Women of the Conflict
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Ladies' Home Journal
The Ladies Home Journal was founded in 1886, and addressed and exposed many cases of industrial fraud in the early 20th century. It served to encourage any woman, from daily housewife to businesswoman, to participate in the protests against food adulteration issues and to speak for what they believed in. The efforts of the Ladies' Home Journal were not only vastly supportive of actions against the industry, but they were also effective in that they encouraged women's participation in social affairs, subtly introducing better women's rights into society one article at a time. |
"The very fact that women now form about one-fifth of the employees in
manufacture and commerce in this country has opened a vast field of industrial
legislation directly affecting women as wage-earners." -Florence Kelley
Florence Kelley
A well-known advocate of women's rights, Florence Kelley was the first female factory inspector in the U.S. Kelley, having a background in law and politics, protested for higher wages for working women, women's education rights, and many general consumer rights when it came to exposing the public to the food adulteration within the industry. In one of her most well known speeches, Florence Kelley provided an opinion on the industry's unjust treatment towards immigrant factory workers by stating:
“It is fatal for any body of workers to have forever hanging from the fringes of its skirts other bodies on a level just below its own; for that means continual pressure downward, additional difficulty to be overcome in the struggle to maintain reasonable rates of wages.”
A well-known advocate of women's rights, Florence Kelley was the first female factory inspector in the U.S. Kelley, having a background in law and politics, protested for higher wages for working women, women's education rights, and many general consumer rights when it came to exposing the public to the food adulteration within the industry. In one of her most well known speeches, Florence Kelley provided an opinion on the industry's unjust treatment towards immigrant factory workers by stating:
“It is fatal for any body of workers to have forever hanging from the fringes of its skirts other bodies on a level just below its own; for that means continual pressure downward, additional difficulty to be overcome in the struggle to maintain reasonable rates of wages.”