Labor Journalism, Labor Feminism

Founded in 1919, the Federated Press (FP) collected, compiled, and distributed news to America’s labor and radical newspapers. Victoria M. Grieve focuses on the lives and work of four correspondents and staffers—Jessie Lloyd, Julia Ruuttila, Virginia Gardner, and Miriam Kolkin—to examine the impact of women at the FP and across the labor movement.

These journalists wrote women into labor news by shedding light on essential issues like the need for equal pay and an end to discrimination. Their work increased women’s visibility in unions and the workforce while revealing that not only class but gender and race shaped their on-the-job experiences. Grieve also examines labor feminism within the larger stories of links between the Old Left and New Left and the FP’s pioneering role in articulating early iterations of intersectional feminism.

A compelling portrait of four women and a movement, Labor Journalism, Labor Feminism looks at an essential labor press organization and profiles politically active, leftist women who created relationships, established networks, and worked for social change.