Helen Marot

Helen Marot

Helen was born on June 9^th 1865 in Philadelphia to a Quaker family.  She was educated at home and al local Friends’ schools and was raised to be fiercely independent. Her father always told her, “I want you to think for yourself – not the way I do. “

Beginning in 1893 she held several positions in a library in Philadelphia and Wilmington Delaware.  After a few years she opened a small library of her own in Philadelphia for “those interested in social and economic problems.”  This library became a gathering place for liberal thinkers.  Helen described it in an interview, “People of all shades of radicalism come there – Single Taxes, Socialists, Philosophical Anarchists – attracted by the unusual books and periodicals and no less by the opportunity for discussion.”

In 1899 Helen was hired by the U.S. Industrial Commission to investigate the custom tailoring trades in Philadelphia.  She discovered dismal working conditions especially for women and children. This changed her overnight from a peaceful librarian into a militant activist.  In 1902 she traveled to New York City to uncover child labor issues there and this resulted in the formation of the New York Child Labor Committee. The following year she helped push the Compulsory Education Act through the New York Legislature.

In 1906 Helen was elected secretary of the Women’s Trade Union League of New York, a position she held for the next seven years.  During this time she lectured on the benefits of unions and her research helped persuade the U. S. Supreme Court to uphold the constitutionality of a law limiting working hours for women.  Her work led to the great waist and dressmaker’s strike which brought attention to the workers ‘plight and empowered women beginning a great industrial revolution in the garment industry leading to the formation of the International ladies’ Garment Workers Union.