Josephine Casey (1 January 1878(?) – 27 January 1950) was a labor organizer and leader, and a women's rights advocate.

Early life

Casey, the youngest of four children, was born in

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in Shelby County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. Situated along the Mississippi River, it had a population of 633,104 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of municipalities in Tenne ...

in 878?and raised in

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

. Her Catholic parents, Cornelius and Bridget Stephens Casey, were Irish immigrants.

Career

While working as a Chicago streetcar ticket agent in 1904 she persuaded the women she worked with to form a union. She worked as an organizer for the Boston

Women's Trade Union League The Women's Trade Union League (WTUL) (1903–1950) was a United States, 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 pla ...

from 1906 to 1909. She then organized for the

International Ladies Garment Workers Union The International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU) was a labor union for employees in the women's clothing industry in the United States. It was one of the largest unions in the country, one of the first to have a primarily female membersh ...

and was a strike leader for garment workers in Kalamazoo, Cleveland, and St. Louis between 1911 and 1914. In March 1912, Casey's efforts in Michigan were focused on the concerns of female workers at the Kalamazoo Corset Company including low wages, long hours in unsanitary conditions and sexual harassment from male foreman. Organizers, including

Pauline Newman Pauline Newman (born June 20, 1927) is an American lawyer and jurist formally serving as a U.S. Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. She has been suspended from her duties since September 2023. She has be ...

and Gertrude Barnum, and striking employees gained national attention for silent picketing and prayer meetings in response to a court order to stymie disorderly picket lines. An agreement that fell short of significant wage gains, but marked progress for female workers' rights, was reached on June 12. During

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

Casey opposed women-only labor laws in the South. She was a suffrage activist and worked for the Women's Political Union in New York. In the 1920s she was a champion of the

Equal Rights Amendment The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) was a proposed amendment to the Constitution of the United States, United States Constitution that would explicitly prohibit sex discrimination. It is not currently a part of the Constitution, though its Ratifi ...

. Following a series of misfortunes, she was earning $5 per week working as a housekeeper. In 1931 the

National Woman's Party The National Woman's Party (NWP) was an American women's political organization formed in 1916 to fight for women's suffrage. After achieving this goal with the 1920 adoption of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, the NWP ...

(NWP) contacted her and sent her to Atlanta to oppose the efforts by the Southern Council and the Cotton Textile Institute to establish sex-based legislation. Her reports were made into a regular column featured in the NWP's weekly bulletin '' Equal Rights''.

Death

As a member of the

First Church of Christ, Scientist The First Church of Christ, Scientist is the administrative headquarters and mother church of the Church of Christ, Scientist, also known as the Christian Science church. Christian Science was founded in the 19th century in Lynn, Massachusetts ...

in Boston and later the Seventh Church of Christ Scientist in New York, Casey refused to seek medical care for heart related issues because of her religious beliefs. She died at her home in New York City on January 27, 1950.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Casey, Josephine 1870s births 1950 deaths American trade unionists American people of Irish descent International Ladies Garment Workers Union leaders Place of birth missing Women trade union leaders American women's rights activists