Organizing Women in the Industrial Workforce
Labor organizers discuss the rising number of women in the workforce and the urgent need for unionization to secure basic dignity and safety.
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At a joint open session of the Laundry Workers' Union and the Clerks' Union, speakers including Assistant State Labor Commissioner Mrs. B.H. Mason and Dr. Ida McIntyre highlighted the shift in industrial life. Mrs. Mason noted that women's participation in the economy had surged to over six million, yet many worked for sub-poverty wages. She urged women to organize to secure shorter hours and better conditions, specifically pushing for the enforcement of new plumbing ordinances requiring separate restrooms for sexes in workplaces. The meeting also included plans for a YWCA in Everett to support working girls with a cafeteria, rest room, and gymnasium.
“Just as men have secured for themselves shorter hours, better sanitary conditions, a higher wage, through the trade unions, so women must use the same means to bring like results.”
This meeting highlights the early 20th-century push for gender equity in the workplace, focusing on fundamental infrastructure like restroom access and childcare/community support—debates that continue to evolve in modern labor policy.
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