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There are still some places where they don't ask them to join the union and if they do, they don't give them a voice. The women of the needle trades have really succeeded magnificently. Even when they work in the trade women haven't gotten into the union in some places, but in most places they have now. In the bakery unions they have a perfectly good standing. The old German bakers would no more have thought of having women in the union - ridiculous - even though they worked in the place.

That was in part the old idea that the union was partly a social organization. It was also just thought that women were not fit for these things. That passed with the passing of the prejudice against women everywhere, but primarily it passed, I really think, because of the success of these shirtwaist girls. They made themselves a union. Nobody helped them. That gave the idea that they could organize; they could organize; they could stick together; they didn't all marry after a year and forget the union. The Woman's Trade Union League did tremendous service in opening up trade unions to them.

Rose Schneiderman was the head of the shirtwaist women. She came into great prominence at the time of that great strike. She proved to have the golden tongue that is so effective in a mass movement and to be fearless,