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Dorothy Jacobs Bellanca (August 10, 1894August 16, 1946) was an American labor activist who particularly represented women workers in the garment industry. She moved to the United states and started her first job as a hand buttonhole sewer, and later started organizing groups of her own. She was a strong leader and this led her to being a successful full time female organizer. She was leader and an activist that worked for many different causes.


Biography

Bellanca was born in Zemel, Russian Empire, as the youngest of four daughters of Harry Jacobs, a tailor, and Bernice Edith Levinson. She emigrated to the United States in 1900, and settled in
Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore was ...
. Her first job was as a hand buttonhole sewer for men's coats, at the age of thirteen. She earned three dollars a week for a ten-hour day. In 1909, at age 15, she organized the Baltimore buttonhole makers into Local 170 of the
United Garment Workers of America The United Garment Workers of America (UGW or UGWA) was a United States labor union which existed between 1891 and 1994. It was an affiliate of the American Federation of Labor. History The UGWA was formed in New York in April 1891 and lead a ...
.Jensen, Joan M. and Sue Davidson, eds. ''A Needle, A Bobbin, A Strike: Women Needleworkers in America''. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1984: page 197. In 1914, Bellanca led her union to the more progressive Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America (ACWA) promoting class solidarity and the organization of women. She attended the founding convention of the ACWA with four other women; became secretary of the Joint Board; and established the Education Department on October 21, 1915. She became the sole female to serve on the in 1916.Nina Lynn Asher, Dorothy Jacobs Bellanca: Feminist Trade Unionist, 1894-1946 (University Microfilms International, 1982), pg. iv. In 1917, she became the organization's first full-time female organizer. In that role, she regularly contributed to the ACWA’s paper, ''Advance'', and promoted a culture that involved the union's members and their families. Jacobs strove to embed a
feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...
perspective into trade unionism and was dedicated to helping improve conditions for
working-class The working class (or labouring class) comprises those engaged in manual-labour occupations or industrial work, who are remunerated via waged or salaried contracts. Working-class occupations (see also " Designation of workers by collar colou ...
women. She encouraged a cooperative relationship between the genders. In 1918, she married August Bellanca, an Italian ACWA labor leader. In July 1924, she established a Women’s Department within the ACWA. The Department dissolved in 1926 when Bellanca learned that men resented it. During the
Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
, Bellanca was a vocal activist on behalf of unemployed garment workers. She was active politically on the municipal, state, and federal level. She was a member of the New York City Mayor's Commission on Unity, and served on several state commissions to end racial discrimination in the workplace. A supporter of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, she helped to organize
New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...
State's branch of the American Labor Party. She served on the Maternal and Child Welfare Committee in 1938 when the secretary of labor,
Frances Perkins Frances Perkins (born Fannie Coralie Perkins; April 10, 1880 – May 14, 1965) was an American workers-rights advocate who served as the 4th United States secretary of labor from 1933 to 1945, the longest serving in that position. A member of th ...
, asked her. She ran for the United States Congress for Brooklyn’s Eighth Congressional District this same year, with ALP, Republican Party, City Fusion Party, Progressive Party, and Fiorello La Guardia all supporting her. She lost the vote when incumbent Donald O’Toole discredited her to the public. She joined the Women’s Policy Committee of the War Manpower Commission during World War II. Bellanca became the first female vice president of the ACWA in 1934, and held that position until her death in 1946. She died on August 16, 1946, aged 52, of
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.


Further reading

*Jensen, Joan M. and Sue Davidson (1984). ''A needle, a bobbin, a strike: women needleworkers in America''. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
"Dorothy Jacobs Bellanca"
''Encyclopædia Britannica'' (2009)


References


External links

*Tananbaum, Susan L
"Dorothy Jacobs Bellanca"
Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia {{DEFAULTSORT:Bellanca, Dorothy Jacobs 1894 births 1946 deaths American women trade unionists American people of Latvian descent Deaths from multiple myeloma in the United States Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America people 20th-century American women Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United States