“Brave Girl: Clara and the Shirtwaist Makers’ Strike of 1909”
by Michelle Market, illustrated by Melissa Sweet.
Harper and Collins, New York, 2913, 32 pages, Grades 2-4.
History is usually made by people taking a stance. Sometimes, this stance requires great sacrifice.
In the United State, oppressive working conditions force confrontations with management. This is particularly true in industries dominated by women. In particular, at the turn of the 20th century, immigrant women frequently labored in unhealthy, filthy factories. When these impoverished women complained, the factories simply fired them. A culture such as this will produce great wealth for the owners while creating misery for the workers.
In the garment industry in New York and other cities, women and girls not yet 10 work 12-hour shifts in stifling or freezing factories, depending on the season. One young Jewish woman decides this enslavement has to stop. Michelle Market tells the inspiring story of Clara Lemlich, the tiny dynamo who successfully challenged hundreds of garment makers in New York.
Arriving in New York, the Lemnich family moves into an impoverished neighborhood. Clara soon discovers that the factory owners will not hire her father, but are more than happy to hire another girl to slave over a sewing machine making blouses and skirts. The rules of the factory are simple. The women work at least 12 hours a day at little pay. If they cut a finger on their sewing machine, they will lose a half day’s pay. If they make the mistake twice, they are fired.
In Clara’s sweatshop, 300 women sit side by side sewing all day long. To make sure none of the women or girls leave early, the foremen lock the doors to the factory. After some time, Clara can see the land of the free is not quite what she envisioned. She feels the women should organize and demand better pay and working conditions. This is a dangerous proposition and Clara is repeatedly beaten up.
Undaunted, she encourages the women to go to a union meeting. None of the men leading the meeting feel a strike is a good idea. That is it for Clara. She goes up to the podium and in Yiddish, calls at the women. The 5-foot-tall Clara convinces the women to strike. Soon hundreds of women go on strike. Finally, the owners of the factories are faced with a severe labor shortage. Rich women and the newspapers support the strikers. Production grinds to a halt. Who wins the strike?
Does Clara gain better working conditions and salaries for the women? How does the horrible 1910 Triangle Waist Factory fire prove that Clara is right? Do the factory owners allow the women to form unions? To find out the answers to these and other questions, go to the library and check out “Brave Girl: Clara and the Shirtwaist Makers’ Strike of 1909” by Michelle Market.
This picture book easily explains the terrible working conditions of early immigrants. It shows how one person standing up can make a change for the better. Clara Lemnich may have only been 5 foot tall, but she was a giant in the labor movement. This book would be excellent to use in a social studies class in the primary grades.
