Mary Kenny O'Sullivan - Boston Labor

Boston Labor

Mary Kenny picked up the last name O'Sullivan when she married a labor editor named Jack O'Sullivan in 1894. They moved to Boston and lived in Denison House, a settlement house similar to Hull. An unusual family for the time, Mary and Jack both worked and looked after the home. Throughout their marriage O'Sullivan continued her organizing mostly through the settlement house, holding discussion groups for working women, focused on the need for solidarity. Sadly her husband died in a tragic streetcar accident in 1902.

From these discussions came the beginnings of an organization that would provide working women from varied backgrounds a central voice, enabling them to unite for better wages and conditions. This organization would be the umbrella from which women's unions could develop prosper. O'Sullivan's opportunity came in November 1903 while at an AFL convention. Labor leader and President of AFL Samuel Gompers allowed her time at the microphone to announce the founding of the National Women's Trade Union League (WTUL). The first meeting included women from many previously established unions, as well as settlement house leaders and reformists. Mary Kenny O'Sullivan would be made secretary of the organization.

O'Sullivan's work for women included not only union organization but voting rights as well. In 1906 she spoke to a voting committee in the U.S. House of Representatives on the Constitutional amendment giving women the vote. She argued that women were producer's in American society, and that every producer retains the right to vote. Similarly the WTUL was considered the "industrial branch" of the suffrage movement. When the AFL renewed its support of a Constitutional Amendment for suffrage every year O'Sullivan often announced its support.