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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

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