49 Facts About Leonora O'Reilly

Leonora O'Reilly was an American feminist, suffragist, and trade union organizer.

Leonora O'Reilly was born into a working-class family and left school at the age of eleven to begin working as a seamstress.

Leonora O'Reilly's parents were Irish immigrants escaping the Great Famine; her father, John, was a printer and a grocer and died while Leonora was the age of one, forcing her mother, Winifred Rooney O'Reilly, to work more hours as a garment worker in order to support Leonora and her younger brother.

Leonora O'Reilly worked from 1903 to 1915 an organizer and recruiter for the Women's Trade Union League.

Leonora O'Reilly was the daughter of John O'Reilly, a printer and member of the Knights of Labor, and Winifred O'Reilly, an Irish-born dressmaker.

Leonora O'Reilly accompanied her mother to meetings at Cooper Union and her father's friend, Victor Drury, helped instill in her an appreciation for the Italian nationalist Giuseppe Mazzini.

Leonora O'Reilly counted among her influences radical Catholic priest and social justice advocate Fr.

Leonora and Winifred O'Reilly both made their home in Brooklyn.

At age 16, Leonora O'Reilly joined the Comte Synthetic Circle, a self-education group in the Lower East Side of New York.

In 1898, Leonora O'Reilly took art courses at the Pratt Institute in New York graduating in 1900.

Leonora O'Reilly was supported in this and other activities by a wealthy Boston philanthropist named who, in 1897, provided O'Reilly with an annual salary, allowing her to leave wage work for full-time labor organizing.

In 1909 Leonora O'Reilly was deeply involved in the New York Shirtwaist Strike, the Uprising of the 20,000.

In part in reaction to what she thought was the betrayal of wealthy women supporters of the shirtwaist workers, in 1910, Leonora O'Reilly became a member of the Socialist Party of New York.

In 1912 Leonora O'Reilly founded the Wage Earners Suffrage League, the "industrial wing" of the Woman Suffrage Party, and had called for more fair wages which many upper-class women were not as likely to support.

Leonora O'Reilly had an 'equal pay for equal work' plan for the movement after they had made a dent in their efforts.

Leonora O'Reilly served as the president of the Wage Earner's Suffrage League from 1911 to 1912.

In 1912, Leonora O'Reilly was appointed as the Chair of the Industrial Committee of the New York City Women Suffrage Party.

When speaking about disenfranchised women workers, she would frequently refer to them as 'intelligent women' and 'thinking women' because that is how Leonora O'Reilly perceived them, despite the patriarchal social-norms that at the time did not think as highly of the women.

In 1915, Leonora O'Reilly served as the Trade Union Delegate to the International Congress of Women.

In 1919, Leonora O'Reilly again served as the Trade Union Delegate, this time to the International Congress for Working Women.

In 1925 and 1926, Leonora O'Reilly taught courses at New York's New School for Social Research; these courses were on topics related to 'the theory of the labor movement'.

In 1927, Leonora O'Reilly died at the age of 56 due to heart disease.

Leonora O'Reilly faced poverty, brutal working conditions and unemployment that came with the Gilded Age.

Leonora O'Reilly's experience growing up working-class allowed her to identify with the labor movement, which she saw as crucial for defending people, particularly women of her class.

Leonora O'Reilly argued industrial education was crucial for the liberation of working women, and trade schools for girls in the absence of apprenticeships available to boys.

Leonora O'Reilly was convinced wage equality would be possible when women became skilled workers.

Therefore, Leonora O'Reilly saw women's suffrage as a route to equal political rights and ultimately wage equality.

Leonora O'Reilly began working in a factory at age 11 as the assistant to a seamstress in New York.

In 1881, at the age of eleven, Leonora O'Reilly was forced to give up school to work in a New York collar factory, earning $1 per dozen finished collars.

Leonora O'Reilly belonged to many organizations composed of both working class and elite men and women.

Leonora O'Reilly assembled a group of fellow collar makers to discuss their injustices and explore possible solutions.

Together with other women activists, Leonora O'Reilly solidified the group and held discussions on how to build unionism among the exploited workingwomen in New York City.

Leonora O'Reilly organized the local women's United Garment Workers of America in 1897.

In 1903, Leonora O'Reilly joined the Women's Trade Union League which sought to bring women into labor unions.

The WTUL reported in the year between 1908 and 1909, Leonora O'Reilly had officially given 32 speeches credited to her name alone, while between 1909 and 1913, reports suggest she gave speeches nearly every day.

Leonora O'Reilly advocated to bring women to the vote, where they would gain independence and confidence men often thought they lacked.

Leonora O'Reilly galvanized protests following the Triangle factory fire of 1911, by using the tragedy to build support for factory safety reforms.

In 1909, Leonora O'Reilly was a part of the New York Shirtwaist Strike of 1909, known as the 'Uprising of 20,000'.

Leonora O'Reilly founded the Wage Earner's Suffrage League in 1911 and served as its president from 1911 to 1912.

Leonora O'Reilly was a senior member and a street corner speaker who because of her excellency, was elected president.

An ardent socialist, Leonora O'Reilly was a delegate to the 1915 Hague Women's Peace Convention, sailing through mine-laden waters aboard the MS Noordam.

Around 1918, Leonora O'Reilly devoted herself to the radical section of American Irish nationalism.

In 1919 Leonora O'Reilly spoke at the International Congress for Working Women in Washington DC Despite Leonora O'Reilly's lack of formal education, she was given the opportunity to teach a course at New York's New School for Social Research on 'the theory of the labor movement' in 1925 and 1926.

On February 23,1909, in New York City's Murray Hill Lyceum at 34th and 3rd Avenue, Leonora O'Reilly spoke to over two-thousand audience members explaining the principles of equal rights and demanding women's equal right to vote.

Leonora O'Reilly became involved in support of the Irish Revolution, an uprising against British rule of Ireland founded in opposition to imperialistic policies.

Leonora O'Reilly responded positively to Irish nationalists later in her career and became a key figure in international networks that supported the Irish Rebellion.

Leonora O'Reilly was notable for using her contacts to drive support for boycotts.

Later, Leonora O'Reilly was involved in a consumer boycott of British goods.

Leonora O'Reilly published a list in conjunction with the Women's Purchasing League of goods to be boycotted, and using a rational that women did most of the shopping.