Labor Movement

For some reason, our media types have pushed the meme that women in this country never really worked until WWII, when American men left in droves to fight, and women manned the factories that kept our war effort alive at home. The history of early American female settlers (who tended the fields, fed their families, died in childbirth, and sometimes raised families alone) is ignored. As is this fact, many women worked difficult jobs early in the Twentieth Century to put food on the table and a roof over their heads.

The reality for many working women in the early Twentieth Century, especially for those that worked in mills and factories, was confinement to jobs that regularly exploited them. They worked as much as 70 hours a week for three dollars or less. It’s important that we never forget that part of women's history.

The female gender has paid its price and earned its place in the American workforce; nothing was given to us. Women even played an active role in the unionization of American workers. The price of our inclusion was high, and some women lost their lives in the process.