ABSTRACT
William English Walling was willing to sacrifice his watch to assist in the organization of women. Participation rates for young women, immigrant women and African American women were even higher. Concentrated in the large cities and single-industry towns of the industrial Northeast and Midwest, these women were clustered in the low-paying, low-skilled facets of production. Statistically, the majority of wage-earning women were young immigrants or the daughters of immigrants, contributing to their families’ household income. In a study conducted by the Women’s Educational and Industrial Union in 1901, weekly wages were compared with food and housing costs. Women were even more attractive as employees because of the socially sanctioned view that they were, or at least should be, compliant when confronted with male authority, be it father, husband, or boss. As a former factory inspector and a settlement house worker, Walling knew well the often horrific conditions under which women labored.
