struggle with the New York Board of Education, female teacher’s made significant progress in the battle for equal pay, by securing proportionate wages to their male counterparts. ¥ In 1942 the National War Labor Board urged employers to voluntarily make adjustments to wages making them comparable for both males and females.

Read More

More about Clara Lemlich And The Triangle Fire

Open Document