Agnes Nestor

Born this day in 1880: Agnes Nestor (1880–1948), labor leader and social reformer.

Nestor was known especially for her role in unionizing women workers. She founded the International Glove Workers Union of America and served as its president from 1913 to 1916 and its vice president from 1916 to 1939. She led strikes resulting in higher wages and better working conditions and the organization of the Chicago Women’s Trade Union League, which she led from 1913 to 1948. She played a leading role in the passage of an Illinois law limiting women’s working hours to 10 hours per day. She developed worker education programs and helped write the Smith-Hughes Act of 1917, which provided the first federal aid for vocational education. She is also remembered for her work in child-labor, minimum wage, maternity health, and woman suffrage legislation.

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Mary Kenney O’Sullivan

“I was convinced that the workers must organize. Someone must go from shop to shop and find out where the workers were that were willing to work for better working conditions. I must be that someone.” —Mary Kenney O’Sullivan

Born this day in 1864: Mary Kenney O’Sullivan (1864–1943), social reformer and labor organizer; first woman general organizer of the American Federation of Labor

O’Sullivan was born Mary Kenney to Irish immigrants in Hannibal, Missouri. She began working at a young age and by 14 was apprenticed in a book bindery. She worked in binderies in Missouri, Iowa, and then Chicago. She became frustrated that the higher-paying positions were not open to women, and at the same time grew increasing appalled at the working and living conditions of workers, especially working women. She organized the women book binders of Chicago, receiving support from Jane Addams and her Hull House settlement house.

In 1892 labor leader Samuel Gompers appointed Kenney as a general organizer for the American Federation of Labor. She was the first woman to hold that position. For the AF of L she organized garment workers in New York and printers, binders, shoe workers, and carpet weavers in Massachusetts. She clashed with AF of L leaders over their lack of support for equal opportunity and pay for women workers, and the executive council did not renew her contract the following year.

In 1893 she returned to Chicago, organizing garment workers and successfully lobbying the state legislature for labor reforms. She also lobbied for women suffrage and age of consent laws.

In 1894 she married John F. O’Sullivan, a local labor leader in Boston. The couple had four children. O’Sullivan continued her labor organizing and reform work. In 1903 she cofounded the Women’s Trade Union League. This organization brought working class women together with middle class and wealthy women to support labor reform for women and to help them form unions. In 1914 she broke with mainstream labor to support striking textile workers in Lawrence, Massachusetts. She brought their case to the state investigating committee and helped the strikers negotiate for significant wage increases.

O’Sullivan was herself heavily involved in investigations and inspections of working conditions. She established the Union for Industrial Progress, which studied working conditions in factories and workshops. As she did in Illinois, in Massachusetts she lobbied for passage of laws regulating factory conditions. She was then appointed as a Massachusetts factory inspector for the Division of Industrial Safety, a position she held for 20 years (1914 to 1934).

Her other reform work included running a settlement house and advocating for woman suffrage, prohibition, and pacifism.

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President’s Commission on the Status of Women

Eleanor Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy
(President's Commission on the Status of Women, 02/12/1962)

On this day in 1961: President John F. Kennedy established the President’s Commission on the Status of Women to investigate the economic, political, and legal status of women

The idea for the commission was submitted to President Kennedy in June of 1961 by Esther Peterson, the assistant secretary of labor for women’s affairs. The commission studied the condition of women’s rights in the workplace and education. It investigated federal employment policies and practices, wages, the effects of social insurance programs and tax laws on women’s income; federal and state policies on hours and wages; differences in legal treatment of men and women in regard to political, civil, and property rights and family relations; and creation of services such as job training, home services, and daycare services. Among its study committees, the commission included a committee to investigate issues particular to African American women and a committee to investiage the portrayal of women in the mass media.

Eleanor Roosevelt was named head of the commission. Its 26 members included educators, writers, women’s rights advocates, union leaders, several Cabinet members, and members of Congress (including women members!).

The report submitted the following year documented systematic discrimination against women in the workplace. It made recommendations to the federal government as well as to the private sector. Recommendations included

• vocational and continuing education
• childcare services and related tax deductions
•  equal opportunity in employment
• extensions to the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to cover additional categories
• comprable work laws
• union rights
• litigating equal rights, including passage of the ERA
• encouraging women to serve in elective and appointive offices at all levels of government
• Cabinet level appointment to implement recommendations.

The recommendations were not taken up very quickly (still waiting!), but some changes were made in the years following publication of the report. At the federal level, Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act of 1963. Also in 1963, Washington State created the first state-level commission. Within  four years nearly all states formed their own commissions on the status of women. These commissions became advocates for women’s equality within their states. 

Follow the link for the text of Executive Order 10980.

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In Other News:

Born this day in 1897: Margaret Chase Smith (R-Maine), first woman to serve in both houses of Congress.   

On this day in 1970: The National Press Club decided to admit women members.

On this day in 1985: Wilma Mankiller became the first woman chief of the Cherokee nation.

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