Josephine Casey (1 January 1878(?) – 27 January 1950) was a labor organizer and leader, and a women's rights advocate.
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Early life
Casey, the youngest of four children, was born in Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...
in 878?and raised in Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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. Her Catholic parents, Cornelius and Bridget Stephens Casey, were Irish immigrants.
Career
While working as a Chicago streetcar ticket agent in 1904 she persuaded the women she worked with to form a union. She worked as an organizer for the Boston Women's Trade Union League
The Women's Trade Union League (WTUL) (1903–1950) was a U.S. organization of both working class and more well-off women to support the efforts of women to organize labor unions and to eliminate sweatshop conditions. The WTUL played an important ...
from 1906 to 1909. She then organized for the International Ladies Garment Workers Union
The International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU), whose members were employed in the Clothing#Gender differentiation, women's clothing industry, was once one of the largest trade union, labor unions in the United States, one of the firs ...
and was a strike leader for garment workers in Kalamazoo, Cleveland, and St. Louis between 1911 and 1914.[ In March 1912, Casey's efforts in Michigan were focused on the concerns of female workers at the Kalamazoo Corset Company including low wages, long hours in unsanitary conditions and sexual harassment from male foreman. Organizers, including ]Pauline Newman
Pauline Newman (born June 20, 1927) is a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
Education and career
Born in New York City, New York to Maxwell H. and Rosella G. Newman, Newman received a Bache ...
and Gertrude Barnum,World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
Casey opposed women-only labor laws in the South. She was a suffrage activist and worked for the Women's Political Union in New York. In the 1920s she was a champion of the Equal Rights Amendment
The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) is a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution designed to guarantee equal legal rights for all American citizens regardless of sex. Proponents assert it would end legal distinctions between men and ...
. Following a series of misfortunes, she was earning $5 per week working as a housekeeper. In 1931 the National Woman's Party (NWP) contacted her and sent her to Atlanta to oppose the efforts by the Southern Council and the Cotton Textile Institute to establish sex-based legislation. Her reports were made into a regular column featured in the NWP's weekly bulletin '' Equal Rights''.
Death
As a member of the First Church of Christ, Scientist in Boston and later the Seventh Church of Christ Scientist in New York, Casey refused to seek medical care for heart related issues because of her religious beliefs. She died at her home in New York City on January 27, 1950.[
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References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Casey, Josephine
1870s births
1950 deaths
American trade unionists
American people of Irish descent
International Ladies Garment Workers Union leaders
Place of birth missing
Women trade union leaders
American women's rights activists