Rose Schneiderman | |
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Born | April 6, 1882 |
Occupation(s) | Labor union leader, suffrage campaigner |
Rose Schneiderman (April 6, 1882 - August 11, 1972) was the president of the New York Women’s Trade League[1] from 1917 to 1949. She was also the president of the National Women’s Trade Union League (WTUL) from 1926 through 1950.[2] She was the first-ever woman elected into a labor union in national office.
She changed the American labor system and improved the lives of many American workers. In 1933, Franklin Delano Roosevelt put her on the National Labor Advisory Board. She was the only woman on the National Labor Advisory Board. She fought to include domestic workers in social security and for equal pay for female workers.[2] Also, from 1937 to 1943 she was secretary of the New York State Department of Labor.[3] Also, throughout the 1930s and 1940s, she worked to help Jewish refugees escape Europe during the Holocaust.[2] Specifically, she helped relocate Jews to the United States and Palestine. Before becoming president of the New York Women’s Trade League, she was a full-time organizer for the league. She worked in the garments industry.[3] In 1949, she began to spend time writing memoirs and speaking on radio shows.