This collective biography recounts the lives of Fannia Cohn, Rose Schneiderman, Pauline Newman and Clara Lemlich Shavelson, four working-class, immigrant, activist women who organized to dismantle state-sponsored class-based and gender-based oppression and to improve the lives of working-class women beginning in the 1900s. Having immigrated from Eastern Europe to New York City amid the women's labor uprisings of the early 1900s, each woman took in the protests, boycotts and unionizing happening around them as a call to action and remained active in the working-class movement through the 1960's. Orleck summarizes her reason for choosing these four women as a quest to give faces and names to the many working-class women whose stories are buried underneath layers of white, bourgeois feminism or the heaps of stories about sexist, white men fighting against class inequality. Orleck hopes Common Sense …show more content…
Early on in the text Orleck outlines her goals for this collective biography. Orleck offers Common Sense and A Little Fire: Women and Working Class Politics in the United States "in contrast to the myriad accounts of poor and working-class women's lives scholarly, journalistic, and otherwise which have described in detail the ways that poor women have been victimized but overlooked the ways they have acted as agents of change" and to "challenge the myth that poor women are capable of spontaneous protest but not of sophisticated or sustained political work". Orleck pursues this goal by permitting Fannia Cohn, Rose Schneiderman, Pauline Newman and Clara Lemlich Shavelson to exist as four, fully fleshed, multidimensional women in the text rather than dissecting each woman and only allowing them to exist as women or members of the
“Working Women and the Triangle Fire” by Elizabeth Burt begins by providing detailed information about hard-working, exploited women in the labor force. The article describes previous attempts of women factory workers to organize to protest injustice, and also explains that “the press had sporadically covered these attempts” (Burt 190). Next, the author provides specific examples of the work of journalists who wrote about frustrated women workers, but states that these articles mainly appeared in the women’s sections of newspapers. Workers had the most success by participating in labor actions (Burt 190). The article describes that when the press covered most labor movements, focus was placed on negotiations, violence, or the character of the
Leonora Marie Barry was hired by the Knights of Labor to serve as labor leader and a social reformer. She was the primary source writer of Organizing Women Workers and became the only woman to uphold national office within the Knights of Labor. Leonora’s main goal was to bring attention to the conditions of the working women. Through her involvement in the labor reform movement she furthered the progress of women’s rights and she herself had experienced the hardships of a former mill worker. Being a mill working, who had also suffered the hardships of any other women, child, or immigrant, she never had any high class training.
Throughout this speech, Florence Kelley addresses The Philadelphia Convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association in 1905, to bring attention to the working conditions of young children across the nation. Kelley’s rhetorical strategies are, listing examples of the appalling working conditions in a repetitive manner and appealing to ethos and pathos to persuade her audience. Kelley creates a compelling argument that captures the audience and throws them into the issue and then persuading them to join her battle. Kelley forms strong personal and emotional statements that strikes the hearts of the audience. She captures the hearts of the mothers and fathers in the audience and then encourages them to empathize with victims.
The U.S. women’s movement started in 1848 when Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott participated in the Seneca Falls Convention in New York to talk about various social, civil, and religious condition and rights of women (Women’s History in the U.S....). Over time, this inspired many women to stand up for their own beliefs and for the better for women in future generations. During World War I, high birth rates led to food and supply shortages, and disease which mainly affected those in poverty (Putting Margaret Sanger’s Ideas in Context). At the time, a woman’s life revolved around bringing food home and onto the table which became an issue with the lack of supplies and the best foods would be given first to men (Comstockery in America).
Florence Kelley, a prominent social reformer and advocate of labor laws, delivered a compelling speech on July 22, 1905, addressing urgent issues of child labor and women’s right in the United States. As a tireless activist, Kelley's passion for social justice led her to become a leading voice in the fight against the exploitation of children in the workforce. Through her comprehensive knowledge and powerful analogies, Kelley sought out to raise public awareness and ignite a call for action to protect the rights and well-being of these young laborers. Her historic speech remains a timeless testament to her dedication, in addition to serving as a basis for the many ways a person can make a speech powerful.
Nancy A. Hewitt said in “From Seneca Falls to Suffrage? Reimagining a ‘Master’ Narrative of U.S. Women’s History” that, “In recent years, historical studies have revealed the multifaceted movements that constituted woman 's rights campaigns in the nineteenth and early twentieth century. Yet one narrative continues to dominate understandings of the period” (15). This is a perfect example of an alternative histories, which is when important events are so underreported that we are left with one side of history, that doesn’t allow most to know the full history of the women’s rights
When Kelly claims, “We can enlist the workingmen on behalf of our enfranchisement just in proportion as we strive with them to free the children” (Kelly 11) . Kelly’s intention of this speech was to pursue reforming children’s rights in labor; however, by trying to find a solution to the strict children labor laws, it required women to seek men for assistance for women’s liberty since men are the ones with authority. Still being in a patriarchal society, Kelly motivated social equality with examples like “If mothers and the teachers in Georgia could vote […]” (10) or “Would the New Jersey […] enfranchised” (10)? This began to advocate the feminist ideology, that women should have the same opportunities as men such as “enjoying the right of petition” (10). As the feminist perspective sprouted in the minds of women, the idea of asking men for assistance began to show irony, because who would want to help their opponent achieve their goal?
In her speech at the National American Woman Suffrage Association convention in 1905, United States social worker and reformer, Florence Kelley addresses the ills of child labor that that nation has turned a blind eye to. Throughout the speech, Kelley calls attention to the unethical conditions that children are forced to work under and prompts voters to use their power to vote for stricter child labor laws. She adopts a critical tone in order to unify her audience against unethical labor practices, and encourages those who can vote to be a voice for women and children. Kelley employs emotive imagery to highlight the injustices of child labor, repetition of phrases to suggest the nation’s negligence to the reality of child labor, and rhetorical
They were allowed minimal hours at a minimal wage, making it a challenge to support not only themselves but their children as well. Women desire to support their loved ones, is struggle after struggle the way to raise the next generation? When promoting women’s rights the speech and era encouraged women to show support by rallying, petitioning, marching, and lobbying (“The Equal Rights Amendment: Unfinished Business for the
It is a difficult task to challenge the social and economic policies of a country, especially one as patriotic as the United States during the post wartime Red scare era of the 1920 's. labor unions could account for this as they saw their membership fall from a high of 5 million in the 1920s to a mere 3.6 million by 1923(Rosenzweig 353). A combination of Supreme court decisions, Employer pressures and in many cases a lack of a strong leadership seen in previous individuals like Samuel Gompers contributed to this. Yet this trend surprisingly didn’t remain consistent as the great depression emerged around the 1930s. In fact they tripled there membership during the 1930s(Rosenzweig 429).They opened up, recruiting millions of women in their causes
In her autobiography, I Came a Stranger Hilda Polacheck reveals the conflicting role of women in the late 19th / early 20th century as workers, caregivers, and social activists in a conflicting age of progress, hardship and missed expectations. Coming from a very traditional Jewish family in Poland it seems that Polacheck was destined to be a full time mother and wife never having immersed herself in the American society where women were becoming more and more relevant. The death of her father changes all of this forcing herself, her mother, and her siblings to fight for survival. This fight is not only what transformed Hilda Polacheck into the woman we remember her as today, but into an American . At age thirteen and even much later after her husband’s death forced Polacheck to go to work to keep her family fed and clothed.
As a social worker and reformer, Florence Kelley utilizes asyndeton, juxtaposition, and rhetorical questions in her ardent speech for the attendees of the convention for the National American Women Suffrage Association to “enlist the workingmen voters” in helping with the implementation of more stringent child labor laws to encourage the protection of children, especially girls, from working in factories at such young ages. Kelley’s employment of asyndeton in the second paragraph as she states, “Men increase, women increase, youth increase in the ranks of the breadwinners…”, makes her speech more passionate and effective by speeding up its rhythm and pace. She applies this rhetorical strategy to segue into the fact that despite the increase across different demographics, none is so exponential as the growth of “girls between twelve and twenty years of age.” She describes this fact before the convention to depict the extensive hindrances this particular contingent faces.
During the Industrial Revolution while the United States economy boomed it was at the expense of the underprivileged lower class. Florence Kelley was a prominent figure during this tumultuous time who brought light to issues such as women's rights, and child labor. She spoke to various conventions including the National American Woman Suffrage Association about these issues in an attempt to spark change. Specifically at this event she discusses the topic of child labor and calls women to action even though they cannot yet vote. Kelley utilizes logos, imagery, and theoretical examples to convince these women to petition and spread the ideas for preventative legislation surrounding child labor.
In the twenty-first century, there seems to be less news regarding child labor and women’s suffrage in developed countries. However, long ago, in the 1900s, the United States was suffering from such an issue too. In 1905, Florence Kelley gave a speech in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, about the relationship between child labor and women’s suffrage. She spoke in an urgent tone to government officials and the general public through descriptive language and punctuation to evoke emotions, continuous rhetorical questions to reinforce her purpose, repetition to juxtapose a child labor’s life to those of adults about her purpose of abolishing child labor as well as giving women their suffrage. Kelley begins her speech by introducing the working conditions of child laborers through descriptive language.
Carlos Garcia Mrs.Rienick Period 1 12 October 2016 Analysis Essay Child Labor In the speech given predominantly to women and mothers in Philadelphia, prior to the Convention of National American Woman Suffrage Association, Florence Kelley conveys her message about the injustice and immorality of child labor, and the necessity of it to be abrogated by all states by utilizing pathos, repetion of pronouns and rhetorical