Labor Issue: Women and Minority of the Past, Present, and Future
Rachel Galvan
National University
27 September 2009

At one point in everyone’s working career there is the issue of dealing with certain problems in the workplace. No matter how much a person will try to ignore the problems there comes a point where a certain individual or a group of people have to speak up and defend themselves. Many times it can be difficult to bring up a certain topic there is always a solution to a problem. In the United States the labor issues have became a common ground for employees to voice their own opinion, when they know that they were treated unfairly. Although that is a reality of today of labor issues, strikes, unions, that was the harsh reality of life one hundred years ago. The individuals who had the most difficult time to have their voice be heard were women and as well as immigrants. These group of people were considered as second-class and were not treated equally as men. Although, many argue that even today women and minorities will never be equals to Anglo men because of the past history that the United States has instilled by many even today in our generation. The roots of the American labor movement began after the American Revolution at that time women were not even considered a factor in the labor laws. During that era it was very common for women not to work, but their duties was to be a housewife. It all change when the industrial revolution was in the process and many people left their rural homes to move to the city in order to find a job that would be able to support their families back home. In some cases some of the people that moved where young and single women who knew that they can move easily from home to the city. Although it seem like a good idea for these young women to move to a different area of the country they did not know the consequences and difficult situations that they were about to face. As many young adults they have a certain imagination for a new city that they will be moving and expect everything to turn out the way it should, but the reality is not everything will be the way that they wished it should. In the article “Too Much of Distasteful Masculinity”; Historicizing Sexual Harassment in the Garment Sweatshop and Factory” Daniel E. Bender, describes an example of how a woman had to deal with working in the garment workplace and dealt with men who would take advantage of her and she would not know how to handle certain situations. “Pesha was not alone in her confrontation with sexual harassment. The memoirs of female and male garment workers suggest that everything from ‘salacious bantering and indecent ribaldry‘ to sexual demands rendered the garment sweatshop a sexualized workplace”. Pesha was uncomfortable with working with men who would used her and speak to her in sexual advances that she never approved of. She knew that she could not change her situation but to stay there until something better came along. Pesha was one of the few women at that time that felt that they had to stay there because they had no other choice, but to deal with the men that would make her feel less as of human. “Sexual harassment, defined by one historian as ‘unwanted pressure for sexual activity, that includes verbal innuendos and suggestive comments, leering, gestures, unwanted physical contact (touching, pinching, etc.), rape, and attempted rape,’ is cast as a constant of women’s sex-integrated labors”. No matter what the women did to prevent those unwanted circumstances they knew that nothing was going to change unless the left. Many did, but other like Pesha knew that there was no other choice but to stay in order to survive in a new city that they moved. The Daniel E. Bender continues throughout the article to explain her difficult situations that she was involved until the Pesha learns about the Women’s Trade Union League (WTUL). She knew that there were unions for men, but she could not have any of the benefits that she wanted and looked for or the common ground that she as well as other women felt. The WTUL is a “League as a way of uniting women from all classes to work for better working and living conditions. The WTUL advocated for an eight-hour workday, a minimum wage, and the abolition of child labor” (Carrell & Heavrin, 2010, pg. 69). The WTUL was the first national association dedicated to organizing women, this was the beginning of how women were becoming more involved in the union and have an opinion as to what they wanted in order to be treated equal. Unionization opened up an opportunity for women to resist sexual harassment and to share and explore strategies of resistance across boundaries of ethnicity as well as religion. Not only were women dealing with segregation in the workplace. During the 1960’s the Civil Rights was the beginning of many minority groups wanting equal rights and opportunities that they were unable to have before. One group of individuals who made an impact in 1970’s was the Chicano movement and the United Farm Workers Organizing Union. Although the United Farm Workers made a great impact towards the Mexican immigrants in the United States as many organizations one issue that was not dealt with was the women. Although the first union for women began in the 1900‘s the majority of the women were based in the East Coast while the United Farm Workers Organizing Union began in the West coast such as California. By the time Chicanas learned about union from their counterparts they realized that they also needed to unionized themselves in order to understand each other as Mexican Americans. In the article “Women power will stop those grapes: Chicana organizers and middle-class female supporters in the Farm Workers Grape Boycott, 1969-1970”, Margaret Rose describes that “These female boycotters launched a successful appeal to the local community, particularly to women, to support the farm workers’ campaign for social justice during the turbulent struggles for civil, political, and economic rights in the decades of the 1960 and 1970s”. During that time many women were still struggling to balance their personal life as well as work. Even though many men believed that women should stay at home especially Mexican American and immigrant men believe in the Machismo in where women should stay at home, these women contradict those beliefs. They knew that even though they were working with the Farm Workers Organizing Committee there was still some bias as to how and who was treated unfairly. They felt as though they could not go to their counterparts because of the machismo ideologies that have been brought upon in the Mexican culture for centuries. Although many would argue that Chicanas would and could be able to be part of the Women’s Trade Union League (WTUL) that was not the case. “Working-class Chicanas in the UFW demonstrated a greater job consciousness, sensitivity to racial prejudice, and awareness of class tensions than their middle-class, Anglo, housewife allies, whose activism grew largely out of a tradition of philanthropic benevolence and voluntarism” (Rose, 1995). Although both of the organizations that the women were involved had completely different perspectives as far as what they wanted in return to benefit their own community. In the end Chicanas knew that no matter how much they tried to work with Anglo housewives there was no common ground since both parties had different points of view of what they wanted from their male counterparts. Although Chicanas wanted equality and same benefits as the Anglo women Chicanas knew that they would not get the same benefits because of the different movements that were starting to happen at that time as well as the different cultural backgrounds that they had in which became difficult to understand one another. Another minority group that understood the way Chicanas felt as being as though they were not important African American women. In a census in 1999 of the Bureau of Labor Statistics Black women although were attending college and receiving a Bachelors, Masters or a PHD degree than before they were still obtaining less pay than any other minority group in the United States. “Despite the larger premiums to education among black women, however, their earnings were still lower than the average for all workers at all three degree levels”. So no matter how much minority women worked in order to achieve the same goals and aspirations that many women and men desire they will still not be accountable for the same amount of pay that they should received. This was one of the issues that Chicanas knew that Anglo housewives would not understand their struggle because of the different backgrounds and point of view that each one had. Throughout all the struggles and the suffrage that our generation before us had to endure these women made it possible for young women to succeed in life and be able to support themselves no matter what situation they might be, either single, a mother, or a widower. “The primary purpose of this National Coalition is to unify all union women in a viable organization to determine our common problems and concerns and to develop action programs within the framework of our unions to deal effectively with our objectives. (Carrell & Heavrin, 2010, pg. 98). By having the opportunity to fight for a union for women no matter if the person was Anglo, African American, Mexican-American, or an immigrant each individuals has and will have a chance to work in a stable and suitable working conditions that the women demanded. Not only are women able to work with men and have the equal rights that our past wanted and finally had for the future generation to enjoy women are going beyond than what many expected. By having the Equal Pay Act passed in change dramatically for women who knew that it was a step closer to be treated as equal in the workforce. In our society today many women are self-employed “One in 15 employed women was self-employed in her main job in 1990; the decision to become self-employed appears intricately linked with several other decisions for a woman-as an individual, as a household member, and over the course of her life” (Devine, pg. 23). Although this census was taken in 1990 there are many more women today that have their own successful business. Not only are women in the self-employed field minority women are also taking advantage and using their knowledge and skill to be a self-employee in order to support their family the way the feminist women’s movement wanted for all women in the United States to achieve. Even though for many people across the globe have a perceptions that the United States has an equal opportunity the reality of it all is that women today are still being considered as equals to men. there are many companies in which women are still seen as second class citizens and will only amount to a certain criteria that they can only full-fill because of their gender. Not everyone understands or would like to admit that labor issues that deals with women and minority are still present in our society because it is considered a form of taboo. The reality of it all is that women and minority still have to work twice as more as white men in order to be recognized for the same task and skills that both genders have obtained. The labor issues have come far from where our past relatives experience and have giving so much to many women who have taken the opportunity to obtained the knowledge and skills that they have. There is still so much work to be done and by having a union such as the United Farm Workers Organized Unions, Women’s Trade Union League, and Coalition of Labor Union Women, there can still be much more accomplishments that our future generation can benefit the same way we as women and minority have from our past generations who fought for our success in life.

Reference
Bender, Daniel E. (2004). “Too Much of Distasteful Masculinity”: Historicizing Sexual Harassment in the Garment Sweatshop and Factory. Journal of Women’s History, 15 (4), 91-116. Retrieved September 20, 2009, from GenderWatch (GW). (Document ID: 574862661).
Bureau of Labor Statistics. (1999). Black women report highest earnings premium for additional education. TED: The Editor’s Desk. Retrieved from http://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/1999/ feb/wk1/art03.htm
Carrell, M. & Heavrin, C. (2010). Labor Relations and Collective Bargaining (9th ed.). New Jersey: Pearson Prentice-Hall.
Devine, Theresa J. (1994). Characteristics of self-employed women in the United States. Monthly Labor Review, (117), 20-34. Retrieved from http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/1994/03/ artfull.pdf
Rose, Margaret. (1995). “Woman power will stop those grapes”; Chicana organizers and middle- class female supporters in the Farm Workers’ grape Boycott, 1969-1970. Journal of Women’s History, 7(4), 6. Retrieved September 14, 2009, from GenderWatch (GW). (Document ID: 9443340).