Rose Schneiderman (1882 - 1972)

Thu Apr 06, 1882

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Rose Schneiderman, born on this day in 1882, was a Polish-American socialist and feminist of Jewish heritage, and one of the most prominent female labor union leaders of her day.

As a member of the New York Women’s Trade Union League, she drew attention to unsafe workplace conditions following the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of 1911. As a suffragist she helped to pass the New York state referendum of 1917 that gave women the right to vote.

Schneiderman was also a founding member of the American Civil Liberties Union and served on the National Recovery Administration’s Labor Advisory Board under President Franklin D. Roosevelt. She is credited with coining the phrase “Bread and Roses” to indicate a worker’s right to something higher than subsistence living.

“What the woman who labors wants is the right to live, not simply exist — the right to life as the rich woman has the right to life, and the sun and music and art. You have nothing that the humblest worker has not a right to have also. The worker must have bread, but she must have roses, too. Help, you women of privilege, give her the ballot to fight with.”

- Rose Schneiderman