From the library collection of the National Women's History Alliance

Women in the Labor Movement  

We Were There: The Story of Working Women in America
by Barbara M. Wertheimer
This story documents the history of working women and their contributions to the American labor and trade union movements from colonial times to the early 20th century. The book covers diverse experiences, including those of Black women, factory workers, and white-collar employees, providing a comprehensive look at the conditions and struggles of women in the American workforce.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 399-417) and index. pub. 1977

 
The Belles of New England: The Women of the Textile Mills and the Families Whose Wealth They Wove
by William Moran
The Belles of New England is a masterful, definitive, and eloquent look at the enormous cultural and economic impact on America of New England's textile mills. The author, an award-winning CBS producer, traces the history of American textile manufacturing back to the ingenuity of Francis Cabot Lodge. The early mills were an experiment in benevolent, enlightened social responsibility on the part of the wealthy owners, who belonged to many of Boston's finest families. But the fledgling industry's ever-increasing profits were inextricably bound to the issues of slavery, immigration, and workers' rights.
Paperback – March 4, 2004, 320 pages

Kate Mullaney Historic Park 
This oversized magazine describes Mullaney's modest three-story brick house.  It is the only surviving building associated with Kate Mullany, a young Irish immigrant laundry worker who in 1864 organized and led the all-female "Collar Laundry Union" labor union.

Even though the women laborers of Lowell, Massachusetts and elsewhere had been organizing unions to protest working conditions and wages since the 1840s, early women's unions often only lasted as long as the particular issue under debate.

The Collar Laundry Union, unlike so many other unions, remained an organized force in the industries of Troy, New York more than five years after its inception. The origins of Kate Mullany's union date back to the 1820s, when entrepreneurs established the nation's first commercial laundry in Troy to wash, starch, and iron a local invention, the "detachable collar." By the 1860s, Troy supplied most of America's detachable collars and cuffs, employing over 3,700 women launderers, starchers, and ironers. Working 14-hour days for $2 a week, the women launderers labored in oppressive heat. When owners introduced new machinery that increased production but worsened working conditions, a young woman named Kate Mullany organized a union to demand change. In February of 1864, Mullany and 200 other workers formed the Collar Laundry Union. The well-organized union struck and demanded a 25-cent raise, and the laundry owners capitulated a week after the strike began. The Collar Laundry Union remained active in Troy, often assisting other unions, and even attempted to establish an employee cooperative.

Mullany herself gained national recognition in 1868, when National Labor Union President William Sylvis made her the first female appointed to a labor union's national office. One of the American labor movement's earliest women leaders, the home of Kate Mullany exemplifies a strong tradition of women's union activity.