Earn Rights, Not Roses: Unions And The Rise Of Working-Class Feminism, 1945-80 Edited By Dennis A. Deslippe Kindle

the most visible banners of feminism were carried by educated, whitecollar, professional women, workingclass women were themselves a powerful force in the campaign for gender equality.
"Rights, Not Roses" explores how unionized wageearning women led the struggle to place women's employment rights on the national agenda, decisively influencing the contemporary labor movement and secondwave feminism.

Drawing on union records, oral histories, and legislative hearings, Dennis A, Deslippe unravels a complex history of how labor leaders accommodated and resisted working women's demands for change, Through case studies of unions representing packinghouse and electrical workers, Deslippe explains why gender equality emerged as an issue in thes and how the activities of wageearning women in and outside of their unions shaped the content of the debate.
He also traces the faultlines between workingclass women, who sought gender equality within the parameters of unionist principles such as seniority, and middleclass women,

who sought an equal rights amendment that would guarantee an abstract equality for all women.

A thoughtful and thorough study of workingclass feminism, "Rights, Not Roses" raises important questions about the meaning of equality for working women, the connections of women to their unions, the gendered nature of equal rights, and more.

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