{"id":11393,"date":"2016-07-05T15:34:09","date_gmt":"2016-07-05T19:34:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bportlibrary.org\/hc\/?p=11393"},"modified":"2017-01-12T16:52:02","modified_gmt":"2017-01-12T21:52:02","slug":"in-the-voting-booth-and-on-the-shop-floor-women-fought-for-parity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bportlibrary.org\/hc\/labor\/in-the-voting-booth-and-on-the-shop-floor-women-fought-for-parity\/","title":{"rendered":"In the Voting Booth and on the Shop Floor, Women Fought for Parity"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Steve Thornton<\/em><\/p>\n

Their names are not well known today: Ruth Scott, Elsie Vervane, Mrs. C. Weaver and her daughter Eva, But these Bridgeport workers played an important role in the historic campaign for the right to vote.They were four of thirteen Connecticut women who had been arrested and sentenced to jail for participating in the Washington D.C. \u201cWatchfire\u201d protests in January, 1919.\u00a0 All four worked in the city\u2019s munitions industry; Vervane was president of the Bridgeport Women\u2019s Machinist Union local.<\/p>\n

The voting booth and the shop floor were two important arenas in the fight for the women\u2019s franchise. In the early 20th century, suffragists sought to change the U.S. Constitution, while women trade unionists demanded parity with men in the state\u2019s factories and garment shops. When these two movements intersected\u2013 in Bridgeport and around the country\u2013 both groups came closer to their common goal of equality.<\/p>\n

Suffragists also challenged the shameful practice of child labor. Three million U.S. children between the ages of 10 and 16 were wage earners in 1915. Disease and high injury rates were widespread in Connecticut mills; effective workplace safety laws and factory inspections were almost non-existent. Women\u2019s groups educated their members on the harsh reality of young factory and mill workers. The groups agitated for a federal ban on child labor, pensions for mothers, and education reform. \u2028\u2028Local suffragists, who were largely middle and upper class, knew they had to win over working class women who would also benefit from the vote. They consciously included working women in their activities. \u201cOnly by having all women enfranchised on equal terms with men can the protection of women and girls be accomplished,\u201d suffragists declared.<\/p>\n

Connecticut women took part in the civil disobedience actions in Washington D.C. organized by the National Women\u2019s Party (NWP), a militant national group that was ramping up the pressure on state and federal authorities.\u00a0 At their \u201cWatch Fire of Freedom\u201d protests they burned speeches by Woodrow Wilson in front of the White House, and once burned the president himself in effigy.<\/p>\n

As NWP organizer Doris Stevens explained\u00a0in her book\u00a0Jailed for Freedom<\/em>, while 500 women took part in the agitation, \u201cscores of women were arrested but never brought to trial; many others were convicted and their sentences suspended or appealed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Conservative trade unions clung to the notion that they could maintain their relatively privileged status by ignoring all workers except those who were white, skilled, and male. But progressive unionists like those found in the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW, or Wobblies) understood the need not only to organize women but to make sure they took their rightful place as leaders and organizers. For the first two decades of the 20th century, famed agitators Elizabeth Gurley Flynn and Bridgeport\u2019s Matilda Rabinowitz organized both male and female factory workers for the Wobblies in Bridgeport and throughout the state. \u2028\u2028In this state, some male trade unionists took up the cause of women\u2019s political rights. Machinists\u2019 union organizer Sam Lavit of Bridgeport had \u201cdone more for the National Women\u2019s Party in Connecticut than any other man\u201d declared a leading suffragist.<\/p>\n

But maybe the most telling moment in the effort to build a coalition between the women\u2019s and union movements came at the 1916 state convention of the Connecticut State Federation of Labor.\u00a0 Although its national body was on record in support of women\u2019s suffrage, local labor leaders balked when a suffrage resolution reached their meeting.<\/p>\n

The resolution was opposed by union cigar makers and saloon keepers, who considered the effort a job-killer because they equated suffrage with prohibition (another movement also largely led by women). Ironically, the few union women who were voting delegates also opposed the resolution, arguing that suffrage was a political question, not an economic one. \u201cWhen we were asking the legislature for better working hours for women did we get help from the suffragists?\u201d asked one hostile delegate. \u201cYes, I spoke for the measure,\u201d a suffragist retorted.\u2028\u2028 Despite parliamentary maneuvers to keep the resolution from being voted on, a heated discussion ensued. The motion passed, as did another to reduce hours of work for women.<\/p>\n

By 1920, the federal Women\u2019s Suffrage Amendment was finally ratified by the requisite number of thirty-six states.\u00a0 The Connecticut General Assembly came in thirty-seventh.<\/p>\n

Steve Thornton is a retired union organizer who writes for the Shoeleather History Project.<\/em>
\n—
\nThe Shoeleather History Project, Stories from Hartford’s grassroots
\nwww.ShoeleatherHistoryProject.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Steve Thornton Their names are not well known today: Ruth Scott, Elsie Vervane, Mrs. C. Weaver and her daughter Eva, But these Bridgeport workers played an important role in the historic campaign for the right to vote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":11961,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[37,55,61],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-labor","category-social-justice","category-women"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bportlibrary.org\/hc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bportlibrary.org\/hc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bportlibrary.org\/hc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bportlibrary.org\/hc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bportlibrary.org\/hc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11393"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bportlibrary.org\/hc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11393\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12129,"href":"https:\/\/bportlibrary.org\/hc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11393\/revisions\/12129"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bportlibrary.org\/hc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bportlibrary.org\/hc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bportlibrary.org\/hc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bportlibrary.org\/hc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}