The Gender Inequalities in the Workforce
As time progresses, it comes with changes such as those from the post- Reconstruction. After the Reconstruction, women started to open the way for the fight against inequality that existed. Besides fighting for the right to vote, they also tried to fight for rights in the workforce. The number of women in the workforce had “increased from 2.6 million to 7.8 million” during the Progressive Era.1 Hence urging the need to improve the workforce. The women who were working at the time were mainly young and single, widows, divorce, color women, and poor married women. They mostly worked in factories, agriculture, and as servants; the majority of color women worked as servants.2 The role of a woman did not changed for those who were in the middle-class and above as the mindset of gender roles were rigid.
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Although as time went on, there were more jobs opening up. Many women found employment in department stores. Later on, the middle-class women decided to pursue jobs as well. Soon “more middle- and upper-class women were graduating from college and entering white-collar professions”.3 As a result, they were mainly the ones who advocated for reforms during the Progressive Era. In addition, women who become professional such as “lawyers, doctors, journalists, and scientists...often chose or were forced to remain single”.4 This might be due to the expectations of women in society at the time and also the male unions frowned upon it.5 Also, among African Americans males, they “considered it a badge of honor to see their wives remain at home”.6 However, this showed the sacrifices women had to make in order to show their independence, their will to pursue and determine their career, and their worth.
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Women earned about six dollars a week which was always lower than a man, but also children earned lesser than a woman. Therefore, business would hire more women and children than men. However, later on this practice reversed due to the uprising of women labor organizations. Consequently, women formed organizations targeting to raise wages and working condition reforms. In addition, they wanted to abolish child labor practices, as it became a social problem.7
When the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire occurred, it became one of main reasons in which series of labor movement were triggered. Most of the women that died were Italian and Jewish Immigrants. |
One of the prominent Progressive labor organizations was the National Women's Trade Union League (NWTUL). It was found in 1903 and women from all types of class participated. They provided critical support for the Uprising of the 20,000 and the New York City and Philadelphia shirtwaist workers strike. As a consequence of these successful events, it brought reforms and became a milestone in the labor movement history. Especially from the Uprising of the 20,000 led by Clara Lemich which caused 339 out of 353 firms “to grant most demands: a fifty-two-hour week, at least four holidays with pay per year, no discrimination against union loyalists, provision of tools and materials without
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fee, equal division of work during slack seasons, and negotiation of wages with employees”.8 These types of events exposed the horror of what happened in garment and textile factories that endangered the lives of immigrant women; since they were the majority working in these fields. Ironically though, the NWTUL, the National Consumers League (NCL), and the League of Women Voters (LWV) opposed the National Woman's Party (NWP) because the NWP might reverse all the efforts they had done. The NWP wanted and supported the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) as it guaranteed equal rights for women, but they believed that lessening the inhumane conditions and “laws that provided for minimum wage, maximum hours, and elimination of night work for women were seen as restricting women's opportunities”.9
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Another organization was the NCL. They would give their “White Label” to stores that “met the NCL’s standards for minimum wages, maximum working hours, and decent working conditions” and encouraged people to buy it there.10 Besides, advocating for the women’s benefits, they also supported minimum wage and maximum hours for men as well.
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In the case of Muller vs. Oregon, the NCL created the defense for the woman who pleaded the Oregon labor law in which the woman did won, but the Supreme Court ruled the maximum hour limit for the women only. This made the case sort of a double-edge sword. Equal-rights feminism organizations, like the NWP, saw that the ruling might be a negative precedent because it was based on the idea that a “woman's physical structure and the performance of maternal functions” is at stake.11 Therefore, it was only because of family in which it has priority over a woman's right.
All in all, the endeavors of these women abet in the making of an important and first chapter in the advancement of working condition and rights.
Notes
1. "Women's Suffrage in the Progressive Era," Library of Congress, Accessed February 22, 2014, http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/presentationsandactivities/presentat ions /timeline/progress/suffrage/, paragraph 2
2. Eric Foner, Give me liberty! : an American history: volume 2: from 1865, 3rd ed, (New York W.W. Norton, 2012), ch. 15
3. "The Status of Women in the Progressive Era," National Women's History Museum, Accessed February 22, 2014, http://www.nwhm.org/onlineexhibits/progressiveera/statuswomen progressive.html, paragraph 2
4. National Women's History Museum, paragraph 2
5. "Introduction: Papers of the Women’s Trade Union League and Its Principal Leaders," Gale, Accessed February 22, 2014, http://microformguides.gale.com/Data/Introductions /30430FM.htm
6. Foner, ch.15
7. "Working Condition for Immigrants," Immigration, Accessed February 22, 2014, https://sites.google.com/site/immigration327/working-conditions-for-immigrants
8. "Uprising of 20,000 (1909)," Tony Michels, Jewish Women's Archive, Accessed February 22, 2014, http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/uprising-of-20000-1909
9. "Eleanor Roosevelt and the National and World Woman’s Parties," Paula F. Pfeffer, Accessed February 22, 2014. http://harvey.binghamton.edu/~hist266/era/eleanor.htm
10. "The National Consumers League,” National Women's History Museum, Accessed February 22, 2014, http://www.nwhm.org/online-exhibits/progressiveera/consumerleague.html
11. "Muller V. Oregon," Legal Information Institute, Cornell University Law School, Accessed February 22, 2014, http://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/208/412
1. "Women's Suffrage in the Progressive Era," Library of Congress, Accessed February 22, 2014, http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/presentationsandactivities/presentat ions /timeline/progress/suffrage/, paragraph 2
2. Eric Foner, Give me liberty! : an American history: volume 2: from 1865, 3rd ed, (New York W.W. Norton, 2012), ch. 15
3. "The Status of Women in the Progressive Era," National Women's History Museum, Accessed February 22, 2014, http://www.nwhm.org/onlineexhibits/progressiveera/statuswomen progressive.html, paragraph 2
4. National Women's History Museum, paragraph 2
5. "Introduction: Papers of the Women’s Trade Union League and Its Principal Leaders," Gale, Accessed February 22, 2014, http://microformguides.gale.com/Data/Introductions /30430FM.htm
6. Foner, ch.15
7. "Working Condition for Immigrants," Immigration, Accessed February 22, 2014, https://sites.google.com/site/immigration327/working-conditions-for-immigrants
8. "Uprising of 20,000 (1909)," Tony Michels, Jewish Women's Archive, Accessed February 22, 2014, http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/uprising-of-20000-1909
9. "Eleanor Roosevelt and the National and World Woman’s Parties," Paula F. Pfeffer, Accessed February 22, 2014. http://harvey.binghamton.edu/~hist266/era/eleanor.htm
10. "The National Consumers League,” National Women's History Museum, Accessed February 22, 2014, http://www.nwhm.org/online-exhibits/progressiveera/consumerleague.html
11. "Muller V. Oregon," Legal Information Institute, Cornell University Law School, Accessed February 22, 2014, http://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/208/412