Daughters of the Shtetl : life and labor in the immigrant generation

In this fascinating portrait of Jewish immigrant wage earners, Susan A. Glenn weaves together several strands of social history to show the emergence of an ethnic version of what early twentieth-century Americans called the "New Womanhood." She maintains that during an era when Americans perceived women as temporary workers interested ultimately in marriage and motherhood, these young Jewish women turned the garment industry upside down with a wave of militant strikes and shop-floor activism and helped build the two major clothing workers' unions. In this fascinating portrayal of Jewish immigrant wage earners, Susan A. Glenn waves together several strands of social history to show the emergence of an ethnic version of what early twentieth-century Americans called the "New Womanhood." She maintains that during an era when Americans perceived women as temporary workers interested ultimately in marriage and motherhood, these young Jewish women turned the garment industry uspide down with a wave of militant strikes and shop-floor activism and helped build the two major clothing workers' unions Cover Page Copyright Page Dedication Table of Contents Illustrations Preface Introduction 1. "A Girl Wasn't Much”: Jewish Womanhood in Eastern Europe 2. Mothers and Daughters: Remaking the Jewish Family Economy in America 3. Unwritten Laws: Work and Opportunity in the Garment Industry 4. "All of Us Young People”: The Social and Cultural Dimensions of Work 5. Uprisings: Women and the Mass Strike Movement 6. "As We Are Not Angels”: The New Unionism and the New Womanhood Notes Index Seventy-four years old when she was interviewed in the mid-1970s, Mollie Linker, a grandmother living in Chicago, recounted her life history in terms that were familiar to a generation of Jewish immigrant women. Examines the role of Jewish women immigrants in the garment industry in early twentieth-century America