Mary Kenney, Irish-American Labor Organizer

Women’s History Month gives us the chance to highlight another important albeit overlooked female who made significant contributions to American life: Mary Kenney (1864-1943). Born in Missouri, she worked as a dressmaker to support an invalid mother. Later she moved to Chicago, where the experience of working in factories turned her into a union organizer. A friend of Jane Addams, she lived at Hull House and founded the Jane Club, a co-operative house for women working in low paying jobs. A contemporary thus described Kenney: “Tall, erect, broad-shouldered, with ruddy face and shining eyes, she carried hope and confidence wherever she went. Her rich Irish voice and friendly smile inspired men, women, and children alike to do what she wished.” This working class woman’s interaction with the middle-class college-educated women of Hull House “gave my life new meaning and hope.” In 1892, she became the first woman organizer for the American Federation of Labor. She also pushed for child labor laws. Kenney later moved to Boston, where she married Boston Globe reporter John O’Sullivan. She worked in Boston for the Women’s Educational and Industrial Union and helped to organize garment and laundry workers. In 1903 she helped form the Women’s Trade Union League, the ourpose of which was to educate women about unions, support their demands for better working conditions, and raise awareness about the exploitation of women workers. In 1914 she was appointed as a factory inspector by the Department of Labor, a post she held for twenty years. (She is seen here with other members of the WTUL, fourth from the left.)