This was my first time learning about the Triangle Shirt Factory fire and all that followed in regards to the labor rights movements. It was very eye opening to witness a tragic day in New York history prior to 9/11 where people had to decide to jump or burn to death out of a burning building. It’s at least decent to know that from this horrific yet preventable event, positive change did make its way into the lives of working Americans but it’s always sad to know that something of this magnitude happened in order for these changes to come and to also have to live down the fact that in other parts of the world these same situations are handled in very different ways. The workers union set up a march on April 5 on New York’s Fifth avenue to protest the conditions that had led to the fire and was attended by 80,000 people which did compel the city to enact reform by passing the Sullivan-Hoey Fire Prevention Law which required factory owners to install sprinkler systems. It was disheartening to learn that following this aftermath, a similar scene occurred in Bangladesh and realizing the reality of the vast differences on the extreme delay in progress of developing countries to this day. It was also my first time learning about the Equal Rights Amendment and the journey to ratifying it into the Constitution. In reading this TIMES magazine article by Tara Law about Virginia finally becoming the 38th state to pass this amendment, I realized just how ostracized from history women have been that we are still fighting for our right to exist and that in return, society can never seem to grasp the civil rights of human beings as we continue to have to fight for gender equality no matter how much progressive knowledge has come to light on the matter.