This week we looked into the labor laws and the concerns of women in the work field. As we may know, women were not allowed to work for many many years and it wasn’t until recent history where we can see that change and women slowly making their way into the workspace. Unfortunately, when women began working, they did not have the proper rights and laws that’ll properly and equally protect them within the work field. This week’s videos, “Triangle Returns” and “Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire” alongside another reading vividly described this time with the example of the unfortunate event of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Disaster. 

Throughout history, we have been able to see the baby steps taken in society to help and protect women. In recent history, women have been granted the right to work, in any field they chose. However, they have not always and still aren’t protected within their workspace. From monetary inequality to safety precautions, women have been facing many difficulties while trying to make a simple living in a work area they enjoy or simply need. In the youtube video “Triangle Shirtwaist Factory” We hear about the unfortunate event of March 24th, 1911 where a factory in NYC caught on fire. This factory employed about 500 women who worked extremely long hours for less than minimum wage. In this incident, the women were trapped in the building for 18 minutes total where they couldn’t leave because the energy exits were locked by management to prevent items from being stolen or removed from factory premises. This factory also lacked a sprinkler system which also led to the fire spreading in the building, causing the death of 146 women total. It took this very horrifying incident alongside protests due to the incident for rights and laws to be passed to protect women in the workplace. More than 100,000 workers protested demanding safer environments in the workspace. Because of this, laws and rules were passed that demanded automatic sprinklers indoors, as well as fire exits could not be locked. 30 years later, minimum wage laws were passed, time and a half(overtime hours) law was passed and the working middle class was created. Watching this was very saddening knowing it took a very unfortunate event for women to receive basic protection within the work field. The most upsetting fact of this event was hearing about the owners of the factory trial. The owners went to trial for this incident that was ruled as murder as it could have been prevented, and they were found not guilty. As management, it is your responsibility to make sure your environment is safe for the workers, no matter the incident. There should be no reason why these owners cared more about a few products being stolen, that they had to block emergency exits, than the lives of their workers. While this event may seem so long ago, a few months after its 100th anniversary, another fire broke out, this time across the world in Bangladesh. This event happened exactly the same as the Triangle shirtwaist. Factory-filled with employees, a fire broke out, employees couldn’t leave due to emergency exits being closed off and no automatic sprinklers to put out a fire. After 100 years of the world becoming more advanced, having new technologies and over 50 years of laws to protect employees from events like these put into place, it was super unfortunate and saddening knowing that while we think we take 1 step forward we actually take 3 steps back. 100 years is more than enough time to realize working conditions and there should be no excuse why the same exact event happened twice within such a long timespan from each other. 

Lastly, a snapshot that caught my eye this week was a post made by classmate Heatherlee. They posted a side-by-side image comparison of working conditions in factories for women. The first image is a black and white image of factory workers, while the second image is a colored image, as the people in the image appear to be wearing face coverings due to the recent Pandemic. In both images, women are lined up, hand sewing and hand manufacturing goods. I believe that we should be taking steps forward in society when it comes to factories. These people should not be working in sweatshops where they work extremely long hours for little to almost no pay at all. Technology has advanced a ton and employers from these huge mega-millionaire companies should be able to pay above minimum wage if they want to keep handmade products. If they can’t “afford” this pay, they should be using machinery in factories to protect these workers from these horrible working conditions.

            The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire incident has caused realizations across the globe, the conditions many individuals work under. We learn of a sad tragedy that had befallen some young people who strived to live better. During the early twentieth century, a disaster occurred, which lead to about 146 people losing their lives, majority of them being women. A factory where clothes were made had caught fire, but unfortunately in both buildings (the only ways to get out), there was zero chance of escape. One side was filled with smoke, the other locked by owners/ supervisors to prevent workers from having breaks constantly, and to also avoid any materials from getting stolen. With obvious no chance of survival, some of these people who were caught up in the fire decided to jump from the eighth, nineth floor. They did this with the purpose that their families would at least have access to their bodies. This incident is said to be one of the most horrifying, that had ever occurred in the history of New York. Thousands of people marched to demand for amendment, for secure working conditions. Countless felt raging anger, at the unjust manner at which those young workers died, caused them to protest for change. A fight for change, a fight that prevailed and secured benefits for the minimum wage-earning individual. A fight that had set a light at the end of the tunnel. 

Nevertheless, going forth in our very twenty first century, a similar event transpired in a country in the South part of Asia. Almost the exact situation as the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, the building had caught fire, the exit doors were locked. Again, some of the worker jumped through the windows so their families could have their bodies. This circumstance described and its similarities to that of the one that occurred years ago is what the speaker terms as, “race to the bottom”. Something that had taken place almost a century ago was repeating itself, just that this time it was in Bangladesh. A sad part of this was that their wages earned were way less, compared to the workers of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory hundred years ago. The clothes they make when exported, sell for more than what they make in a week. They work for more than eight hours every day but get paid so little. These workers live in immense poverty as a result. It is a good thing however, that laws are getting implemented to stop the importing of goods made by minors for these big named corporations, who only take advantage of them.

Keeping up with the Women’s Suffrage movement from previous readings, which focused on the ratification of the 19^th amendment, to enforce the voting rights of all citizens, both men and women. The equal rights amendments was yet to be discussed, or even ratified. Alice Paul was a highly educated woman, she had degrees in different fields of study. Alice was the writer of the Equal Rights Amendments. She managed to convince her colleagues to use tactics to get what they believed was right, tactics which were termed as “civil disobedience”. 

This week I read an Article and two short documentaries which were heartbreaking to watch. In the Youtube video “The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire” I learned that on Saturday, March 25, 1911, a fire broke out on the top floors of the Triangle Shirtwaist factory. Firefighters arrived at the scene, but their ladders weren’t tall enough to reach the upper floors of the 10-story building. Trapped inside because the owners had locked the fire escape exit doors, workers jumped to their deaths. In half an hour, the fire was over, and 146 of the 500 workers mostly young women were dead. The shirtwaist makers, as young as age 15, worked seven days a week, from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. with a half-hour lunch break. During the busy season, the work was nearly non-stop. They were paid about $6 per week. In some cases, they were required to use their own needles, thread, irons, and occasionally their own sewing machines. The factories also were unsanitary, or as a young striker explained, “unsanitary that’s the word that is generally used, but there ought to be a worse one used.” At the Triangle factory, women had to leave the building to use the bathroom, so management began locking the steel exit doors to prevent the “interruption of work” and only the foreman had the key. 

In the Youtube video, “Triangle Returns”, Charles Kernaghan discusses the “Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire” which was the deadliest industrial disaster of New York City, and the horror of the 2010 Ha-Meem factory fire in Bangladesh occurring almost 100 years after the anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. In Bangladesh, workers work 12 to 14 hours a day and 7 days a week, and 1 day off a month. They live a life that we can’t even imagine. Bangladesh is the 3rd largest export to the governments to the United States. The workers would get $0.28 an hour. When workers protested, demanding just 35 cents an hour as opposed to the 28 cents per hour wage they were being paid because it was just too less, they were denied this by Walmart and other mega-corporations. The workers were beaten by the police in Bangladesh and 80% of them were young women. It feels so sad and heartbroken even nowadays those hard-working women earn $0.28 an hour. 

In the article, “Virginia Just Became the 38th State to Pass the Equal Rights Amendment. I learned that on January 15, Virginia became the latest state to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), a proposed amendment to the Constitution that guarantees equal rights for women. The Constitution provides that amendments take effect when three-quarters of the states ratify them, putting the current threshold at 38 states. 

My classmate Keven Kimble’s snapshot was very powerful to me. The snapshot was about the Rana Plaza factory which is in Bangladesh the country I came from. The factory collapsed killed 1100 innocent hard-working people. I remember I was watching TV with my whole family and we all were shocked for weeks. There was no protection for all of those hard-working people. I loved Glory Kaul wilson’s snapshot. The snapshot says “ No self-respecting woman should wish or work, for the success of a party that ignores her sex”. I completely agree with it. We need the factory to respect women’s rights and protect their privacy and safety. 

  This week we looked at women’s rights and worker’s rights. In the first video, The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, we learned about a New York City sweatshop in the early 1900s. Employees, who were mostly young immigrant women, worked 11-12 hours. On March 25, 1911, a terrible fire broke out in the factory. There was no working hose to stop it and the fire quickly spread. There was only one fire escape but it collapsed and one working elevator in the entire building that also eventually stopped functioning. The stairs in the building led to locked doors that only opened from one side and many were trapped. Unfortunately, fire fighting technology was not advanced enough to combat the high altitudes of New York’s high buildings. The whole event spanned for eighteen minutes and resulted in 146 deaths. Eventually this led to a funeral protest march that 350,000 people attended. The owners of the building however, were not found guilty of manslaughter.

   In the second video, Triangle Returns, we learn that 125 of the 146 dead from the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory were young women. This led to unions forming and demanding better conditions and rights. By 1938, all sweatshops had been eliminated from the United States. Unfortunately, the rest of the world has not been able to do the same. The video tells us that on December 14, 2010, a fire broke out in Bangladesh in a sweatshop. The fire resulted in 29 dead. The families of the deceased were paid $2,080 by the company for the deaths. The workers of the factory made only 28 cents an hour, barely any more than what employees made in the triangle shirtwaist factory in 1911. The workers of the Bangladeshi factory worked 12-14 hours a day, seven days a week with one day off per month. Bangladesh is the third largest exporter to the United States. Workers have tried to protest for 35 cents an hour but were met with violence by the police. History repeats itself here. 

  The TIME magazine article writes about the Equal Rights Amendment. The amendment says that rights should not be denied on account of sex and that congress has the power to enforce this rule. The amendment was originally written in 1923 by Alice Paul. In the early 1900s, Paul joined demonstrations for the British suffragist movement and returned to the US using confrontational techniques she learned and used over there. In 1913, Paul and Lucy Burns formed the National Women’s Party and four years later she was imprisoned for seven months for picketing the White House. An opponent of the ERA was Phyllis Schlafly, she began a movement called STOP ERA. Schlafly argued that ERA would destroy the traditional American family and would lead to gender neutral bathrooms and women being drafted into war. Moving forward to today, the amendment has still not been passed but would impact the fight against violence towards women, pay inequality, maternity leave and abortion rights. 

  My classmate, Hannah Nichols posted an interesting info graphic on child labor in the era of COVID-19. I think it’s very deliberate that companies are reaching out to smaller farms and factories for the production of their products. If they can’t trace it they won’t know and be held less responsible for who is making whatever makes them money. 

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire was a horrific event which occurred due to gross negligence on the part of the owners. One way that workers are exploited is by not paying them a living wage which ensures they must work 12 or more hour days. No one should be forced to work 12 or more hours per day. The most disturbing part of this week’s videos and reading are thinking about the fact that this goes on today. It is truly multinational corporations who run the world. Modern technology, conveniences, and luxuries that we all use every day were created though exploitative labor practices by corporations in developing countries. In the US, workers continue to be exploited in places like the Tyson meat packing factories and Amazon Warehouses. 

            In the Youtube video, “Triangle Returns”, Charles Kernaghan discusses the horror of the 2010 Ha-Meem factory fire in Bangladesh occurring almost 100 years after the anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. Kernaghan states that in this economy, workers work 7 days per week, with one day off per month and live in abject conditions. When workers protested, demanding just 35 cents an hour as opposed to the 28 cents per hour wage they were being paid, they were denied this by Walmart and other mega corporations. They were also beaten by local police. 

            Heatherlee’s snapshot perfectly depicts how far we still have to come in our efforts to do away with sweatshops. Their snapshot is a photo of women working in sweatshops around 100 years ago juxtaposed with a photo of women sweatshop laborers today. Why does it take death of workers suffering in these deplorable conditions for sweatshop exploitation to make the news? Products that we use every day were created through exploitation. Factories in China where the Apple iPhone is made have suicide nets surrounding their buildings. For them it’s more sensible to install suicide nets to keep people from killing themselves then it is to provide workers with livable wages and working conditions. 

            Another event that we looked at this week which could be seen as a sign of progress or a disappointment depending on how you look at it was Virginia becoming the 38^th state to ratify the century old Equal Rights Amendment. This Amendment was originally written in 1923. In 1972, Phyllis Schlafly, a real-life version of Serena Joy from Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, was the bill’s biggest opponent. Schlafly wanted to preserve the rights of women as “wives and mothers”. 

            It’s a travesty that the Equal Rights Amendment has yet to be passed. The fact that an entire political party prides itself on making sure that the constitution never explicitly states that people can’t be discriminated against on the basis of sex is a crime. If the Equal Rights Amendment were ratified today, we wouldn’t have to constantly fight for the right for safe access to abortion. Laws that are being passed in Texas today are attempts at erasing decades worth of progress in the fight for women’s rights. 

This week we read an article as well as watched two short videos was very devastating to watch. To continue the discussion of women’s suffrage, this week we were educated on the labor conditions women faced in the 1900s. After a terrible tragedy women joined together and began the Labor Organizing and the ERA in the 20th century. In the first video, “The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire” we saw a tragedy that happened in 1911. I’ve heard about this event before in history classes, it is famous and well known. It is one of the best examples to use when discussing labor abuse. The video begins by telling us the Immense of hours young women were working at this factory. Day in and day out these young immigrant women would work making shirtwaists. One evening a fire broke out at the factory and the narrator lists everything that went wrong that led to the deaths of 146 women. The fire couldn’t be put out because the hose was rusted! Just hearing that shocks me every time, and makes me think how terrible the working conditions must have been if a safety hose was rusted! Workers couldn’t escape because only one elevator was in service that broke down during the fire, they also couldn’t take the stairs because the door was locked. Hearing this event always makes me upset, the factory owners did nothing to protect their workers. These women were treated like their lives were worth nothing, the factory owners only cared about making money. What makes this even more unjust is after the community gathered and protested the two factory workers, Max Blanck and Isaac Harris were acquitted of their crime. The only good outcome of this tragedy is the reform created to protect labor workers. Starting with the ILGWU and laws being passed. One of these laws called the Sullivan-Hoey fire prevention law that requires sprinklers at factories.

  In the second video, “Triangle Returns” the director (Charles Kernaghan) of the institute for global labor and human rights narrates explaining in depth of the shirtwaist factory fire. He describes the deaths the young women faced. They had two choices to die by fire or by jumping out of the burning building. It was a graphic video to watch, seeing bodies on the floor. Charles Kernaghan argues that little has changed in the global sweatshop economy. He proves his argument by explaining another tragic fire that happened in Bangladesh on December 14, 2010. A fire broke out at a factory that was eleven stories high. Again just like the Shirtwaist Factory Fire the workers could not get out because the stairs exit were locked. The video continues by showing the workers jumping out of the eleven-story building. Again labor workers have to choose between burning to death or having a recognizable body to give their families. It’s terrible. Nobody should have to make that choice. Kernaghan continues by expressing his frustration with the labor workers’ pay. Working hours and hours for cents a day. When big companies refuse to give their workers a raise. In addition, my classmates’ snapshot, Heatherlee. shows a picture that appears to be an old photo of labor workers with a photo of today’s labor workers. Although both are taken years apart there are still labor workers who look unhappy. 

Lastly, we read 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.” It is a powerful and educational article that explains the timeline process the ERA went through. This article first begins by telling us Virginia became the 38th state to vote to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. As a result, fulfilling the requirement that three-quarters of the states must approve an Amendment in order to add it to the U.S. Constitution. However, the article explains there is a long road ahead before that happens. What stood out to me in the article was when it says, “Advocates say that the amendment is held back by the sense among some people that it’s not necessary, but proponents argue that it could strengthen the legal basis for combating violence against women, pay inequality and maternity leave.” What surprised me was that we still are fighting for women’s equality on all sides. Some argue the ERA is not “necessary,” how is it not necessary? To have laws that protect women? While others argue the usual argument, that it would give us the equality we deserve but the higher power does not want to give us. It reminds me of the reading we read before, “Feminist Politics: Where We Stand” by Bell Hooks. When she argues the feminist movement can not be achieved if women will fight with each other. I think the article and the two videos we watched this week goes to show the struggle women face. We are caged, in the 1900s women were caged in working environments and today we are caged in stereotypes and inequality.

In the early 20th century women became more involved in politics and in the economy. They participated in labor movements and organizations to advocate for rights in the workplace and unions which were influenced by an industrial disaster, a fire in New York City’s Triangle Shirtwaist Company in 1911. It was a tragedy that killed about 146 out of the 500 employees who were primarily young immigrant women, most being teenagers rather. These women were all working under harsh and inhumane conditions that consisted of poor pay, punishing schedules and tedious work. The fire that occurred was a result of a poorly made building the women worked in, where the hose malfunctioned due to it being rusted and rotten and there was no sprinkler system in case of an emergency like this was to happen. Not even the ways to exit the building was safe or secure enough to get everyone out alive. I am shocked by the way these women had sacrificed their lives through the hard work they were faced with and on top of that struggling to survive through a disastrous fire. I can understand why the public, especially the women during this time, was frustrated, demanding change and ways to improve factory safety standards in the workplace. This helped start the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union that served to fight for better working conditions for sweatshop workers. It continued to pave the way to protect the rights of women even from the sex discrimination and inequality that prevent them from having equal opportunities and to succeed economically as working individuals. They were being limited to these rights as this was not considered as the traditional role of a woman in society who were originally stay at home mothers and wives. 

The Equal Rights Amendment followed up once women fought for political equality which was the 19th Amendment allowing women the right to vote. The ERA failed to pass because the ratification deadline had passed and not every state contributed to the amendment.There has been some controversy with the way the ERA would affect women’s rights. In 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 in TIME Magazine states “advocates say that the amendment is help back by the sense among some people that it’s not necessary, but proponents argue that it could strengthen the legal basis for combating violence against women, pay inequality and maternity leave” (Law 6). This means that the law and American society don’t acknowledge the fact that women are still lacking that political and economic support that does not guarantee them legal equal rights among men. Some believe this amendment may negatively affect men. I don’t see anything wrong with a woman bringing home the same amount of money as her husband because at least they can provide for each other and their family together to build and grow a stable household. 

In Sadira’s snapshot one of the images represented different name brand and designer logos featuring the hard working people behind the labor of it all. I find it upsetting that throughout society some people always think they need to have the newest or most popular item on the market whether it’s clothes or sneakers just because of its name brand. These items are just overpriced and expensive just because the company only cares about trends and profits. Brands like Nike, Gap, Chanel and Polo Ralph Lauren either were or might still be accused of using sweatshops internationally to produce and manufacture their products. The problem with that is similar to the disadvantages the women who worked in the Triangle Sweatshirt Factory faced such as unfair wages, poor working conditions, underaged employees, and a lack of benefit and safety for workers. This is more of a reason for people to realize why we may take life for granted when there are others out there who have no other options to financially support their families. Moreover sweatshops also violate human rights with women being the large percent of it all being subject to crucial treatment these factories put them through