Today as I am sure you are aware is International Women’s Day. It is a day to celebrate women around the world, across all industries and backgrounds, but I bet you didn’t know it all began with textiles!
I am ashamed to admit that this is a fact that I only recently learnt myself, but is so interesting I thought I would share the story with you here today.
In 1909 women textile workers in New York went on strike, calling for safer working conditions and fair pay. No wonder! They endured 18-hour shifts, often locked in without breaks, dangerous machinery, and of course relentless housework still to be done (that part hasn’t changed!)… all the while earning half of men’s salaries. This was barely enough to pay rent in overcrowded boarding-houses, let alone build a life.
These unfair conditions led one brave woman, Theresa Malkeil, to start a union for her fellow garment workers, and together they marched in protest for their rights as women and as textiles workers.
Theresa was a refugee fleeing modern day Ukraine from anti-Semitism in Soviet occupied territory. Like many young female refugees at this time, she was forced into textile work.
Theresa quickly began fighting back against these injustices and her leadership was central to mobilising an estimated 40,000 women to stand up alongside her against the daily injustice they faced, making it the largest women’s strike of that time.
Theresa remained a prominent voice in women’s equality, campaigning for our right to vote, so we have much to thank her for! The International Socialist Movement quickly popularised this uprising and two years later, in 1911, International Women’s Day was born.
These are the women Shirtwaist Workers during a strike in New York 1909.
Over a century has passed and we have many freedoms to thank these brave women for, who took risks and sacrifices to create a safer world. However in many parts of the world we still have a long way to go for women to have an equal chance create the life they want to live.
It was interesting for me to meet many women in India in the artisan textile communities, and I have written about my encounter with them in my next blog post. This was the highlight of my whole trip to India and I found my interactions with them to be very thought provoking.