Women's Work and Politics in WWI America

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xiii

   PDF

2. Introduction

   • Lars Olsson

   Pages 1-16

3. The Political Economy of Minneapolis

   • Lars Olsson

   Pages 17-41

4. The Northwestern Knitting Company—Makers of Munsing Wear

   • Lars Olsson

   Pages 43-81

5. Divided Work—Women and Men at Work for the Company

   • Lars Olsson

   Pages 83-138

6. A Non-union Shop

   • Lars Olsson

   Pages 139-157

7. “The Munsingwear Family”: Industrial Welfare and Paternalism

   • Lars Olsson

   Pages 159-216

8. Progressivism and Social Work for Women in Minneapolis

   • Lars Olsson

   Pages 217-246

9. One People, One Language, One Nation: “The Munsingwear Family” in the Anglo-Americanization Process

   • Lars Olsson

   Pages 247-272

10. The Munsingwear Family of Minneapolis at War: Conclusions

    • Lars Olsson

    Pages 273-286

11. Back Matter

    Pages 287-301

    PDF

By World War I, the Northwestern Knitting Company was the largest workplace for gainfully employed women in Minnesota and the largest garment factory in the United States. Lars Olsson investigates the interplay of class, gender, marital status, ethnicity, and race in the labor relations at the factory, illuminating the lives of the women who worked there. Representing thirty nationalities, particularly Scandinavian, the women worked long hours for low pay in roles that were strictly divided along ethnic and gendered lines, while the company directors and stockholders made enormous profits off of their labor. Management developed paternal strategies to bind the workers to the company and preempt unionization, including bonus programs, minstrel shows, and a pioneering industrial welfare program. With the US entry into the war, the company was contracted to produce underwear for soldiers, and management expanded the metaphor of "the Munsingwear Family" to construct not just company loyalty, but national loyalty. This book sheds new light on women's labor in WWI and the lives of textile workers in the United States.

• labor relations
• Northwestern Knitting Company
• Northwestern Knitting Factory
• Minnesota history
• Americanization
• women in the workplace
• Women in WWI
• Women's Welfare League
• women in the war effort
• Labor migration to Minneapolis
• Munsingwear Inc.
• US Garment industry
• unionization of women
• industrial welfare in the US
• Scandinavian immigrants to the United States
• histrorical sociology

“Lars Olsson has crafted a unique analysis that focuses on intersections of class, gender, ethnicity, race, and the experience of work at the Northwestern Knitting Company. Women's Work and Politics in WWI America contends that, in their manufacture of underwear for the troops, women workers directly supported America’s cause by clothing its heroes during wartime—a motto encouraged through heavy-handed paternalism that preached loyalty through hard work. A must-read for scholars and students interested in Progressivism, women’s work during WWI, and labor history.” (Erika K. Jackson, Associate Professor of History, Colorado Mesa University, USA, and author of Scandinavians in Chicago: The Origins of White Privilege in Modern America)

• Linnaeus University, Kalmar, Sweden

  Lars Olsson

Lars Olsson is Professor Emeritus of History at Linnaeus University, Sweden.

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