“Front & Center: Labor Feminists & the Reconfiguration of the Modern American Workplace”

Thursday, September 12th, 2019

The Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural Site welcomed Dr. Karen Pastorello as our guest and presenter for the August edition of the 2019 Speaker Nite series. Dr. Pastorello is recently-retired from Tompkins Cortland Community College, where she was a Professor of History and also served as Chair of the Women and Gender Studies Program. Dr. Pastorello’s presentation (“Front and Center: Labor Feminists & the Reconfiguration of the Modern American Workplace”) focused on the origins and progression of labor feminism from its conception to the modern day, with an emphasis placed on key historical figures and events that elevated the movement to prominence and ushered in needed reforms that benefit Americans to this day.

The roots of labor feminism can be found as early as the start of the 19th century, drawn from the ranks of other reform movements such as women's suffrage. One of these early reformers was Susan B. Anthony. Arguably the most renowned reformer of her age, she began by organizing seamstresses in Rochester, New York, in the mid-19th century, demanding better conditions and pay. The work of Susan B. Anthony was amongst some of the earliest forays feminists took into addressing the blights of American labor. 

Labor feminism truly began to pick up steam following a great tragedy, the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Fire. This terrible fire left  145 workers dead, most of them were young female immigrants. In the wake of this tragedy, at the behest of Theodore Roosevelt, Frances Perkins spearheaded a series of reforms and worked to create safer working conditions in factories. At the same time, the work of renowned photographer Lewis Hine was opening Americans’ eyes to the deplorable conditions that many factory workers were forced to endure. 

As the nation began to call for labor reform, two women on the front lines of this battle were Bessie Abramowitz Hillman and Florence Kelley. Both women were active in labor reform and together they bridged the gap between the efforts of middle class and working class labor movements. Bessie a stalwart unionist who, alongside her husband Sidney Hillman, helped found the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America Union which became one of the largest labor unions for men and women. Kelley, amongst her many achievements, would go on to create the “White List,” a collection of morally and ethically responsible businesses that protected workers rights.  

While the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire started a national conversation on labor conditions in America, the fight to create better working conditions and better lives for American women started much earlier. Jane Addams opened the famous Hull House on Chicago's Westside in 1889. Her work there served as an inspiration for generations of future reformers providing services that helped women with childcare and abusive spouses, as well as classes on literacy and U.S. citizenship.  They also began lobbying for greater government assistance in fighting poverty. 

As the movement grew it required a voice to advance larger national goals. Rose Schneiderman would be that voice. A remarkable public speaker, she was able to gain support for causes important to labor feminism at the highest level of the national government. Schneiderman, alongside reformer Frances Perkins, would have the greatest success pushing labor feminist goals during the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt.  Their successes include passage of the Social Security Act and the Fair Labor Standards Act.

The legislative victories of the 1930s, which established a myriad of organizations and commissions dedicated to protecting women, children and minority groups, represented a high point in labor feminism. There would be a lull in labor feminism during the ‘40s and ‘50s, but the movement would reemerge in the 1960s with the creation of the President's Commission on the Status of Women, created by John F. Kennedy in 1961. The commission was chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt (until her death in 1962), and it found rampant and widespread discriminatory practices against women in the workplace. Congress later passed the Equal Pay Act and The Civil Rights Act, designed to ameliorate these practices. 

In the 50 years since the reemergence of the labor feminism, there have been victories such as the passing of the Family and Medical Leave Act in 1993 and the more recent passing of the Lilly Ledbetter Act in 2009. Conversely, there have also been defeats; most notably, the stalling of the Equal Rights Amendment, the persistence of the gender wage gap, and the ongoingbattle against sexual harassment (embodied by the “MeToo” Movement) alongside the current political battle over women's reproductive rights. The fight isn't over and labor feminism will continue to be a force within the larger women's rights movement for years to come.  

--Travis Ratka, Programming Assistant | Interpreter

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Speaker Nite is part of the TR Site’s regular Tuesday evening programming, which is made possible with generous support from M&T Bank, as well as the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA), with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

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