Labor rights and working conditions are issues that have been debated over a long amount of time. Although currently there are organizations in charge of protecting workers and assuring their rights we have come a long way to achieve that. Meanwhile in the United States, this is a topic taken very seriously, in other developing countries, that’s not the case. There are workers that earn much below the minimum wage of the United States. This week’s videos and reading discuss this a little bit further and how did the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire was an event that had a huge impact when it comes to labor laws and issues. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire was a tragic event that took place on March 25th, 1911 in New York City. A fire in the building started, and the workers from the upper levels of the building had no way out. In the end, there were 146 dead people, and the majority of them were women. Because of incidents like this, where women are the negatively affected population, is why feminists were fighting for and still are fighting to this day. The lives of many women were taken away that day since the conditions they were working in were awful, the amount of hours they worked, and the small payment was completely inappropriate. Since we’re live in a patriarchal system and the government is ruled mostly by white privileged men, they mostly look for their well-being and not for the well-being of the minorities like the female working class. This means that there is no representation of the minorities in the government and the issues that matter to them, are mostly irrelevant for people holding the power. women having the right to vote means that at least they are available to choose who represents them, and address the issues that concern them in the government. The Equal Rights Amendment written by Alice Paul, National Women’s Party founder, aims for equality for everyone regarding their sex or gender. To date, 38 states have passed this amendment which is enough to consider it to be constitutional, even though 40 years have passed since the amendment was first passed by Congress and our society is more inclusive, making it constitutional could make a great difference. Labor rights are also gender issues since women are more likely to be negatively affected by them. History shows that the individuals who hold more financial power are men. Before, women were not allowed to work or study and therefore could not build wealth. Throughout time this changed, but women are more likely than men to belong to a working class. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory incident brought attention to labor rights issues creating more unions and organizations focused on granting better working conditions for employees.