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Women Breaking Barriers
Industrial Strength Helping Others United Home Sweet Workplace

United They Stand

In the struggle for workers' rights, Brooklyn women have played a key role, demanding equal pay for equal work. But their impact extends far beyond women's issues.

In unions and as individuals, as speakers and as activists, women have helped win many of the basic protections we take for granted today, from unemployment insurance and social security to the minimum wage and workplace safety laws.

Labor Day Parade 'A working woman is a human being. A girl who lives on four dollars a week has to give up eating meat if she wants to buy a pair of shoes. As a trade unionist, I say, the sooner the minimum wage is fixed the better for everybody concerned.'
Labor Day Parade
May 1, 1909
Courtesy of Library of Congress, Bain Collection
'It's not just about wages and benefits. It's about quality patient care for working families. We need to protect our members' rights against supervisors who demand that they do jobs that they're not trained or paid for.' Hospital Workers Demonstrating
Hospital Workers Demonstrating
2001
Courtesy of Jim Tynan/1199 SEIU News

Brooklyn Public Library The Brooklyn Historical Society