Kate Mullany
{{Short description|American labor leader (1845–1906)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Kate Mullany
| birth_date = 1845
| known_for = Inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame for organizing the 1st female union in the USA. Mullany, led a successful 6-day strike in 1864 to increase wages and improve working conditions for the Collar Laundry Union.
| death_date = 1906
}}
{{labor|sp=us}}
Kate Mullany (1845–1906) was an American early female labor leader who started the all-women Collar Laundry Union in Troy, New York in February 1864. It was one of the first women's unions that lasted longer than the resolution of a specific issue.[https://web.archive.org/web/20070704044959/http://www.nps.gov/history/NR/travel/pwwmh/ny18.htm Kate Mullany biography at the National Park Service government web site]. Accessed February 4, 2008.[https://web.archive.org/web/20021003183546/http://www.greatwomen.org/women.php?action=viewone&id=113 National Women's Hall of Fame official web site]. Accessed February 4, 2008.
Biography
Kate Mullany was an Irish immigrant born in 1845 who moved to the United States of America at a very young age.{{Cite web |title=Mullany, Kate {{!}} Women of the Hall |url=https://www.womenofthehall.org/inductee/kate-mullany/ |access-date=2024-01-15 |language=en-US}} With her co-workers Esther Keegan and Sarah McQuillan, she organized approximately 300 women into the first sustained female union in the country, the Collar Laundry Union, in 1864. Mullany went on to be its president and was elected second vice-president of the National Labor Union.
At the age of 19, when her father died, Mullany had to work at a local laundry 12–14 hours a day for $3 a week. While working there, if she damaged an article of clothing, the company would reduce her wages to cover the cost of the damages.{{Cite web |title=Mullany, Kate {{!}} Women of the Hall |url=https://www.womenofthehall.org/inductee/kate-mullany/ |access-date=2024-01-15 |language=en-US}} She led a successful six-day strike in 1864 with over 300 other women to increase wages and improve working conditions. The strike led to a 25-percent increase in wages.[http://www.wiawaka.org/mullaney.html Wiawaka Women's Camp web site] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081119232525/http://www.wiawaka.org/mullaney.html |date=2008-11-19 }}. Accessed February 4, 2008.[http://www.katemullanynhs.org/ Kate Mullany House organization official web site]. Accessed February 4, 2008/
The National Labor Union saw what Mullany was doing and they appointed her to be assistant secretary of the National Labor Union, a union of which she would later be elected the Vice President.
In 1869 she married John Fogarty and her obituary was listed under her married name.{{Cite web |url=http://www.nps.gov/nhl/designations/samples/ny/KateMullany.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=2009-07-04 |archive-date=2012-11-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121104183336/http://www.nps.gov/nhl/designations/samples/ny/KateMullany.pdf |url-status=dead }} Around that time, Mullany also failed at trying to create new laundry and collar-making cooperatives. She died in 1906 and was buried in the Fogarty family plot in St. Peter's Cemetery, Troy, New York.[http://www.katemullanynhs.org/grave Kate Mullany House organization official web site Grave web page] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180304055815/http://www.katemullanynhs.org/grave |date=2018-03-04 }}. Accessed February 4, 2008/
The Kate Mullany House, at 350 8th Street in Troy, was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1998,{{citation |title=National Historic Landmark Nomination—Kate Mullany House|url={{NHLS url|id=98000453}} |format=pdf|author1=Page Putnam Miller |author2=Jill S. Mesirow |author3=Andrew Laas |author4=John W. Bond |author5=Rachel Bliven |date=September 4, 1997|publisher=National Park Service}} and {{NHLS url|id=98000453|title=Accompanying 2 photos, from 1994.|photos=y}} {{small|(493 KB)}} and became a National Historic Site in 2008.
In 2000, Mullany was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame. She has been honored by the New York State Senate,[http://www.senate.state.ny.us/sws/wod/lb_mullany.html NY Senate Women's Heritage Month web site] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030726000054/http://www.senate.state.ny.us/sws/wod/lb_mullany.html |date=2003-07-26 }}. Accessed February 4, 2008. and her home is on the Women's Heritage Trail.[https://parks.ny.gov/historic-preservation/heritage-trails/womens-heritage/default.aspx?id=156&topic=women Women's Heritage Trail official web site]. Accessed February 2, 2020.
See also
References
{{reflist}}
Further reading
- {{cite book
| last1 = Turbin
| first1 = Carole
| title = Working Women of Collar City: Gender, Class, and Community in Troy, 1864-86
| date = 1994
| publisher = University of Illinois Press
| location = Champaign, IL
| isbn = 0252018362
| url = https://archive.org/details/workingwomenofco0000turb
| url-access = registration
}}
External links
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20080516193409/http://www.pef.org/katemullaney.htm The Kate Mullany story at the Public Employees Federation web site]
- [http://connectedkids.sbrl.rpiscrews.us/TroyArtHistory/TroyInnovations/innovators/mullany/index.html Connect Kids to Troy History] {{Dead link|date=February 2020 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
- {{cite book|title=America's Working Women: A Documentary History, 1600 to the Present|author1=Rosalyn Baxandall|author2=Linda Gordon|author3=Susan Reverby|year= 1995 |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company|isbn=978-0-393-31262-1|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9qzWvhNZ5pMC&pg=PA98|page=98}}
{{National Women's Hall of Fame}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mullany, Kate}}
Category:19th-century American women
Category:Activists from New York (state)
Category:American trade union leaders