The Working Woman
Imagery of the working woman calls attention to the fact that not all women in America fit into the middle-class ideal of the true woman. In reality, many women worked in industrial or domestic service under exploitive conditions. Their children often did as well. The circulation of child-labor photographs by Lewis Wickes Hine brought evidence of exploitation to light. His images fueled woman suffrage’s call for labor reform.
Middle-and upper-class suffragists used the image of the oppressed and sweated worker to promote their own campaign. They called on their moral authority as true women and mothers to speak in the public sphere on behalf of their oppressed sisters and all children. Women and children required representation in politics, suffragists argued. Labor conditions called for legislative reform and for that, women needed the vote.
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Middle-and upper-class suffragists used the image of the oppressed and sweated worker to promote their own campaign. They called on their moral authority as true women and mothers to speak in the public sphere on behalf of their oppressed sisters and all children. Women and children required representation in politics, suffragists argued. Labor conditions called for legislative reform and for that, women needed the vote.
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Votes for Workers
Sitting at her sewing machine, an exhausted older woman rests her head on one hand while she works by lamplight in a dilapidated room. Like the American ‘Votes for Women’ slogan, this British ‘Votes for Worker’ slogan shared the same goal. Votes were needed by women to improve labor conditions through legislation.
-Pro-suffrage poster
Interior of Cotton Mill
Lewis Hine's photographs exposed the abuse of children as laborers. They provided irrefutable evidence to support the pro-suffrage claim that votes for women were needed to legislate social reform. Of this photo, Hines writes, "See the little ones scattered about."
-Child labor photograph
Globe Cotton Mill
In this Hine photograph, a young girl works alongside a woman. Hine notes the woman is "with child. According to reports, these women work until the day of childbirth." Hine’s evidence supports the need for votes for women in order to promote social legislation for maternity and child welfare.
- Photograph