Working Women

-jt · Apr 26, 2002

Then came the horror of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in 1911 & suddenly everybody finally hurt enough:

I could see smoke pouring from the eighth and ninth floors. That was were the Triangle Shirtwaist Company had its rooms. The faces of young women and girls pressed up against the windows - hundreds of screaming heads.

At one window a young man helped a girl onto the sill.......and let her drop..... as gently as if he was helping her into a streetcar.

That is when I heard my first "thud".

He brought another girl to the sill. She kissed him. Then he held her in space..... and dropped her. In a flash, he was out of the window himself. The girls had no other way out.

The "thuds" of the falling bodies grew so loud I thought theyd be heard all over New York City.....

So tonight we gather at the Metropolitan Opera House to DEMAND A FIRE PREVENTION BUREAU, MORE FACTORY INSPECTORS and COMPENSATION FOR THE FAMILIES. I would be a traitor to these burned bodies if I came here to talk good fellowship! This is not the first time girls have been burned alive in this city!

Each week I must learn of the untimely death of one of my sister workers. Every year thousands of us are maimed! The life of men and women is so cheap and property so sacred. There are so many of us for one job that it matters little if 146 of us are burned to death.

We have tried you citizens - you of the middle and upper classes -and we are trying you now! You have but a couple of dollars for the sorrowing mothers and daughters and sisters by way of a charity gift. But EVERY time workers come out in the ONLY way they know to PROTEST AGAINST CONDITIONS WHICH ARE UNBEARABLE, the strong hand of the law is allowed to press down heavily upon us.

I cannot talk fellowship to you who have gathered here!

Too much blood has been spilled! I know from my own experience IT IS UP TO THE WORKING PEOPLE TO SAVE OURSELVES.

The ONLY way to save ourselves is by a strong working class movement!"

- Rose Schneiderman

Ladies Garment Workers Union

NYC - 1911 >>

and thats how we got fire safety laws, child labor laws, & workmans compensation laws.

now in the year 2002, what are nurses so afraid of?

grouchy · Apr 26, 2002

-jt, I've been meaning to reply for awhile to thank you for posting this info. My great-great Aunt (who I never met ) was a sewing-machine operator in NYC and an original member of the ILGWU, so I found this info especially fascinating, an insight into the lives of my ancestors. It was also shocking and depressing to see that a century later, despite all the changes that have occurred in that time, how workers/working women continue to face problems that are fundamentally unchanged.

-jt · Apr 26, 2002

As working women, we all owe her a debt of gratitude. And as nurses, we owe the same to these other nurses:

City In Crisis - 1966

https://allnurses.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=89997&highlight=city+in+crisis#post89997

OC_An Khe · Apr 27, 2002

Those that don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

It starts with knowledge and involvement.

Our profession will only be as rewarding as we make it. Its up to nurses to dedcide what is good for nursing, not the bean counters.

Involvement and activism are necessary.

nightingale, RN · Apr 27, 2002

Jenny P:

You just never know about those classes. Guess I better look before I yap. I will look for a couple of these books.

All:

I have begun my small journey of activism and awareness by contacting my legislators and writing to editors about articles I find that are important. Baby steps in the struggle but important. I need to do it and nursing needs help. It saddens me greatly to see tha almighty dollar argument winning out over safe healthcare for our nation.

It is thanks to the awareness of the posters on this BB I owe my direction. I agree we must stand united and move forward not backward. Ocankhe... I agree wholeheartedly:

Those that don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

It starts with knowledge and involvement.

Our profession will only be as rewarding as we make it. Its up to nurses to dedcide what is good for nursing, not the bean counters.

Involvement and activism are necessary.

Bonnie

-jt · Apr 28, 2002

I think for Nurses Week, we should have a luncheon or dinner for the nurses at our facilities and during the event, turn down the lights & show a slide presentation with readings of these stories of women in the labor movement. It just might get some nurses thinking....... and moving.

-jt · Apr 28, 2002

"Well, children, where there is so much racket there must be something out of kilter. I think that 'twixt the negroes of the South and the women at the North, all talking about rights, the white men will be in a fix pretty soon. But what's all this here talking about?

That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain't I a woman?

Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain't I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man - when I could get it - and bear the lash as well! And ain't I a woman?

I have borne thirteen children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with a mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain't I a woman?

Then they talk about this thing in the head; what's this they call it? That's it, honey. What's that got to do with women's rights or negroes' rights? If my cup won't hold but a pint, and yours holds a quart, wouldn't you be mean not to let me have my little half measure full?

Then that little man in black there, he says women can't have as much rights as men, 'cause Christ wasn't a woman! Where did your Christ come from? Where did your Christ come from?

From God and A WOMAN! Man had nothing to do with Him.

If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back , and get it right side up again!

And now they is asking to do it, the men better let them.

Obliged to you for hearing me, and now old Sojourner ain't got nothing more to say."

-Sojourner Truth

at the Women's Rights Convention

Akron, Ohio

1851

http://www.womenwriters.net/domesticgoddess/

Jenny P · Apr 29, 2002

I quoted Sojourner Truth at our last MNA convention, Julie; glad to know we're on the same page! I do SO appreciate your postings here, because this history of nursing and womens' rights and political activism is so important to all of us. Even the guys can be motivated by this information; knowing the driving forces behind some of our history may inspire some of them.

The fact that nursing became complacent and rested on its' laurels in the middle of the 20th century, then let corporations and the almighty dollar take over health care at the end of the century is something that we are all to blame for. Nurses became so wound up in saving our own necks that we didn't (or couldn't) look farther than our own individual workplace at what was happening to nursing globally.

Ocankhe and Bonnie, it is so true: if each and everyone of us does a little bit to advance our profession, we could be the major force behind radical health care reform! By sheer numbers alone we are bigger than the AMA and possibly even health insurance company execs. If every nurse would use their vote and talk with or write to their legislators; there would be no telling what changes we could effect. I really believe that votes can count more than $$$$$ politically.

History rocks; and the lessons we learn from it can shape our future.