Watching the video made me realize that we as a society haven’t done as much progress as we would’ve imagined. Although we have laboring laws put into place in the United States that doesn’t mean that it is completely abolished throughout the world. Inhumans labor may not exist here (at least from what we know) but it still exists in different parts of the world. In the video, they talked about how different American companies manufacture clothes in third-world countries and pay their workers little or no money. They use child labor to make their products and yet people are still oblivious or choose to ignore these issues. Women, who were mostly immigrants,  were put to work long hours and weren’t allowed to take breaks back in the early 1900s and these conditions haven’t changed much. The video talked about the new york incident in 1911 and the other incident in 2015 and he mentioned how both incidents happened in almost the exact same way. It goes to show that although we may not see it here it does not mean it’s gone. People are still suffering these problems and America is contributing to them. Another huge issue that stuck out to me is that they aren’t allowed to form labor unions. These conditions haven’t changed much. I remember in the video he mentioned how both incidents happened in almost the exact same way. 

After watching the videos about the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, and doing the reading, my disappointment towards laws around the world has deepened. There are so many things that contribute to the mistreatment of workers around the world, and much of it has to do with corporate greed. Companies that make billions of dollars are unwilling to pay their workers a livable wage, and unwilling to provide safe conditions for these workers as well. I definitely feel like misogyny, classism, and racism definitely tie into how these workers are treated.
To make matters worse, politics are so heavily influenced by powerful men who couldn’t care less about what happens outside of the United States, and have a general disinterest towards women’s issues — or any issues that don’t concern them at all. When laws that could make conditions better for certain groups of people are proposed, there’s no guarantee that they will even be passed or given the time of day. Even if they are passed, which is sometimes very unlikely, it can take years for some of these laws to take effect. Not to mention that a law can pass in certain states and not pass in other ones, which makes things very complicated. Overall, the state of the world’s laws is very frustrating. Not enough is being done, and we’re repeating history.

            I recall learning about the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in grade school and not truly comprehending the severity of it and what it meant in regard to labor laws and suffrage. Learning that there was no one that was able to advocate for the workers is startling because I can put myself in their shoes. I am a twenty-four-year-old female that attends college and goes to work and if an incident were to happen, I would hope that I would be compensated, just as anyone deserves to have labor laws that are placed for their security and livelihood. Labor laws are not a luxury, they are a necessity and a basic human right as all people deserve to work in safe conditions that have their wellbeing in mind.

            The most devastating part about the suffrage of people is that these incidents are not foreign to those around the world, specifically third world countries. Witnessing the videos about the lives of those who work in the factories that are harmed due to the negligence choices of those in charge is upsetting because it brings up the point that the lives of these workers are quite literally in the palms of those who are in charge- those who seem to not value their lives either through negligence or sheer evil. The people that are at the highest risk are though who are either in poverty or do not have the means to find a job that will protect them. This is why labor laws need to be set in to place, as a means to end the suffrage of people. 

This week’s topic is a very relevant discussion, still having to do with suffrage of people. Before reading this I never knew about The Triangle Shirt Factory fire and how it leads to the labor rights movements.  One thing I am Aware of is modern day Slavery Witch is being labored in the working class for amount that’s not worth it or doing lots of work that’s beneficial for others but not getting the credit deserved for it. In the two videos the professor asked us to watch It broke down and showed me why the triangle Shirt Factory fire was a very devastating event. If the building that the workers were working in was in better condition & had safe procedures planned in case of energies like this, things wouldn’t have ended like that.  A total of 142 people died because of a fire that took place in the sweatshop. When the fire happened in the sweat shop they tried to stop and escape the scenario, but resources were scarce and limited leading to people dying inside or jumping out the building. Things like this cause people to feel furious and fight for better working conditions like they did on 1911 April 5. Further on the discussion of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) came into the picture Era is an amendment the U.S created to grant for equal and legal rights for all American citizens regardless of sex.  A couple years after the ratification of the 19th amendment. This helped women in terms of divorce, property, employment, and other matters. As also stated, this isn’t something available everywhere. But should be, places like Virginia became the 38th state to vote to try and ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. Showing how we are almost their only if we stand up and support it.

Seeing the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory reminded me of when my class did a mock trial of the actual court case after the fire occurred. My class was the only class to win on the defense side, which defended the workers. I played the role of Kate Alterman, one of the workers who had run through the fire, resulting in a burn scar on her neck. She was one of the victims placed on trial as a witness for the defense side. Unfortunately, we were very disappointed to find out that it didn’t necessarily work like real life. The workers lost the case again due to the bosses’ power imbalance over them. They had money, and the workers didn’t.

Furthermore, it was disappointing to see one hundred years later, after the fire, another fire broke out in a sweatshop in Bangladesh. In places where the community is much poorer compared to America, they are put in secrecy to work and work until their last breath. The change we see now is only the tip of the iceberg, but not much change has happened deep down. It all stems back to power imbalance and capitalism. I’d go deeper into that, but I don’t know much about politics. We constantly fight for equal rights every day, even though we get shut down repeatedly. “the laws that we have enacted are not sufficient to protect against sex discrimination in all avenues.” (Tara Law, 7, on ERA). This quote shows again that this is only a tiny portion of all that needs to be done. What we’ve done right now isn’t enough for all that needs to be accomplished. Which again is very disappointing.

This week we were learning labor movement. The readings, video and the show Mrs. America let us know that every movement, every achivement we gain in the history is not easy. Even for ERA, after one century, only 38 states passed it. And this is a so-called developed country. So things must be even worse in other developing countries in the world. Which is very sad and I wish that there are ways to help women in third world too.

In the show Mrs. America, Phyllis Schlafly is a smart lady with 6 kids. Unfortunely she is also a tragedy, a product from patriachy. I considered she is smart since she knew through grassroot movement she can gain more conservative power. But I didn’t think she is wise since that is a short sight action. Unfortunely she didn’t see that even she can keep her privileged life as usual, under patriachy, no one is winner especailly for women. And it is of course very upset other women that with liberal party to see that against them is another woman that know the unfair life that women need to face every day during 60-70s.

After watching 2 videos about people’s lives as working at factories and how some of them ended up lost their life since the exit were locked by the manager. It is unbelieveable that it still happens today. In this case, I also think about there must be other unfair things going on since there are some undocumented immigrants working under the table and due to their immigrate status, they would not report anything even they faced unfair working condition in life. I heard of young women working 60 hours as babysitting and only get paid $10-$15 per hour. Sometimes they could be too busy to have time for lunch. And this is happening in today’s new york. There are more that we can do to improve labor right-no matter for developed countries or developing countries.

The Equal Rights Amendment is a proposed amendment designed to guarantee equal rights to the citizens of the U.S. Someone’s sex or gender should not be a way of determining a person’s legal rights. So why is the ERA not a part of the constitution? Progress takes time, and these kinds of movements don’t happen overnight, but it’s been about a century since the ERA was first proposed. Linda Coberly, a lawyer and the chair of the ERA Coalition’s Legal Task Force, tells  TIME “I think there’s been a more widespread understanding among both women and men that we have not truly established equality in our culture, and the laws that we have enacted are not sufficient to protect against sex discrimination in all avenues.” (pg. 7). The ERA is significant in order to prevent a setback in women’s rights, and I think it’s crucial to support it. The part of the article that focuses on Phyllis Schlafly really frustrated me, there will always be naysayers, but Schlafly specifically is a hypocrite. As a mother of six who dedicated a big part of her life to her career, one that involved a lot of traveling, she was against the ERA because she feared women would no longer be allowed to be stay-at-home mothers. She successfully had her audience think twice about supporting the ERA and question what the equality of the sexes would mean for everyone. Some of the things she used to convince her audience not to support the ERA are things that happened even without passing the amendment. 

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.

This week’s reading and videos highlighted the injustices in our society and how inequality is a struggle that has been around for decades and still has not been resolved. Equality can be difficult to define and can look different to different people. However, this week’s reading represents the resistance to any effort toward equality. This is proven by the Equal Rights Amendment being approved in recent years after being originally proposed decades ago and failing/being denied many times in the past. The idea of equality of rights for all under law was denied! We have an allusion of social/political progress, like women gaining the right to vote and abolishing segregation, without realizing opression being maintained in the legal system. The ERA wouldn’t allow for underhand opression in government which is why there was so much push-back on approving it. The same goes for the labor issues discussed in this week’s videos. The government befitted from inhumane labor, it was low cost and they didn’t care for the rights of workers. Passing labor laws and worker’s rights wouldn’t allow for the higherups to continue to gain from mistreating workers. Both the reading and videos gave me the impression that government corruption is an underlying issue in many issues regarding inequality and human rights. The Equal Rights Amendment is a step closer to equality. But will it be enough? Using labor laws as an example: while labor laws improved worker’s rights and working conditions, sweat shops and other inhumane labor still exists and continues to be an issue. Circling back to the question, what is equality and justice and is it achievable?

This week’s videos and reading made me think of one thing: Time. From 1911 to 2011 there were major changes to make working conditions safer for those in the industrial labor workplace, but not enough to prevent it from happening in the future. Ensuring the safety of laborers is so important, but over time companies and cooperations are still turning a blind eye to the health and safety of people that keep the money flowing. I also noticed this in our reading where time remains an important factor. When the government did not meet the deadline to ratify the Equal Rights Ammendment, it put the entire ERA’s work to a full stop. The advocates behind the ERA’s success was built off of the movements from the past leading up until this point. We’ve discussed in past reflections that it takes time and effort to create real change, but when people are unsafe and their lives are in immediate danger, the change needs to happen at a faster pace. The progress of equal rights and the suffrage movement have granted women their place in society “equal” to men- but not really! It is important to keep pushing for change and hope that over time, our voices and presence will enact the change deserved. I think it is important to note how long it takes for change to really occur, and it saddens me to see so much time and effort these groups make in order to let their voices be heard. The government makes it difficult for these groups to feel seen and heard when really equal rights is the base of the American constitution – so why is this more important to US citizens than its own government?