Mary Anderson (labor leader)
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Mary Anderson (August 27, 1872 – 1964) was a Swedish-born American
labor activist A union organizer (or union organiser in Commonwealth spelling) is a specific type of trade union member (often elected) or an appointed union official. A majority of unions appoint rather than elect their organizers. In some unions, the orga ...
and an advocate for women in the workplace. A true feminist, she rallied support to ratify many new laws to support women and equal rights. Throughout her lifetime, Anderson held a large range of roles, rising from a factory worker to the Director of the Women's Bureau in the
United States Department of Labor The United States Department of Labor (DOL) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government. It is responsible for the administration of federal laws governing occupational safety and health, wage and hour standards, unemploym ...
. Anderson's work to protect the rights of women in the workplace made no small impact on the lives of working women across the country.


Biography


Introduction

Mary Anderson was born in
Lidköping Lidköping () is a locality and the seat of Lidköping Municipality in Västra Götaland County, Sweden. It had about 40 000 inhabitants in 2021. It is situated on the southern shore of Lake Vänern and sometimes refers to itself as "Lidköpin ...
, Sweden 1872, daughter of Magnus and Matilda (Johnson) Anderson.Sicherman, Barbara, and Carol Hurd Green. ''Notable American Women: The Modern Period : a Biographical Dictionary''. Cambridge, Mass: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1980. She emigrated to the United States when she was sixteen in 1888. Once in America she worked as a dishwasher at a lumberjacks' boarding house in Ludington, Michigan. She moved to Chicago where she worked in a garment factory and as a shoe stitcher in West Pullman. She joined the
Boot and Shoe Workers Union The Boot and Shoe Workers' Union was a trade union of workers in the footwear manufacturing industry in the United States and Canada. It was established in 1895 by the merger of three older unions. It was affiliated with the American Federation o ...
and was elected president of the women's stitchers Local 94 in 1900. She became a leader in the
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 ...
in
Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...
. She gained valuable experience from the
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 ...
in
public administration Public Administration (a form of governance) or Public Policy and Administration (an academic discipline) is the implementation of public policy, administration of government establishment (public governance), management of non-profit establ ...
. She then applied these skills to her work with the Women's Bureau in the
U.S. Department of Labor The United States Department of Labor (DOL) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government. It is responsible for the administration of federal laws governing occupational safety and health, wage and hour standards, unemploym ...
which she was the first director of in 1920. She directed and used the Bureau for 25 years to better the working conditions,
wage A wage is payment made by an employer to an employee for work done in a specific period of time. Some examples of wage payments include compensatory payments such as ''minimum wage'', ''prevailing wage'', and ''yearly bonuses,'' and remuner ...
s, and hours for women. And even once she retired from office Mary Anderson continued to fight for the rights of working women.


Woman's Trade Union League 1900–1919

The main goal of this league was to organize women and to gain support for a union. This union would strive to get safer factory conditions for women workers. Mary Anderson had first hand experience of the very dangerous working conditions of the factory floor and knew things had to be improved. It was during Anderson's time in the WTUL that's she began a friendship with
Jane Addams Laura Jane Addams (September 6, 1860 May 21, 1935) was an American settlement activist, reformer, social worker, sociologist, public administrator, and author. She was an important leader in the history of social work and women's suffrage ...
who would greatly influence Anderson's views on helping all people, not just women. In Anderson's eulogy to Addams she tells of how, "'She was not one of those feminist who are for women alone. Her heart and her brilliant mind recognized that as long as one group could be exploited society as a whole must suffer'". Anderson too believed that the work of feminists should not be constrained to only women's issues but more importantly address broader social concerns. 40,000 garment workers went on strike in Chicago in 1910. This was Anderson's and the WTUL chance to organize these women and to use the tactics of the male unions to gain better pay for pant makers and better working conditions. During the strike the main goal of the WTUL was to relieve distress of families by donating food clothes and coal to those who were not getting paid and had very little money saved up. The strike seemed to be working as employers were beginning to give in to the demands for collective bargaining of the garment workers. However the strike was abruptly called off by the United Garment Workers without any forewarning. Anderson was disappointed and shocked. She felt that for how much people endured through the strike they gained very little from their suffering. This failure of the method of collective organization to achieve the WTUL's goals in the garment strike would affect Anderson's views later on in her political career. She defiantly rejected of the National Woman's Party proposed Equal Rights Amendment and embraced the idea of
Social Justice Social justice is justice in terms of the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society. In Western and Asian cultures, the concept of social justice has often referred to the process of ensuring that individuals fu ...
Feminism 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 ...
.


Women's Bureau of the U.S. Department of Labor 1920–1944

Mary Anderson became the head of the
Women's Bureau The United States Women's Bureau (WB) is an agency of the United States government within the United States Department of Labor. The Women's Bureau works to create parity for women in the labor force by conducting research and policy analysis, to ...
in March 1920, replacing her friend and fellow activist
Mary van Kleeck Mary Abby van Kleeck (June 26, 1883June 8, 1972) was an American social scientist of the 20th century. She was a notable figure in the American labor movement as well as a proponent of scientific management and a planned economy. An American of ...
. She was going to lead the Bureau and use its influence to advance her agenda of Social Justice Feminism. Social Justice Feminism is using legislation to bring social justice and improvement of lives. The ultimate goal was to use women's labor legislation to set precedents so that the state would protect all workers, male and female, from the very real oppressions of the employer in the work place. Here you can see Addams influence on Anderson, with her goal to help society at large, not just women. However, after World War I and the ratification of the 19th Amendment there was a rhetorical reform going through government of Administrative Orthodoxy, that placed an emphasis on scientific objectivity and expertise as the criteria for action within the Bureaucracy. Men in government argued that because women now had equal say in voting on policies that there was no need for gender specific legislation based on old ideals of women's subordination to men and thus needing their own gendered protection in the law. By today's standard, 2012, these men in government would appear to be in consensus with modern feminists. However, the reality was even with the vote women were still oppressed by their lower wage than men and conditions in the factory were still horrible as Anderson saw firsthand when she toured the U.S. war factories in 1917. Mary Anderson had to figure out a way to pass legislation that would bring social justice and protect women from the realities of factory work while battling with the ideology of Administrative Orthodoxy. From her life experiences, of first hand factory work, witnessing the Chicago garment worker strike, actively engaged in the work of the WTUL, and her factory tour in 1917, Mary Anderson could arguably be called an expert on Women's struggle in the factory. All that was left to do to fulfill the Administrative Orthodoxy requirements was to have the expert collect data, or scientific objectivity. This is precisely what the Women's Bureau did. One example was filing and publishing reports on African American female workers. By focusing the Bureau's efforts and minority groups that other public administrators' largely ignored Anderson was able to resolve her dilemma of getting legislative social justice for women while staying within the government's trend or Administrative Orthodoxy. Again we see Addams influence on Anderson, helping society at large by giving attention to ignored minority groups.


Women's Bureau vs. National Woman's Party and the Equal Rights Movement

Once the 19th Amendment was ratified and women received the vote the National Woman's Party set its sights on a new goal, an
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 ...
that would end all discrimination against women. This included the social justice legislation that Anderson and the Women's Bureau had gathered all that data and filed reports to enact in order to protect women. The NWP thought women should get equality in the work place by organizing into unions like men do. Anderson opposed this idea because of the anti-climactic end to the Chicago garment worker strike. The chasm here is one of ideal versus reality. The NWP had very strong ideological views of what it viewed as women's equality i.e. the ERA. However, the reality of the situation, as Anderson knew from scores of data collected by the Women's Bureau, was that not just women but all workers needed protection from harsh conditions allowed to exist in the factory. Mary Anderson would do all she could to prevent an Equal Rights Amendment from being ratified. Not because she thought women were weaker, but only because there was a real societal need for protective legislation. Thus, through some tactical political maneuvering Mary Anderson was able to select who would head the NWP committee to study the effects of women specific labor legislation. She chose her close friend and committed social justice advocate
Mary van Kleeck Mary Abby van Kleeck (June 26, 1883June 8, 1972) was an American social scientist of the 20th century. She was a notable figure in the American labor movement as well as a proponent of scientific management and a planned economy. An American of ...
to be the technical advisor of the committee. Leaders on the NWP and Kleeck bickered and debated on every point making it virtually impossible for the committee to do anything. Eventually members on the committee who supported the ERA left the group, and the Women's Bureau and Mary Anderson successfully defended the policies they had worked so hard to enact.


After The Bureau 1945–1964

Mary Anderson retired from the Women's Bureau in 1944. She never married, and did not end her efforts to gain woman's equality in the work place. She stayed active by
lobbying In politics, lobbying, persuasion or interest representation is the act of lawfully attempting to influence the actions, policies, or decisions of government officials, most often legislators or members of regulatory agency, regulatory agencie ...
Washington D.C. for equal pay for equal work by men and women in the factory. She became the legislative representative of the National Consumers League and again found statistical facts to point out the real abuses in wage discrimination against women in union contracts. While the unions preached the ideology of
equal pay for equal work Equal pay for equal work is the concept of labour rights that individuals in the same workplace be given equal pay. It is most commonly used in the context of sexual discrimination, in relation to the gender pay gap. Equal pay relates to the full ...
, they also had a "wage scale" which posed a reality of a set pay for men and a separate lower set pay for women. She goes on to state that with more women in the work force it is "simple justice", social justice, to give men and women equal pay for equal work."Statement of Miss Mary Anderson, 18 may 1950" (League of Women Voters

/ref> Mary Anderson was the first "'up from the ranks" labor woman to head an executive department of the Federal government of the United States, federal government. She served under five U.S. presidents during her tenure at the Women's Bureau. During this time, there was more than a doubling of the number of women working. She did everything in her, the Bureau's, and legislative power to protect the rights of working women.


Autobiography

*''Woman At Work: The Autobiography of Mary Anderson as Told to Mary N. Winslow'' (Minneapolis,MN: Minnesota Historical Society Press. 1951)


See also

*
Labor Hall of Honor The United States Department of Labor Hall of Honor is in the Frances Perkins Building, 200 Constitution Ave., NW, Washington, DC. It is a monument to honor Americans who have made a positive contribution to how people in the United States work an ...


References


Further reading

* Foner, Philip S., ''Women and the American Labor Movement: From Colonial Times to the Eve of World War I'' (The Free Press; 1979) * McGuire, John Thomas. "Gender and the Personal Shaping of Public Administration in the United States: Mary Anderson and the Women's Bureau, 1920–1930." ''Public Administration Review'' 72.2 (2012): 265-271. * Orleck, Annelise, ''Common Sense and a Little Fire: Women and Working-Class Politics in the United States, 1900–1965'' (The University of North Carolina Press. 1995) * *


External links


Director's Gallery

Women's Trade Union League and Its Leaders
{{DEFAULTSORT:Anderson, Mary 1872 births 1964 deaths American women trade unionists People from Lidköping Municipality Swedish emigrants to the United States Boot and Shoe Workers' Union people Trade unionists from Illinois American trade unionists of Swedish descent