Women's Rights In The 1800s

When the Industrial Revolution began in the late 1800s, there were plenty of factory jobs available to both skilled and unskilled workers, but the working conditions were appalling. The typical workday was ten to twelve hours and most jobs exposed employees to dangerous conditions that led to tragic accidents. These risks included working in confined spaces with many other workers and being exposed to dust, heavy metals, and dangerous chemicals. Moreover, many low-income workers felt that enough was enough and felt that tolerating or accommodating low wages and unsafe working conditions was not an acceptable solution to their problems. Therefore, a number of labor movements and organizations, comprising people from various socio-economic backgrounds,
Specifically, in the beginning, they sought out black Americans in their unions and engaged with issues of racial equality. One of the WCTU's leaders, Frances Harper, sided with former abolitionists Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth, and others in favor of the Fifteenth Amendment and the inclusion of black males in political equality (Postel 156). However, she did not forget about women, especially black women, in this union, as she traveled to the south to lecture extensively across the former confederacy to campaign for their equal rights. Feeling so strongly about racial equality, Harper even urged white women to devote their time and resources to organizing among black women because it is their “moral duty” to do so. Of course, the WCTU did strive to achieve racial equality in their union, but it was evident that this effort failed rather quickly because the union doubted themselves that it would be beneficial for black Americans to push toward equality in their own country during the vote on temperance
Likewise, even within the vast and influential mass-production industries, such as the United Automobile Workers, instances of conscientiously enforced segregation and gender inequality persisted. To some degree, unions just lacked the capacity to prioritize their first mission overall. Racial and gender equality were two of the fundamental principles that most progressive unions strived to push for. Racial and gender equality stood as fundamental principles championed by many progressive unions. Yet, why did some of these unions deny the existence of racism within their ranks or backtrack on their commitment to these principles as they gained popularity? Perhaps they never wanted to push it; prioritizing maintaining the support of their predominantly white and male membership base over advocating for broader social justice principles was much easier during the