LESSON - WOMEN'S ISSUES AS A PROGRESSIVE CAUSE: THE STRUGGLE FOR EQUALITY IN THE WORKPLACE

Background Information

The key assumption underlying this lesson plan is that labor history is best understood when it is linked to personal, family, and workplace issues. An examination of women's experiences as wage earners in the Progressive era will interest students if the workplace is linked with popular culture including music, leisure, gender relations, and ethnic tensions. Thus this plan invites students to explore the place of women in the expanding industrial economy of early twentieth century America. By integrating economic, social, and cultural history, students will construct for themselves a meaningful and inclusive historical picture. By examining women's role in the needle trades, the Triangle tragedy, and the pressure for protective labor legislation, students will connect social and political history, thus broadening their understanding of the content material that is the stuff of history in a way that is consistent with the findings of modern scholarship. Between 1908 and 1912, a number of events and developments combined to sensitize consumers and reformers to the problems of women in the industrial workplace. Among these issues were the struggle in 1908 over the constitutionality of the Oregon l0-hour day law, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in 1911, and the movement of large numbers of female operatives into the needles trades and textiles industries. Coincidentally, women began to move into the union movement, as evidenced by the rise of the Women's Trade Union League (WTUL), the "Uprising of the 20,000," and the growth of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU) and the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America (ACWA). These changes not only revealed the quickening of interest in social reform through organizational action, but also initiated a volatile controversy over sexual equality and the wisdom of protective legislation. The debate thus ignited reflected the accelerating feminization of employment in the clothing industry, especially in the shirtwaist factories of eastern and Midwestern cities. Here, large numbers of teenage immigrant women experienced industrial employment, economic discrimination, family tensions, union activity, new sexual freedom, and involvement in the new popular culture of urban America. In large measure, this lesson plan explores the lives and problems of these young women as symptomatic of the new economy and society of the industrial city in the Progressive era.

LINKS TO STANDARDS S.S. B.8.1, B.12.2, C.12.3, E.8.6, E.8.14, E.12.2, E.12.6, E.12.12 OBJECTIVES

To help students analyze and explain the social inequities of the Progressive era; to familiarize students with the impact of gender, class, and ethnicity on workers' perceptions of reality; and to inform students about how America's history necessitated the organization of unions. ....... LESSONS IN LABOR HISTORY THEMES Development of cultural tensions and class conflict Exploration of gender roles, including long-term implications of economic and legislative protectionism The social process of becoming American

DISCUSSION ISSUES

1.
How did immigrant women experience urban life in America? What do the primary sources reveal about the relationships among immigration, ethnicity, class, work, and the Americanization process? How did clothing, fashion, peer preferences, and workplace interaction playa role in "becoming American"?

2.
How would you describe the mainstream Progressive response to working-women's issues? In what ways did the ILGWU, the "Uprising of the 20,000," and later the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America (ACWA) represent an alternative to mainstream Progressivism?

3.
How did Progressive states such as Oregon and Wisconsin attempt to deal with the exploitation of women in the workplace? Did the Supreme Court aid or hinder the states' efforts to resolve deep social problems? Using the Muller v. Oregon case (1908) as evidence, analyze the argument for protective legislation for women. What was the significance of the Muller verdict for the overall cause of social justice? What was its long-term implication for the future of gender equality and women's rights? Why did the decision become controversial at a later date?

4.
What was the immediate significance of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire? What were its implications for the future of industrial growth and unrestrained capitalism? Using modern examples, compare and contrast today's social and workplace problems with those of the Progressive Era. What were the solutions then? What are the solutions now? 5. Why did workers sing about their experiences? What does music have to do with group identity and the drive toward union organization? How does modern music reflect the social issues of your own time?

ACTIVITIES

1.
Ask students to examine a number of primary sources and develop a chart illustrating the issues and problems important to wage-earning women from 1900 to 1915. Ask students to compare and contrast these concerns with the issues confronting working women today.

2.
In class, have students view the film Heaven Will Protect the Working Girl (American Social History Project). Schools that purchase this video will also receive a quantity of study guides. After viewing the film, students may be divided into small groups for discussion of the intersection of ethnicity, class, and gender in the women's working world of Progressive America. Each group should identify the key themes in the film (and the supporting documents). Have a group leader report the group's findings to the full class, while another group member tabulates the findings on the board for all to observe and discuss further.

3.
After reviewing the sources and discussing the film, students may be asked to bring to the next class period a short statement of their analysis of workers' solutions to the problems present in the Progressive Era needles trade, shirtwaist, and garment industry.

4.
Student groups may be assigned responsibility for researching the legislative remedies for the problems associated with exploited labor in the Progressive Era. Research topics could include the Lochner v. New York case (1905); the Muller v. Oregon case (1908); the Wisconsin Maximum Women's Hours Law (1911); and the Wisconsin Minimum Wages Law for Women (1913). As each group brings its findings to class, students should be encouraged to identify and evaluate the common assumption made by proponents of protective legislation.

5.
Exercise (4) should lead to discussion of the constitutional challenge raised by opponents of protective legislation. Using the Muller case documents as a source base, the class may be divided into debate teams. One team could serve as the Supreme Court majority, one as the proponents of the Oregon law (the Brandeis position), and one as the opposition (the Muller position). The reasons for the Court's decision, as well as the future implications of the majority opinion, should be discussed and analyzed.

6.
Arrange for a full class discussion of the progress of union organizing. Students might be encouraged to explain why the organization of women encountered difficulties.

7.
Assign student teams to research and identify an example of worker exploitation in the history of their own city, region, or state. Each team should explain how the issue or problem was dealt with, taking into consideration the roles played by the government, voluntary associations, labor unions, or other organizations.

8.
Have students discuss the importance of music lyrics as historical evidence. Ask each student to read the words of "Bread and Roses" in the context of the women's role in the Lawrence textile strike of 1912. Students should be asked to analyze the lyrics for insight into the goals of the Lawrence strikers, including their aspirations for full development as human beings. Students should be alert to changes in working-class values and consciousness implied in the evidence. Ask how music could function as a means for workers to transmit their ideas and experiences from generation to generation. (Teachers who wish to enhance this analytical exercise might want to play the Judy Collins recording of "~read and Roses" for the class.)

SUGGESTED READINGS FOR TEACHERS:

Glenn, Susan A. Daughters of the Shtetl: Life and Labor in the Immigrant Generation. 1990. Piess, Kathy. Cheap Amusements: Working Women and Leisure in Turn-of-the-Century New York. 1986.