The 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day has arrived, fittingly, at a time when the country and the world are once again convulsed in struggle. As we honor International Women’s Day, we should remember the working women who perished 100 years ago, on March 25, 1911, in the tragic fire of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. Their deaths, and the outpouring of struggle that resulted, left a permanent mark on the U.S. working class and the fight for women’s equality.
By the turn of the 20th century, protests for better working conditions and shorter working hours had grown into an international movement. With the rise in the cost of living and the revving up of the Industrial Revolution onto the global stage, women were forced out of the household and into the factories in order to sustain their families. Women were, of course, the country’s first factory workers, filling up the earliest textile plants in Lowell, Mass., in the early 1800s. By the end of the 19th century, the further development of factories and machines based on cheap, unskilled labor enabled women to enter the labor market in large numbers and compete with men who had previously dominated it.
While employment partially eased the financial strain on the family, women workers were forced to endure 12-to-14 hour workdays, many times with no breaks and in poor, dangerous conditions. Women and children, especially of immigrant backgrounds, became an important source of cheap labor for the capitalist factory owners to exploit. At the workplace and elsewhere, they were faced with sexual harassment and had little chance to advance. At the same time, women were still banned from participating in the electoral process.
In the early 1900s, the Socialist Party of America began to agitate more forcefully for humane working conditions and for women’s suffrage. They declared the first National Women’s Day in the United States in 1909.
Garment factory workers in New York City and elsewhere began to demand higher wages, shorter hours, safer conditions and unionization. The workers at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory did not stay behind in this fight. They were overwhelmingly immigrant women from the ages of 12 to 23. They worked 60- to 72-hour workweeks for 13 cents an hour, an egregiously low wage even for that time.
A mass strike took place at the factory in 1909, lasting 14 weeks. The strike was provoked by a small walkout by one-quarter of the Triangle Factory workers. As news of the walkout spread, workers called for a strike throughout the entire industry. Over 20,000 people participated in the first two days. Many of the bosses conceded to demands for higher pay and shorter work hours, but it would take the Triangle workers 11 weeks to finally win these two demands in 1910. Factory owners Isaac Harris and Max Blanck refused to submit to a union, without which the women workers found it hard to continue to improve the conditions at Triangle.
The fire at Triangle broke out two years later in March 1911. The factory’s front doors were kept locked at all times by the factory owners as a measure to prevent theft and keep workers from taking unauthorized breaks. The owners only allowed the workers access to the back doors and, even then, workers would exit one-by-one so each of their bags could be checked.
The fire started on the eighth floor, most likely started by a lit cigarette that had fallen into the scrap bin. The Triangle Factory covered the eighth, ninth and 10th floors. The fire spread quickly. A bookkeeper called the 10th floor to warn them of the spreading fire, but there was no way to contact the workers on the ninth floor.
The back doors opened inwards so, during the fire, the women in the front were unable to open the doors as the women behind them frantically pushed them from behind. Many workers were consumed by the smoke and flames, while others flung themselves from the windows to escape the inferno. The Triangle fire took the lives of over 146 young women, New York City’s largest workplace accident ever.
The owners, Harris and Blanck, were tried for manslaughter, but were acquitted. The public outcry forced state lawmakers to enact safety and labor laws, making New York a state with one of the most comprehensive safety regulations in the country.
Over 400,000 people came out for the funeral procession for the victims. At a memorial ceremony held at the Metropolitan Opera House, Rosa Schneiderman, a union activist and socialist spoke out: “I can’t talk fellowship to you who are gathered here. Too much blood has been spilled. I know from my experience it is up to the working people to save themselves. The only way they can save themselves is by a strong working-class movement.”
One hundred years later, workers and women now face serious assaults on their rights. Schneiderman’s call—to build a strong working-class movement—is more pressing than ever.
