The suffrage, labor rights, and the equal rights amendment are related to each other because these amendments were started by people who have protested and taken action to stop the abuse of their rights. Most of these movements took a lot of pain and suffering in order for their voices to be heard. All of these movements have one thing in common which was that they were protecting or giving rights to those who felt oppressed. The suffrage movement gave women a chance for their voices to be heard by men in power. The labor rights movement gave both men and women who are laborers the right to form unions and be protected under laws that prohibit mistreatment of workers.

Labor rights are also issues of gender justice because a lot of factory workers are women/children. Most companies that manufacture overseas hire workers who are mostly women. For instance, in the video, they explain that the garment industry has a lot of female workers. There are more women working in these inhumane conditions than men. They are also likely to get paid less and aren’t given basic rights. This doesn’t all mean that men in third-world countries aren’t going through the same situation. 

I see a lot of these historical issues enacted in today’s society in many different ways. We look into the past for a lot of inspiration and I think these historical movements give a lot of our inspiration to today’s society. A lot of people speak out about issues and use different examples of these movements to show that one can actually accomplish what they are fighting for. Some fights still continue to go on. We may not be aware of it here but in another region of the world, there are people fighting for the same rights. I think these historical moments set an example of what happens when groups of people form an alliance with one another.

This week I watch two videos and in the two videos, I saw the comparison of labor rights, the equal rights amendment, and suffrage. Suffrage is when women were fighting for the right to vote in the United States. Labor rights are what I saw a lot of in these two videos labor right is for employees to have a proper and safe workplace which the employer has to provide. The equal rights amendment is the legal right for Americans regardless of their sex. These rights are all related because going out and casting your votes makes a difference on which law/rights are passed. For example, if you wanted to make a difference in labor rights you will have to vote in order to see that difference. Labor rights are also a gender justice issue because within labor right you are also fighting for gender equality. As labor rights are put in place, they work in conjunction with gender equality because the rights are put in place to make sure everyone is treated equally. It helps everyone regardless of their gender expression thrive within the workforce. These historical issues act in today’s society because they have led the way for workers to be treated fairly and equally no matter what gender ethnicity you are you are.  The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire changed the condition in factories in the United States for the better because protesters,  protected for a proper and safe workplace,  but it also change for the worse as companies went overseas to produce their products while paying those workers lower wages and provided unsafe conditions in their workplace, for example, the fire in Bangladesh it was very similar to the fire in New York City both places paid low wage and had unsafe conditions and also doors have locked the employers to ensure that none of their products were stolen in the results of doors being locked people jumped out of the window so that families can have a proper memorial service for them when their bodies were recovered. In my opinion, these employers in both Bangladesh and the United States have no regard for human life or human rights. I say this because how could you know there’s a fire and just lock the door because the employers did not want the employees to steal products. As they worried more about material things than human life.

Suffrage, labor rights, and the equal rights amendment are related in many ways. The right to vote is a tool that can be used to advance human rights, and improve conditions for those who are suffering. Without a voice in government, your voice likely will not be listened to at all — at least by those who can make a big change with all the power that they have. The right to vote can make it so that workers have a livable wage, and good working conditions, and this connects to the Equal Rights Amendment because labor rights are connected to women’s rights and gender justice. This is because a huge chunk of the workers being exploited for their labor are women.

I think these issues are very prevalent today. A lot of people like to think that just because there are no sweatshops in the United States (that we know of) that they’re just nonexistent. Meanwhile, as we saw in the video, even after the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire serving as a cautionary tale, we have a similar incident happening in Bangladesh that cost people their lives. This shows how workers’ rights are still in peril and we still have much more work to do.

Something that I find very interesting, and also very complicated, is that a lot of people like to combat fast fashion by thrifting and shopping sustainably, but then a lot of the time, that is inaccessible to people because of how expensive it can be. Recently, it’s also become sort of trendy to shop sustainably and to go thrift shopping, which has encouraged places that were once affordable to raise their prices to accommodate the new wave of more affluent shoppers. This is particularly popular among young social media influencers —  and when they don’t thrift, they often spend ridiculous amounts of money on websites that are known for their sweatshop labor — because the prices of their items are extremely cheap.

Whether you believe it or not, poverty is a real problem, even in the United States, and many families can’t afford to shop sustainably due to their financial hardships. There can be a very blurry line, and there is a lot of shame when it comes to being a consumer sometimes.

Ultimately, while consumers definitely have a hand in fast fashion and its consequences, the focus should fall on the big companies who are approving immoral mass production and sweatshop labor. Big companies are to blame. Capitalism as a whole is to blame. Things really need to change — and it starts with letting our voices be heard.

In diving into the labor rights movement and the Equal Rights Amendment, I was able to notice how the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory basically catalyzed women to fight for their rights in the workplace along with acquiring voting rights. Before this deadly fire, the labor movement was already underway and resonated with the women who were leading the wave for suffrage (the right to vote in political elections) but after this tragedy, it was clear that along with fighting for governmental rights, now the movement had to place equal importance upon the fight for representation in the workplace as well. The Equal Rights Amendment which was first proposed by Alice Paul and Crystal Eastman, fits into these ideas as it sought to guarantee equal legal rights for all American citizens regardless of sex, ending the distinction between men and women in matters of divorce, property, and employment. Paul, an American women’s rights activist, initially began with the suffrage movement but even after the 19th amendment was passed, she still knew there was an uphill battle towards complete and legal gender equality and she was right. In 2019, Nearly a century after it was first proposed, Virginia became the 38th state to vote to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. This is a great example of the portrayal and progress of activism through this movement which wasn’t done with the passing of the original amendment as three-quarter of the states were required to approve it prior to its addition to the U.S. Constitution and even so, will still take time to fully come to fruition.  Labor rights are also issues of gender justice as the world has progressed and more knowledge has come about regarding the binary gender misconception so now it is imperative that rights are acknowledged for all genders in legal and work spaces. These historical issues are still enacted in today’s society as there are many brands that utilize this “mass production for cheap labor” motto and go to less developed areas to do so. It is disheartening to realize that there are certain laws which protect some Amercians from this type of disproportion yet America is still doing its “dirty inequality business” elsewhere along with many others. We also experience this everyday as issues in regards to gender arise in a world that continues to struggle with acceptance for all.

Suffrage, labor rights and the equal rights amendment are related because outside of marking the peak of the women’s suffrage movement, these rights are what allowed women to move closer towards the equity. Suffrage, labor rights and equal rights are not only indicative of the change that the movement is about; these rights are fundamentally necessary for any society to thrive and progress. In this week, we were presented with a video that discusses the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire- an incident that cost the lives of many workers due to negligence on the owner’s behalf. During the incident, 146 of the 500 workers, which were predominately women, had to fall to their deaths because the owners had decided to lock the fire escape exit doors. This incident was the breaking point that shed much required light on the dangerous circumstances in which sweatshop factories were built on. This event is a prime example of the need for labor rights, in order to protect the safety of all workers.

            When we think of gender justice, we think of equality for all regardless of gender, gender expression and sexual orientation. This is important because the premise of gender justice is simple- unprecedented equality for all. Labor rights are fundamentally also about equality for all, in the workforce. This is why labor rights are also gender justice issues, because we are acknowledging a disparity in the equity of all regardless of gender, race, gender expression and sexual orientation.            I see these historical issues enacted in today’s society in multiple ways. In the day to day, I see it when I find that my male counterpart makes more than I although we are assigned the same work tasks and are both equally qualified. This is an issue that is seen in many work environments and is an example of why labor rights are so important. As for equal rights, I have witnessed a male tell my transgender friend that she is wrong for using a “woman’s” restroom. I was absolutely stunned because it is completely against equal rights, and in this day and age it is disheartening to see that there are individuals who do not understand nor seem to want to understand. 

When we say the term that our history repeats, the same events are likely to occur, but in different periods. Any movement, whether it be for suffrage, labor right, or equal rights amendment, people are fighting to make a change. The point of the Suffrage movement was to give women the right to vote in a time when women were seen as nothing other than mere objects of work. But, they were definitely overworked, which is seen in the fight for labor rights in hopes of better pay and working conditions. An example is the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire that occurred on March 25th, 1911, and claimed the lives of 146 workers. Most of the women working in the factory were young immigrant women, which can connect to the current time when we fight for equal rights for those with immigration status. The historical issues all repeat themselves because, as women, we are still fighting for equal rights, we are fighting for immigrants who are mistreated in detention centers, etc. The labor rights issues back in the early 20th century resulted from the lack of gender justice against women. Women were seen as working objects, and just like children overworked, the women were treated the same. They were given low wages, long hours, and uncomfortable working conditions, which resulted in many dangerous scenarios. Another example of a labor rights issue was the case of the Radium Girls, which happened a few years after the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire. Both of these cases ended up with either the workers being paid off or, in general, losing the case overall due to the power imbalance their bosses had over them. To this day, we see a lack of justice, as those with higher power abuse their power over the workers, and no one ever takes the workers seriously until it is too late. Most times, they can’t fight back due to the lack of resources, and they have to endure the mistreatment.

One hundred years later, we see how the events of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory strike again, but in different locations around the world. The majority of these well-known large businesses have overworked laborers in terrible conditions that are detrimental to their health and safety. They are put in an environment that leaves them compact and trapped with no other way to get out but the path where the danger passes through. In modern times, the laborers are hidden behind the media, but most are fighting to give those workers better pay and better conditions.

In these week we watched 2 videos about how labor rights getting more and more protection. On March 25th 1911, a fire happened at Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. Due to the factory manager locked the exit of the building as usual while workers were working; the building had four elevators but only one was working at that moment also it only can carry 12 people at a time. For workers in the factory there was no any chance for them to escape from this hell at all. Even without the fire, it is hell for them. These young immigrant women or even teenagers worked 11-12 hours a day, and didn’t have enough rest a week or daily. There were 146 of them passed away in this fire. On April 5th, 1911, a funeral protest took place at 5th avenue, more than 350,000 people were joing this protest and demanding for labor rights. The owner of the factory were not guilty through the lawsuit result. But the protest did make some change about labor right: it refined that factories in the states should have water spinkle system so that can ensure american workers can have safer working place.

Unfortunely, in the second video, we can see the same tragedy happened after 100 years. On Dec 14th 2010, workers jumped from 11 floors high floor to the ground since the factory they were working at had a fire. The manager locked the exit so it was diffcult for the workers to escape from it. People started to jump so that at least their family can find their dead bodies. At least 27 died and more than 100 people injured. How come after 100 years the same tragedy still happening? The video made me very sad and through the video I know that the way that capitalism running the world is unhealthy. It led to this result because they put their profit, revenue priority of people’s lives. They probably know that even anything happens, they would end up paying money for the families but even though it is just $80 for a life. Their jeans made for kids with price tag $26, after selling multiple jeans they can earn that back. Workers in the states have safer workplace now, but capitalists always chasing lower cost-labor cost and less labor rights stricted coutries. Wherever there is profit, wherever you can see capitalists. Even in the end, there are laws passed to protect these workers’ rights. But I know they would find other ways.

On March 25th, 1911, the triangle shirtwaist factory fire took the lives of 146 people, 125 of them being young women. The factory owners didn’t care about their workers and kept an unsafe environment for them. They could have prevented the deaths of all those innocent people. The fire was a key reason for the growth of the labor unions, particularly the International Ladies Garment Workers Union. New York also passed the Sullivan Hoey fire prevention law in response to the fire, where it was a requirement to install sprinkler systems in all factories. On December 13th, 2010, another fire very similar to the triangle shirtwaist fire happened in Bangladesh. Just shy of the 100th anniversary of the first fire, the one in Bangladesh resulted in 29 deaths and over 100 injured workers. Just like the first fire, the building owners didn’t care about their workers and failed to protect them. Workers’ rights are human rights that have to do with labor relations between workers and their employers. It also has to do with their pay, benefits, and of course safe working conditions. 

A majority of the victims of the fires were young women, and that is not surprising because most of the employees at the garment factory jobs are, in fact, women. The second video titled “Triangle Returns” states that the workers in Bangladesh were being paid 1/10th of what wages were in the U.S a century ago, “we’re racing to the bottom.” Labor rights, suffrage, and the equal rights amendment are related because of the lack of rights women had and the lack of inequality we face to this day. Women have always had to fight and speak at a louder volume for them to be heard. The right to vote, a safe and fair work environment, and equal legal rights should not be determined by a person’s sex or gender. In the reading about the Equal Rights Amendment written by Tara Law for TIME Magazine, Jessica Neuwirth states, “It was an intentional exclusion of women from the constitution, because they were basically not considered full citizens who should have the right to vote,” Neuwirth says. “Once they got the vote, they wanted to get all the other rights that they should have. “(pg. 3). Women deserve equality in the legal systems of the entirety of the U.S, no more being treated like second-class citizens.

In this week’s videos and reading we see similarities between suffrage, labor rights and the equal rights amendment. Labor rights ties into sufferage because of the mass amount of women working in industrial factories. When the workplace is not safe, the people who are affected want to protest for labor rights- but this will not work unless women have the right to participate in voting elections. That is when the equal rights ammendment comes into play. In order for women to vote and have a political standing, the govermnent must recognize that women play a major role in the workforce and their safety needs to be a top priority. We see examples of this in the reading when the ERA’s success fails due to the lack of widespread support. The members were focused on gaining workplace safety, but were also concerned that if doing so, this would limit the amount of hours women could work. Because of this, the ERA was put on hold for a long time before it would resurface.

Labor rights are major issues of gender justice because of the simple fact that these industrial factories were mostly made up of women. Once the workplace became more inclusive, it allowed for women to make their own money for themselves and their families as opposed to men being the sole bread winners. In the early 1900s many women wanted to work rather than be the usual stay at home mother, therefore when the triangle shirtwaste factory fire occured, mostly women and children were affected by the lack of safety. We saw in the first video the uproar that commenced after so many women died due to the locked doors and faulty exits- a huge protest was held afterward to spread awareness of the injustice women face when working for these major cooperations.

In the second video we watched this week we see the same neglect to sweatshop workers when another fire broke out in a Bangladesh sweatshop. I constantly see infographics all over social media stopping the support of fast fashion brands such as Shien, Forever21 and Zara. These brands pay their workers less than a dollar an hour to produce garnments that sell for 10x that amount. It is really hard to navigate fast fashion when you would rather buy clothes for a good price over something really expensive, but it is important to remember the people who make these products are not being treated properly. Now that there are laws in place to protect the workers it helps to create a safe work environement, but there are still so many articles and photos showcasing the mistreatment of garnment workers who manufacture products for the United States.