Fannia Mary Cohen

“Our Constitution, our Bill of Rights, never crossed the threshold of a non-union shop” 

Fannia Mary Cohn was born in Minsk, Russia in April 1885.  She and her four siblings were well educated and encouraged to aspire to a career.  In 1903 she immigrated to America, alone, at the age of nineteen. She worked for a year as a representative of the American Jewish Women’s Committee on Ellis Island and then pursued a career in the trade union movement taking a job in a garment factory.

In 1909 she was elected to the executive board of the Wrapper, Kimono, and House Dress Makers, Local 41, of the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union.  In 1914 she attended the National Women’s Trade Union League’s Training School for Women’s Organizers in Chicago and in 1915 led the first successful strike of dress and white goods workers.

On this reputation she was soon elected the first female vice president of the ILGWU in New York City.  It was her hope that other women would be inspired to take leadership roles in this male dominated business.  In 1917 she was appointed executive secretary of the union’s Education Department.  Her vision was that education would bridge the gap between workers and management and awaken a social conscience.  When funds dwindled for education she turned to organizing.  There were forty five thousand dressmakers employed in New York City under miserable sweatshop conditions.  She worked tirelessly for over thirty years with marked success.