In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, one of the main areas of women’s activism was labor organizing. Saraswati et al. cite an example of the Women’s Trade Union League, which was bringing many together despite their racial, ethnic, religious, and class differences (95). However, oftentimes, these differences contributed to the creation and reinforcement of divisive hierarchies among working women, reducing their organizational power.
Granted, not every woman despised those who were unlike her in some way. For instance, Theresa Serber Malkiel in The Diary of a Shirtwaist Striker pities girls who earn less than she does and considers joining a union only to help them (Malkiel 5). Yet there were disturbing tendencies of some women workers to consider themselves superior to those working elsewhere (Saraswati et al. 96). Moreover, there is no doubt that white native-born women treated Black and immigrant women differently than those who looked like them. As a result, many often chose to work in more ‘genteel’ places – based on their workers’ race and ethnicity – which allowed employers to lower their wages.
Women were divided in their fight for better working conditions due to these hierarchies. Saraswati et al. speak about the conflict over the Equal Rights Amendment between female representatives of the working class and their wealthier counterparts (97). Labor activists believed that the removal of legal sex-based differentiation would result in the loss of the laws protecting women workers. However, the Amendment’s supporters claimed that legal differentiation between the sexes would ultimately position women as inferior to men. Attempts to reach a compromise between the two groups brought no results.
The question emerges of whose interests are to be prioritized in a situation of different groups having different priorities. Some might argue that the answer is the majority’s; however, the main drawback of such an approach is that the majority is not always the most disadvantaged. For instance, the disadvantaged were the immigrant women and girls who died in the fire at a factory in New York in 1911 (“141 Men and Girls Die in Waist Factory Fire” 1). Most, if not all of them, could have survived if basic safety precautions had been implemented. However, neither the factory’s owners nor anyone else cared about them, and it resulted in a tragedy. Therefore, perhaps, it is reasonable to primarily strive to help those who have no one else to rely on in a particular setting.
Works Cited
“141 Men and Girls Die in Waist Factory Fire.” The New York Times, Web.
Malkiel, Theresa Serber. The Diary of a Shirtwaist Striker. Cornell University Press, 1990.
Saraswati, L. Ayu, Barbara L. Shaw, and Heather Rellihan, editors. Introduction to Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies: Interdisciplinary and Intersectional Approaches. Oxford University Press, 2020.