Working-Class Women of the Seattle Labor Movement, 1900-1920

Although women in Seattle increasingly entered the workforce and became involved in union organizing in the early 1900s, many still viewed a woman’s place in the labor movement as existing within the home, providing the unpaid domestic labor of cooking, cleaning, and child rearing. Young and single women who worked outside the home oftentimes viewed their employment as temporary, a stop-gap until marriage. Although less common, married women did work; however, this was largely frowned upon by members of the labor community who saw this as taking away work opportunities from men and single women. This perception shifted during World War I as women entered the workforce to fill job vacancies. After the war, men returning home forced many women out of their jobs. However, the momentum gained from women’s organizing in the years prior helped to shift perceptions of a woman’s place in the labor movement.

While the adjacent case goes into more depth about the role of women as union organizers during the General Strike era, this case looks at other roles played by working class women in Seattle and the influence of pivotal legislation like the 1910 passage of Woman Suffrage in Washington. Through participation in auxiliaries of local trade unions and the Seattle Women’s Label League, serving as officers in the Seattle Central Labor Council, supporting the cooperative movement, and publishing articles in the Seattle Union Record, women played a central role in strengthening the Seattle labor movement. These efforts brought to light the intersections of women’s rights and class politics and helped to build a foundation of solidarity between working women and working-class housewives that made the Seattle General Strike of 1919 possible.

Seattle Union Card & Label League

Women founded the Seattle Union Card & Label League* in October 1911 to support a campaign led by the American Federation of Labor to promote union-run businesses and union-made goods with designated union labels. Participation in union card and label leagues encouraged working-class wives and mothers to connect with each other and organize for the labor movement within the confines of traditional gender roles. 

The Seattle Label League met weekly at the Seattle Labor Temple and discussed current events, reported on issues within the labor and women’s movements, and planned community events for the white working-class, such as masquerade balls and luncheons. Because members of other women’s clubs were typically middle and upper-class women, label leagues provided a space for working-class women to organize. 

In 1916, women founded the Federation of Trade Unionist Women and Auxiliaries, bringing together the Seattle Label League, trade union auxiliaries, and women union members under one organizational banner. The Federation organized non-unionized women workers and advanced women’s issues within the labor movement. Their efforts caused the Seattle Central Labor Council to become more inclusive to white women, resulting in the election of Ida Levi as Woman Organizer in 1917 and Blanche Johnson in 1918.

*The name of the Seattle label league varies amongst primary sources.

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Washington Women’s Suffrage Movement

Pivotal for women during this time period was the passage of suffrage legislation in 1910, granting Washington women the right to vote ten years before the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment. In Washington, suffrage activism in the years prior provided a space for women of all social classes to work together under a common cause and highlight the shared experiences of women, primarily white women, regardless of class status.

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