Erik Loomis28 июл., 15:03The name came from an offshoot of a men’s shoemakers union named the Knights of St. Crispin, which was founded in Wisconsin in 1867. The Daughters, building on both the Knights and their Lynn foundations, was mostly a union of shoemakers.
Erik Loomis28 июл., 15:03It had a quick growth spurt after the founding convention. By the end of the year, there were 24 lodges in 8 states. Mostly they were in the northeast, but also in Illinois in California. Its president was named Carrie Wilson and the VP was Abbie Jacques.
Erik Loomis28 июл., 15:04In the 1870 convention the Daughters created a concrete demand of equal pay with men for equal work. In 1872, 300 members of the union went on strike in Stoneham, Massachusetts. It failed, but another strike that year in Lynn succeeded and provided a key early victory for the union.
Erik Loomis28 июл., 15:04Because most of these workplaces employed men and women, it was necessary for the respective unions to work together.
Erik Loomis28 июл., 15:04Of course, it would make sense for us today that both men and women would be in the same union, but that was not the case in the early 1870s, when women’s work was seen as something that strong union workplaces for men would forestall because men could feed their families on their salaries.
Erik Loomis28 июл., 15:04Anyway, the women and men did not always agree, even when they struck together, And when there were divisions, the women tended to be more militant. So in 1871, the Knights and Daughters struck together.
Erik Loomis28 июл., 15:04When employers demanded that workers pay a $5 employment deposit that they would lose if they quit within three months, the men accepted it. But the women did not, refusing such a ridiculous demand.
Erik Loomis28 июл., 15:04They continued to strike and while they did not win that demand, a year later, they went on strike over the same issue and did win the elimination of it. Another 1872 strike won significantly higher wages for women in Lynn.
Erik Loomis28 июл., 15:05In 1874, members of the Daughters testified before Congress for the need for laws that lowered the maximum hours per day for women and children to ten. But by that time, the union was in rapid decline. The Panic of 1873 devastated industries such as shoemaking.
Erik Loomis28 июл., 15:05The last national convention of the Daughters was in 1872. By 1875, there wasn’t much of a national organization left.
