This week’s article and documentaries were informative and an eye-opener to all the sacrifices and labor women had to go through to gain their freedom and have equal rights and privileges they deserve. After watching both documentaries “Triangle, shirtwaist factory fire” and “Triangle Return,” it was so shocking how a big factory-like that could have all its fire escape provision damaged at the same time and the doors locked for outside with no access for people inside the factory. From the documentaries, the triangle shirtwaist factory was the deadliest industrial disaster in New York which killed 146 people mostly young immigrant women. These women were treated like their lives were worth nothing, they worked 12 hours every day. This time-built momentum was a key moment in the growth of labor unions such as the ILGWU (International Ladies Garment Workers Union) and other progressive changes. The triangle shirtwaist factory fire served as a cautionary tale that helped to redefine America’s Industrial workplace. However, everything that the American people have won some years back is being destroyed as little has changed in the global sweatshop economy. The same fate and tragedy that occurred on March 25th, 1911, occurred on December 14th, 2010, at a factory in Bangladesh. According to “Triangle Return” about 29 workers were killed, and hundreds injured. These workers live in abject misery and were paid about 28 cents an hour mostly teenage young girls and young men. 

A classmate’s snapshots that really relate well with this issue was Heatherlee’s snapshots, their snapshots show an image of women who worked in a sweatshop factory many years ago, and the other also shows an image of women working in the sweatshop factory but in our present time because they were all putting on a mask on their faces. Looking at both images, we can see the women lined up in the same direction with their sewing machines producing goods for these factories that careless of their well-being. These women are not supposed to be subjected to work in these sweatshop factories where their hard work is not appreciated. We need international laws, minimum wage laws, etc. to protect the rights of young women who make these garments and all workers in the developing world. We have the right to have legislation that bans the import of child labor goods and sweetshop goods in the United States of America. We can do in the global economy what we did in our domestic economy and as we begin the race to the bottom in the global sweatshop economy, we can hold corporations accountable. 

The article “Virginia Just Became the 38th State to Pass the Equal Rights Amendment. Here’s What to Know About the History of the ERA” by Tara Law gives us a timeline process about the fight of feminist women to gain equal rights to vote and be added to the U.S. constitution. These women fought to make sure that the Equal Rights Amendment was passed, “but the amendment failed to gain much widespread support in the 1920’s party because it divided members of the women’s movement along class lines”. The Equal Rights Amendment was first written by Allen Paul who was also the founder of the National women’s party which was formerly the congressional Union party for women suffrage in 1913. The ERA was a step towards achieving equality for all people regardless of sex. They also used better and alternative ways to advocate for women’s rights to vote through parades, petitions, protests, and pickets and they later went on to challenge broader issues facing women in society. One of the Equal Rights Amendment says that “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on the account of Sex.” The Amendment was formed to advocate for women’s right to vote in 1923 by the national women’s Party, which later advocate for Equal Rights Amendment and broader issues facing women in society such as workplace protection. The Equal Rights Amendment in the 1920s could not get enough momentum due to individual differences among the women as some were seeking workplace Protection and some felt it could affect laws that made factories safer for working women. According to Jessica Neuwirth, a women’s rights lawyer, and a founder of ERA Coalition, she said: “suffrage advocates saw their work as remedying the intentional omission of women from the US Constitution because they were basically not full citizens who should have the right to vote.” The deadline for ratification by states was extended by three years from 1978 to 1982, but it did not yield any positive result as the required number of states needed to pass the Equal Rights Amendment was not meet up and most of those states neither had women in their states legislatures and had an ugly record of protecting women’s rights and people of color. The Virginia Equal Rights Amendment was a wonderful opportunity to pass the Amendment for a better and greater American Society that respects and values the rights of American women even though it has a major challenge. The Equal Rights Amendment has made positive gains and considerable progress in our society by addressing some issues faced by women in society even though the amendment has not been passed yet. Women are now aware of their rights both at home and at the workplace and this has a profound effect on the law and American Society. Advocates believe this could strengthen the legal basis to fight violence against women both in-office and at home plus workplace pay inequality. Professor Tracy Thomas of The University of Akron School of Law believes that protecting women’s rights in the Constitution would potentially have a major cultural impact positively.