The First International Congress of Working Women (ICWW), convened by the Women's Trade Union League of America from October 28 to November 6, 1919, was a meeting of labor feminists from around the world. The ICWW planned to share their proposals for addressing women's labor concerns at the First International Labor Conference (ILC) of 1919. ICWW delegates agreed upon a list of resolutions, some of which were taken up by the ILC's Commission on the Employment of Women and resulted in the passage of the Maternity Protection Convention, 1919 (No. 3).
The dawn of industrialization in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries transformed methods of production and revolutionized social relations, beginning in northern Europe. Textiles and clothing were among the first industries radically altered by the use of machines and the concentration of labor in mills and factories. The subsequent demand for unskilled laborers drew large numbers of women and children into the industrial, waged labor force.[1][2]
Female factory workers, like men, often faced long hours and horrible conditions in the workplace, but unique to their sex, women also suffered from lower wages, discriminatory hiring practices, and the double burden of household work.[3] Other sectors of the economy posed other unique risks. Domestic service, a major source of employment for women, offered little time off and left women vulnerable to sexual exploitation.[4] Concerns about general and sex-specific exploitation drove female workers in Europe and the United States to organize and strike for fair wages and work hours.[5][6] By the second half of the nineteenth century, powerful national working-class federations and political parties began to form to demand changes to labor conditions, but almost uniformly, women were marginalized, if not outright excluded, from these such organizations, which championed the rights of the male breadwinner.[7][8]
By the early twentieth century, female labor activists and their upper-class allies came together in national organizations dedicated to the pursuit of industrial justice, democracy, and women's rights. These included the British Women's Trade Union League, founded in 1874, and the Women's Trade Union League of America, founded in 1903.[9]
Formation of the Congress
The year 1919 marked the beginning of the Paris Peace Conference and the establishment of the Treaty of Versailles, which included a Labour Charter calling for the creation of an international body dedicated to regulating labor worldwide.[10] The Treaty created a standing world government, the League of Nations, as well as the International Labour Organization (ILO). The ILO had the responsibility of addressing labor issues, setting international labour standards, and promoting peace through social justice.[11]
International labor turned their attention to the ILO and the Paris Peace Conference. Margaret Dreier Robins, president of U.S. labor organization the Women's Trade Union League (WTUL), saw this international gathering as an opportunity to address the new era for women whose labor internationally proved essential to producing food, munitions, and manufactured goods throughout the first World War.[12] The WTUL encouraged women from around the world to gather at the conference to make their voices and concerns surrounding labor conditions heard. Rose Schneiderman and Mary Anderson, both leading members of the WTUL, quickly ascended to France to address the newly established ILO. With them, they brought a document listing labour standards which was drafted by the WTUL's Committee on Social and Industrial Reconstruction. The document included standards such as, "equal pay for equal work," a maximum of an eight-hour day and a forty-four-hour work week, prohibiting night work for women, and social wages for maternity, old age, and unemployment.[13] Schneiderman and Anderson, were not able to present the WTUL's document to the Conference, but met with Britain's Margaret Bondfield and many other women labor leaders from around the world.[14] The female labor leaders agreed to establish an international labor women's conference to prepare for the upcoming ILO convention which would take place in October in Washington D.C. A Call for Delegates was rapidly established and urged women of internationally recognized labor unions to attend the ICWW. The International Congress of Working Women was established and was scheduled to meet in mid October to discuss and establish their own labor guidelines which would protect women laborers internationally.
1st International Congress of Working Women called by the National Women's Trade Union League of America, Washington, D.C., October 28, 1919
Goals and Accomplishments of the 1919 ICWW
Twenty eight delegates from Argentina, Belgium, Canada, Czechoslovakia, France, Great Britain, India, Italy, Norway, Poland, and Sweden attended the international women's congress. However, women from Cuba, Denmark, Japan, the Netherlands, Serbia, Spain, and Switzerland also attended and participated in decision making.[15] Overall, over two hundred women attended the congress. Margaret Dreier Robins of the WTUL sat as chair of the 1919 International Congress of Working Women and planned to create a draft of resolutions to be sent to the first annual conference of the International Labor Organization.
After ten days, the delegates of the ICWW finalized many decisions revolved around labour standards. The ICWW completed a document which held ten provisions which would be presented to the ILO during their first annual conference in Washington D.C. The congress included a requirement in their document which demanded to raise the number of ILO delegates from each nation from four to six and also require two of the six to be women. In addition, the ICWW was responsible for creating an everlasting organization, the International Federation of Working Women. However, all of these decisions and the establishment of these provisions did not come without debate. The women laborers present at the conference were divided while discussing the eight hour day, night work, and maternity insurance.[16] All of these debates stemmed from how to define the "woman worker". Whether to define women laborers through a gender neutral manner, or through "protective" labor legislation. Delegates from Norway and Sweden both proposed women should not be allowed to work during the night time because it would put them in danger. Schneiderman believed this was untrue, and proposed that if women wanted to work at night and take the risk they should be able to.[17] The congress compromised opinions by adhering to the limiting of night work of women, but also extended this proposal to all men as well.
In addition, Czechoslovakian delegate Marie Majerová urged her fellow delegates to view domestic responsibilities of women as part of the eight hour day. She recognized domestic work lied heavily on the woman's shoulders and understood this takes a large toll on women all around the world.[18] Unfortunately, the delegates did not find this opinion appealing and a broader discussion of housework did not take place. Rather, Robins focused the discussion of the eight hour day around agricultural and industrial home work. Finally, the women of the congress agreed on an eight-hour day and a forty-four-hour week for all workers.
While discussing the topic of maternity protection, American and British delegates agreed on their opinions surrounding motherhood free form wage labor.[19] However, many other nations believed that women could mix wage labor and family responsibilities if they had certain provisions. Women from Belgium believed women needed Saturday afternoons off to do housework and shop, and women from France and Italy believed that women needed daycares which were near their workplaces and also needed breaks for breastfeeding, in addition to two breaks which will allow them to eat with their families. American and British delegates did not agree women should be nursing their young at work. Jean Bouvier of the French delegation did defend the necessity of breastfeeding at work. Both opinions were brought to the ILO conference.
After debates and discussions, the ICWW did create a document which was presented at the International Labor Conference. The document addressed: an eight-hour day and a forty-four-hour week for all workers, limits on child labor, maternity benefits, prohibition of work at night for both men and women and in hazardous situations, new policies for the unemployed and emigration, an "equal distribution of raw materials existing in the world," an end to the Russian Blockade, and the establishment of a permanent bureau of the International Congress of Working Women with its office in the United States.
Commission on the Employment of Women
A commission of the ILO, The Commission on the Employment of Women, was responsible for two conventions: The Maternity Protection Convention and a convention revolved around night work for women.[20] Both conventions were largely affected by the ICWW's proposals and by leading ICWW women. The Maternity Protection Convention covered a variety of provisions governing maternity benefits in industrial and commercial undertakings. Jeanne Bouvier, Margaret Bonfield, Mary Macarthur, and Constance Smith all participated in the ICWW and were appointed as delegates to the Commission on the Employment of Women during the ILO conference. The Maternity Protection Convention documented their agreements and decisions concerning the protection of female workers, and formed a document consisting of twelve articles. The document stated: women would receive a six-week maternity leave after their child's birth, women would be paid benefits sufficient for the full health maintenance for her and her child, women will be granted job protection, entitled to free attendance by a doctor or certified midwife, and once returned to work she will be given two half an hour breaks to breastfeed her newborn child. Nations which ratified the convention would agree to its provisions and imbed them in their nations legislation.[21] The women of the ICWW were influential in the decisions made during the International Labor Organization's Maternity Protection Convention.
During the second conference which addressed the night work of women, women from the ICWW also voiced their opinions. Betsy Kjelsberg, of Norway, believed that special laws which are established for the protection of women are demeaning for women.[22] She explained that she would work for the gradual elimination of night work for women as well as men. The final provisions for the night work convention did prohibit the employment of women after 10 pm or before 5 am, but did not extend this provision to male laborers.
The IFWW After 1919
The second International Congress of Working Woman, which took place in 1921 in Geneva addressed membership into the everlasting organization of the ICWW, the International Federation of Working Woman. The Federation compromised and allowed trade unions with female members to join the federation and also allowed women's labor organizations who shared their same values to join them as well.
In Vienna in 1923 the third International Conference of Working Women took place. This conference discussed the challenges of relating to an international labor movement which was largely male oriented and dominated. The delegates of the third ICWW decided to join with the International Federation of Trade Unions, which would cause the federation to dissolve.
Related Research Articles
The International Labour Organization (ILO) is a United Nations agency whose mandate is to advance social and economic justice by setting international labour standards. Founded in October 1919 under the League of Nations, it is one of the first and oldest specialized agencies of the UN. The ILO has 187 member states: 186 out of 193 UN member states plus the Cook Islands. It is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, with around 40 field offices around the world, and employs some 3,381 staff across 107 nations, of whom 1,698 work in technical cooperation programmes and projects.
Labor rights or workers' rights are both legal rights and human rights relating to labor relations between workers and employers. These rights are codified in national and international labor and employment law. In general, these rights influence working conditions in the relations of employment. One of the most prominent is the right to freedom of association, otherwise known as the right to organize. Workers organized in trade unions exercise the right to collective bargaining to improve working conditions.
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 role in supporting the massive strikes in the first two decades of the twentieth century that established the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union and Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America and in campaigning for women's suffrage among men and women workers.
Leonora O’Reilly was an American feminist, suffragist, and trade union organizer. O'Reilly was born in New York state, raised in the Lower East Side of New York City. She was born into a working-class family and left school at the age of eleven to begin working as a seamstress. Leonora O’Reilly’s parents were Irish immigrants escaping the Great Famine; her father, John, was a printer and a grocer and died while Leonora was the age of one, forcing her mother, Winifred Rooney O’Reilly, to work more hours as a garment worker in order to support Leonora and her younger brother.
The Convention Concerning the Prohibition and Immediate Action for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour, known in short as the Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, was adopted by the International Labour Organization (ILO) in 1999 as ILO Convention No 182. It is one of eight ILO fundamental conventions.
Agnes Nestor was an American labor leader, politician, and social reformer. She is best remembered for her membership and leadership roles in the International Glove Workers Union (IGWU) and the Women's Trade Union League (WTUL), where she organized for women's suffrage and workers' rights. Nestor's prominent activities included organizing women workers in Chicago in the early 1900s, running for public office, serving on national commissions to promote education, and securing work-hour limitations for women.
Decent work is employment that "respects the fundamental rights of the human person as well as the rights of workers in terms of conditions of work safety and remuneration. ... respect for the physical and mental integrity of the worker in the exercise of their employment."
Maternity Protection Convention, 2000 is an International Labour Organization Convention.
Migrant domestic workers are, according to the International Labour Organization’s Convention No. 189 and the International Organization for Migration, any persons "moving to another country or region to better their material or social conditions and improve the prospect for themselves or their family," engaged in a work relationship performing "in or for a household or households." Domestic work itself can cover a "wide range of tasks and services that vary from country to country and that can be different depending on the age, gender, ethnic background and migration status of the workers concerned." These particular workers have been identified by some academics as situated within "the rapid growth of paid domestic labor, the feminization of transnational migration, and the development of new public spheres." Prominent discussions on the topic include the status of these workers, reasons behind the pursue in this labour, recruitment and employment practices in the field, and various measures being undertaken to change the conditions of domestic work among migrants.
The global march against child labour came about in 1998, following the significant response concerning the desire to end child labour. It was a grassroot movement that motivated many individuals and organizations to unite and fight against child labor, not an annual march.
Iranian labor law describes the rules of employment in Iran. As a still developing country, Iran is considerably behind by international standards. It has failed to ratify the two basic Conventions of the International Labour Organization on freedom of association and collective bargaining, and one on abolition of child labor. Countries such as the US and India have also failed to ratify many of these Conventions and a mere 14 other Conventions, only 2 since the Islamic Revolution.
The Agricultural Workers Organization (AWO), later known as the Agricultural Workers Industrial Union, was an organization of farm workers throughout the United States and Canada formed on April 15, 1915, in Kansas City. It was supported by, and a subsidiary organization of, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). Although the IWW had advocated the abolition of the wage system as an ultimate goal since its own formation ten years earlier, the AWO's founding convention sought rather to address immediate needs, and championed a ten-hour work day, premium pay for overtime, a minimum wage, good food and bedding for workers. In 1917 the organization changed names to the Agricultural Workers Industrial Union (AWIU) as part of a broader reorganization of IWW industrial unions.
The Maritime Labour Convention (MLC) is an International Labour Organization (ILO) convention, number 186, established in 2006 as the fourth pillar of international maritime law and embodies "all up-to-date standards of existing international maritime labour Conventions and Recommendations, as well as the fundamental principles to be found in other international labour Conventions". The other pillars are the SOLAS, STCW and MARPOL. The treaties applies to all ships entering the harbours of parties to the treaty (port states), as well as to all ships flying the flag of state party (flag states, as of 2021: over 91 per cent).
Child labor in the Philippines is the employment of children in hazardous occupations below the age of fifteen (15), or without the proper conditions and requirements below the age of fifteen (15), where children are compelled to work on a regular basis to earn a living for themselves and their families, and as a result are disadvantaged educationally and socially. So to make it short, it is called child labor when it is forced.
International labour law is the body of rules spanning public and private international law which concern the rights and duties of employees, employers, trade unions and governments in regulating Work and the workplace. The International Labour Organization and the World Trade Organization have been the main international bodies involved in reforming labour markets. The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank have indirectly driven changes in labour policy by demanding structural adjustment conditions for receiving loans or grants. Issues regarding Conflict of laws arise, determined by national courts, when people work in more than one country, and supra-national bodies, particularly in the law of the European Union, have a growing body of rules regarding labour rights.
Child labour laws are statutes placing restrictions and regulations on the work of minors.
Elisabeth Christman was a trade union organizer.
The Inter-Allied Women's Conference opened in Paris on 10 February 1919. It was convened parallel to the Paris Peace Conference to introduce women's issues to the peace process after the First World War. Leaders in the international women's suffrage movement had been denied the opportunity to participate in the official proceedings several times before being allowed to make a presentation before the Commission on International Labour Legislation. On 10 April, women were finally allowed to present a resolution to the League of Nations Commission. It covered the trafficking and sale of women and children, their political and suffrage status, and the transformation of education to include the human rights of all persons in each nation.
Women in labor unions have participated in labor organizing and activity throughout United States history. These workers have organized to address issues within the workplace, such as promoting gender equality, better working conditions, and higher wages. Women have participated in unions including the Collar Laundry Union, the WTUL, the IWW, the ILGWU, and the UAW.
↑ Eileen Boris, Home to Work: Motherhood and the Politics of Industrial Homework in the United States(New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994) 10.
↑ Smith, Bonnie G. (1989). Changing lives: women in European history since 1700. Lexington, MA: D.C. Heath and Co. pp.148–50. ISBN0-669-14561-0. OCLC19060069.
↑ Smith, Bonnie G. (1989). Changing lives: women in European history since 1700. Lexington, MA: D.C. Heath and Co. pp.168–70. ISBN0-669-14561-0. OCLC19060069.
↑ Wilentz, Sean (2004). Chants democratic: New York City and the rise of the American working class, 1788-1850 (20th anniversaryed.). London, UK: Oxford University Press. pp.248–49. ISBN0-19-517450-X. OCLC55738323.
↑ Clark, Anna (1995). The struggle for the breeches: gender and the making of the British working class. Berkeley: University of California Press. pp.233–47. ISBN978-0-520-91905-1. OCLC45885595.
↑ Cobble, Dorothy Sue (2021). For the many: American feminists and the global fight for democratic equality. Princeton, NJ. pp.15–18. ISBN978-0-691-22059-8. OCLC1221018017.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
↑ Laura Vapnek, "The 1919 International Congress of Working Women: Transnational Debates on the Woman Worker". Journal of Women's History. (2014): 164.
↑ Vanpnek, "The 1919 International Congress of Working Women," 164.
↑ Dorothy Sue Cobble, "U.S. Labor Women's Internationalism," 46.
↑ Vapnek, "The 1919 International Congress of Working Women," 166.
↑ Vapnek, "The 1919 International Congress of Working Women," 164.
↑ Dorothy Sue Cobble, "U.S. Labor Women's Internationalism," 48.
↑ Dorothy Sue Cobble, "U.S. Labor Women's Internationalism," 49.
↑ Vapnek, "The 1919 International Congress of Working Women," 167.
↑ Vapnek, "The 1919 International Congress of Working Women," 171.
↑ Carol Riegelman Lubin and Anne Winslow, Social Justice For Women, 28.
↑ Carol Riegelman Lubin and Anne Winslow, Social Justice For Women, 30.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
