experienced on the field of trade unionism to maintain an organization after the need for immediate action had passed, and so the Female Society of Lynn gradually went to pieces.
LABOR REFORM ASSOCIATIONS
In 1845 a convention of workers was called that led to the formation of the "New England Workingmen's Association." Women participated in this organization throughout its existence, and the first convention was attended by a woman who came as a regular delegate, representing three hundred working women of Lowell. This woman was Sarah G. Bagley, the first woman organizer and public agitator among working women, as truly a pioneer of the woman's cause as Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Sarah G. Bagley had been a simple worker in cotton mills for ten successive years of her life. She knew the needs and problems of working women, not from abstract reasoning or sympathetic observation, but from profound, personal experience. Being able to recognize her own struggles as the struggles of her class, she understood the value of co-operation and organization, and, therefore, became a leader among her associates. She was the founder of an organization of women factory operatives, and was later chosen its president. As the representative of this organization, she attended the workingmen's convention of 1845 and participated in its deliberations. At that time there still existed widespread prejudice against the public activity of women. Even among educated women of the middle class it required an unusual amount of moral courage to brave the public odium. How much greater must the mental strength to brave all this prejudice have been in the case of a plain working girl, who had nothing to uphold her in her chosen course but her own recognition that her cause was just.
The Female Labor Reform Association of Lowell, the organization Sarah G. Bagley represented, aimed to improve the condition of women workers by bringing their needs before the public and rousing the public conscience in their behalf. Organizations by the same name, similar to the Lowell association, were organized in Manchester,
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