Mary Stirling

For the English actress, see Mary Anne Stirling.

Mary Stirling was an American labor unionist active in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Stirling worked as a shoemaker in Philadelphia. In 1880, she joined a new Knights of Labor local, Garfield Assembly No. 1684, which she co-led with Mary Hanafin. ^[1]

In 1883, Stirling was elected as one of eight District 1 delegates to the national Knights of Labor convention. ^[2] The conventions had previously been all-male, but union leader Terence V. Powderly ruled that women should be admitted on an equal basis with men. ^[3] Stirling was appointed Grand Venerable Sage of the convention and received three votes for Grand Worthy Foreman, the second-highest office in the union. ^[2]

In 1885, she was re-elected as General Venerable Sage at the union’s convention and appointed secretary of a Knights of Labor committee to collect data on women and work. In 1886, she received seven votes in the election for chair of the co-operative board. ^[2]

As of 1902, Stirling was still residing in Philadelphia, working as the forewoman of a department in a large shoe factory. ^[4]

References

1. Weir, Robert E. (2000). Knights Unhorsed: Internal Conflict in a Gilded Age Social Movement. Wayne State University Press. ISBN   9780814328736.
2. Report on Condition of Woman and Child Wage-Earners in the United States. Washington, D.C.: United States Bureau of Labor. 1911.
3. Murray, Emmett; Bernard, Elaine (2011). The Lexicon of Labor. The New Press. ISBN   9781458731647.
4. "Labor Old Timers". The Dillon Tribune. September 19, 1902. Retrieved 25 February 2023.