It’s a shame it takes tragedies for change to be enacted. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of 1911 could’ve been avoided if there was a value for human lives over profit and products. The factory comprised of mainly young female workers, 500 or so, packed in a factory making garments for 11-12 hours a day, every day, for 14 cents an hour. When the fire broke out the factory was not equipped to deal with it; only 1 working elevator, rusted hoses, and an exit door that opened inwardly, the workers couldn’t get out in time. Women were jumping to their deaths. This incident was so horrible that the public and activists took to the streets. The International Lady Garments Workers Union and The Sullivan Hoey Fire Prevention law birthed out of this tragedy, bringing forth fire safe factories conditions, minimum wage laws, etc. Eventually sweatshops in the US were no more. However, sweatshop labor for clothing companies in the US now depend on sweatshop labor overseas in countries like Bangladesh, where Triangle Shirtwaist conditions are STILL present and taking lives.
The Bangladesh Hameen factory fire of 2010 almost 100 years after the Triangle Shirtwaist factory, mirrored that tragedy exactly, only it didn’t result in drastic improvements. There was very little change and when the Bangladesh workers protested and demanded a raise of merely 35 cents hourly, they were beaten and brutalized by police. These people are asking for the bare minimum, and it is seen as an outrage. They are producing garments for billion dollar companies like Gap, Walmart, and H&M, who refuse to make working conditions safe for them and pay them higher wages. So many women and even children slaving away to make OUR clothes. This is a problem we, as American consumers, play a part in, it is not just a global issue, it is an American issue, and a feminist issue.
Jasmin H’s snapshot 7 that shared the article Bangladesh Garment Workers Reject Minimum Wage Hike, Call it a ‘Cruel Joke’ by Surangya, which was written in 2018, further shows how little change has occurred in Bangladesh sweatshops, even as more tragic sweatshop deaths occur. Conditions are still unsafe, the workers are not getting paid a livable wage, they are working well over full time hours, they have no rights to organize, its inhumane. “The poor working conditions of Bangladesh’s garment workers have been widely documented with the low wages regularly compelling them to work overtime in unsafe environments. More than 85% of the workforce comprises women, who have to work in the absence of basic amenities and without the proper enforcement of laws granting maternity leave and benefits.” (5). American women were liberated from the horrors of sweatshops and have many liberties that women overseas don’t have today. These women are oppressed by our consumption, our government, laws, and policies and by corporations exploitering them for cheap labor. As American feminists we owe it to the women overseas to advocate for US laws that holds corporations accountable for the horrors they commit to women, children, and people of color globally. We can’t turn a blind eye to the women we are playing a part in oppressing. These women don’t have the liberty to organize but we can organize on their behalf.
ERA
The National Women’s Party proposed the ERA/Equal Rights Amendment to the US Constitution in 1923, it states that equal rights cannot be denied based on sex. There’s a lot of controversy around this amendment; feminists and women in general are largely divided on whether they want this amendment passed. So far 38 States have passed this amendment, fulfilling the 3/5 requirement for it to be added to the Constitution however there’s still a series of steps to get pass before it is officially added to the Constitution. Personally, I think it will benefit women greatly because it would protect laws that concern women’s rights like abortion rights from constantly being attacked and repealed. There’s so much debate on whether it’s necessary but I think it is necessary because women are still not recognized as complete human beings who deserve of autonomy, property, employment, etc. However, I do think the amendment should be revised, adding a definition of equality that recognizes female specific liberties like maternity leave and expanding it to include trans women and gender nonconforming people. I simply don’t trust a patriarchal government to not pervert the intent of the amendment to mean treat women like men.
