28 July 1869: Daughters of Saint Crispin

On this day, 28 July 1869, the first national women's labour union in US history, the Daughters of St Crispin, was founded in Lynn, Massachusetts. It was set up predominantly by shoemakers, a few years after a major strike of shoemakers in Lynn, in which women played a key part. The name was chosen to mimic the name of a men's shoemakers' union, the Knights of St Crispin. By the end of 1869 it had grown across eight states in New England, California and Illinois, and at its convention the following year it adopted the demand of equal pay for equal work with men. They organised various strikes: one in Lynn in 1872 won higher wages, while another in Stoneham the same year was defeated. The union was relatively short-lived, but some individual chapters remained strong and later joined the Knights of Labor.
More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/10012/daughters-of-st-crispin-founded

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