During the year of 1905, Lucy Parsons took to the founding convention of the Industrial Workers of the World to address the economic disparity among the working class. During this convention that took place, Parsons took the time to talk about the different political, social, and economic effects as a result of capitalism that impacted the working class during this time and a solution that could be done to fight against those effects. To begin, Parsons begins her speech by mentioning that women didn’t have the right to vote during this time, and had to rely on men as political representation. One can see this in a section of the textbook titled “Lucy Parsons on Women and Revolutionary Socialism (1905),” that goes over Parsons' speech, in which …show more content…
One can see this connection in chapter 19 of the textbook titled “American Empire,” it states “When commentators, such as Theodore Roosevelt in his speech on “the strenuous life,” spoke about …show more content…
She hints at this when the textbook states “We are exploited more ruthlessly than men. Wherever wages are to be reduced the capitalist class use women to reduce them” (American Yawp). From this quote one can see that because of their gender, women were social and political targets during this time, as a result of men from the capitalist class implementing laws that only benefited them but affected women. This can also be connected back to chapter 19 of the textbook when it mentions the story of a young woman named Margaret McLeod who, in 1903, was in need of income and met Alexander Mac Willie who presented her a job working essentially as a model for the product he was selling in hopes to gain popularity (American Yawp). Opportunities for women were very different during this time as well. Men would usually get the more physical work and women would get jobs that are in relation to this quote. This quote shows readers that the opportunities for women were in support of men meaning that the model for the product that she was hired for, was made by a man for her to be able to advertise