#GAReads | How women are transforming organized labor
Women picket during Ladies Tailors Strike, February 1910
“How women are transforming organized labor”:
“Whatever the fight, don’t be ladylike.”
So said labor organizer and self-professed “hell-raiser” Mary “Mother Jones” Harris more than a century ago as she called to action the wives of striking coal miners across Appalachia. Their combined efforts helped drum up public support and turn the tide in the miners’ favor. At the time, women were shut out of union activity and shunted to the sidelines during labor battles; they were relegated to domestic duties or caught in the crossfire as collateral damage.
As Harris and other trailblazers demonstrated, the working class can succeed only by harnessing the power of all workers, regardless of gender