Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/698004
National Catholic Forester 8 During the early 1870s, the Rodgers family settled down in Chicago's working class Irish Near-West Side. Here Elizabeth pioneered in organizing women workers by assisting in the city's fi rst union of women household workers in the mid-1870s. Elizabeth presided over the union, which consisted mostly of non-wage-earning housekeepers. e members discussed industrial conditions with employers and employees and organized educational meetings in public halls or private homes. By the mid-1880s, trade unionism in Chicago was booming and Elizabeth stood at the forefront. e Knights of Labor, the nation's fi rst labor organization to include women workers on a large scale, provided fertile ground for Elizabeth's social activism. In September 1881 she led one of the Knights fi rst all-women assemblies and in September 1886 she acquired national prominence as a delegate to the Knights of Labor's national convention in Richmond, Virginia. Elizabeth's emergence as a prominent labor leader went side by side with raising 10 children. Elizabeth considered her domestic role compatible with eff orts at reforming the workplace and society. She upheld a notion of gender-based separate spheres, but she wanted to apply what she considered women's unique abilities beyond the home. Women's Catholic Order of Foresters Elizabeth next directed her eff orts at establishing a women's life insurance cooperative. In 1891, the death of a mother of six children in Chicago's Holy Family parish prompted Elizabeth and others to demand the creation of a women's auxiliary to the male-only Catholic Order of Foresters (COF). Elizabeth Rodgers, Jennie Clancy, and Minnie Keefe were elected as the committee to address the Catholic Order of Foresters at their convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. e petition prepared by this delegation created a lengthy debate. Elizabeth made a strong appeal in favor of women being allowed to affi liate as an auxiliary organization of COF —and in fact half the delegates voted in favor of admitting women, but as it was required to have a two-thirds vote to amend the COF constitution, the petition was denied. A busy day at Dearborn and Randolph Streets – Chicago Loop 1900