2009/11/01 by John Thomas McGuire · 2 citations
Social Sciences · #Labor Movements and Unions #Race, History, and American Society #Political Economy and Marxism
paper · doi:10.1177/0096144209347990
openalex publication_date 2009/11/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21
This article argues that in her long career of political and labor activism, Rose Schneiderman (1882-1972) embarked on a quest for urban equity that took her from the tenets of socialism, which emphasized trade unionism, to the principles of social justice feminism, which advocated state activism through the passage and promotion of labor legislation. While social justice feminists wanted to both ameliorate the harsh effects of industrialization and urbanization and to change the social conditions of women, they often neglected the issues of class and race. I describe how Schneiderman changed that situation from 1911 through 1933 by lobbying for legislative changes in the Progressive Era, by establishing a partnership between social justice feminism and New York’s Democratic Party, and by assisting African American laundry workers in New York City from 1924 through 1933.