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A Study of Jewish Immigrant Women of the Progressive Era Ariel Johanna Cohen University of St

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A Study of Jewish Immigrant Women of the Progressive Era Ariel Johanna Cohen University of St University of St. Thomas, Minnesota UST Research Online Education Doctoral Dissertations in Leadership School of Education 2-2012 Women‘s Resiliency, Power, & Leadership: A Study of Jewish Immigrant Women of the Progressive Era Ariel Johanna Cohen University of St. Thomas, Minnesota Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.stthomas.edu/caps_ed_lead_docdiss Part of the Education Commons Recommended Citation Cohen, Ariel Johanna, "Women‘s Resiliency, Power, & Leadership: A Study of Jewish Immigrant Women of the Progressive Era" (2012). Education Doctoral Dissertations in Leadership. 1. https://ir.stthomas.edu/caps_ed_lead_docdiss/1 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the School of Education at UST Research Online. It has been accepted for inclusion in Education Doctoral Dissertations in Leadership by an authorized administrator of UST Research Online. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Women‘s Resiliency, Power, & Leadership: A Study of Jewish Immigrant Women of the Progressive Era A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE SCHOOL OF EDUCATION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ST. THOMAS ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA By Ariel Johanna Cohen IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF EDUCATION February 2012 ii UNIVERSITY OF ST. THOMAS, MINNESOTA Women‘s Resiliency, Power, & Leadership: A Study of Jewish Immigrant Women of the Progressive Era We certify that we have read this dissertation and approved it as meeting departmental criteria for graduation in scope and quality. We have found that it is complete and satisfactory in all respects, and that any and all revisions required by the final examining committee have been made. Dissertation Committee Kathleen M. Boyle, Ph.D., Committee Chair Jean Pierre Bongila, Ed.D., Committee Member Sarah J. Noonan, Ed.D., Committee Member Final Approval Date iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Kathleen M. Boyle, Ph.D. Sarah J. Noonan, Ed.D. Jean Pierre Bongila, Ed.D. Faculty St. Thomas School of Education, College of Applied Professional Studies, Department of Leadership, Policy & Administration Artika Tyner, M.P.P., J.D. Renee Kumpula, Ed.D., R.N., P.H.N. Kevin S. Gerdes, Brigadier General, Minnesota National Guard Members of Cohort 22 Jeanette Black Kersten, Ed.D. Timothy Sheehan, Ph.D. Barbara S. Weiner, M.L.S., Manager of Hazelden Library, Hazelden Foundation, Center City, Minnesota Karen Biskin, Head of Library Services & Community Outreach, Jewish Public Library, Montreal, Quebec Rabbi Benjamin H. Cohen, Ph.D. Julie C. White, A.D.N. Theodora J. White, B.S.S. Jennifer Dente Kovach, M.D. & Joshua R. Kovach, M.D. Anna Sophia Kovach iv ABSTRACT This dissertation study is an historical feminist ethnography with feminist theory analysis. Thematic exploration through qualitative research methodology included women‘s resiliency, power, and leadership, based on a study of Jewish immigrant women of the Progressive Era. I focused on characteristics and qualities women exhibited and drew upon to cope and manage their challenging social conditions of lived experience. Women‘s abilities and strategies included the implementation of a ―both/and‖ model, high level multitasking, relentless and empowering work ethic, entrepreneurial enterprise, and actions endemic to social justice. Ethnographic research and analysis was the basis I chose for the dissertation study, inductively compiled to provide findings for informing women in other ethnic groups as well as my own. An opportunity arose to learn about women and resources, based on individual and collective strengths of character. Character traits carried them through their daily challenges, and inspired their recurrent state of resiliency, power, and leadership. Course of study placed women in context of their environment and contiguous realities globally and locally. Themes of resiliency factors were ethnicity, class and culture of the Jewish immigrant group, and skills. I found these factors matched with women‘s character assets of persistence, effectiveness, adaptability, courage, determination, and relentlessness. Resiliency was sum and substance of their survival, and women internalized habits of courage, v lifted their voices, and propelled themselves forward in lives filled with empowerment. Regarding women‘s character asset of power and empowerment, power represented real choices in living life, caring for families, and involving themselves in community. Power influences included freedom, independence, education, and mazel (luck). Women exercised moral power with social justice, dedicated to welfare of their community and improvement of their lives and lives of others, thus shaping lives of future generations. Women‘s character assets of leadership and effective use of moral power involved substantial leadership talents, skills, and abilities. Capable, powerful women leaders primarily devoted energies to social activism, transformed traditional roles and expectations, and managed practicalities associated with adaptation and assimilation to the American environment and culture. My intention in this dissertation was to give Jewish immigrant women opportunity to express their voices of power, lament, progress, accomplishment, and victory, in their lived history of the Progressive Era. This dissertation is about women of the past. I approached my research with the intention to educate, inform, and serve women of the present and the future. vi © 2012 Ariel Johanna Cohen vii TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW……...... 1 Purpose of Research….……………………………………..... 1 Background & Significance of the Study…………………….. 3 Researcher‘s Perspective………………………....................... 6 Definition of Terms………………………………................... 6 Overview of the Dissertation……………………………......... 10 Summary…………………………………………………........ 13 CHAPTER TWO: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY……………. 14 Overview of Methods…………..……………………………. 14 Historical Research Methods……….……………………….. 20 Feminist Research Methods……….………………................ 23 Feminist Theoretical Lens……………………….................... 24 Mega Structure & Meta-Analysis Process……………...….... 25 Researcher Bias……………………………………………... 28 Limitations………………………………………………….. 32 Summary…………………………………………………..... 33 CHAPTER THREE: WORLD EVENTS FRAMING WOMEN’S EXPERIENCE…… 35 Pogroms in Eastern Europe and Russia (1880-1920)….......... 36 Labor Strikes in America and Russia (1880-1920)…………. 39 Buffalo Switchmen‘s Strike………………………… 39 Newsboys Strike in New York City………………… 41 Economic Depression (1893)………………………………... 46 The Dreyfus Affair (1895)…………………………………… 51 World War I (1914-1918…………………………………….. 55 Russian Revolution (1917)…………………………………... 61 The Flu Pandemic (1918)……………………………………. 66 Women‘s Suffrage (1920)…………………………………… 70 Summary…………………………………………………….. 75 CHAPTER FOUR: JEWISH WOMEN’S RESILIENCY………. 78 Elements of Ethnicity.………………………………………. 79 Immigrant Class/Culture Issues…………………………….. 82 Language……………………………………………. 84 Poverty and Housing………………………………… 85 Illness and Disease…………………………………... 88 Social Class and Crime……………………………… 90 Importance of Skills……………………………………......... 92 Significance of Gender……………………………………… 96 Sweatshop Conditions………………………………. 97 Sexual Harassment…………………………………. 98 Unhygienic Conditions……………………………... 99 Low Wages…………………………………………. 100 viii Individual Experiences……………………………... 101 Tactics of Speed and Fear………………………...... 102 Pogroms……………………………………………………. 103 Treacherous Travel………………………………………… 106 Assimilation………………………………………………... 110 Influence of Nature………………………………………… 112 Summary…………………………………………………… 115 CHAPTER FIVE: JEWISH WOMEN’S POWER……………... 117 Considerations Regarding Power…………………………... 117 Hegemony of Obstacles……………………………………. 123 Lack of Resources and Dependence on Agencies…. 123 Experiences of Anti-Semitism……………….…….. 124 Religious Conversion Issues……………………….. 129 Importance of Powerful Actions…………………………… 131 Significance of Education…………………………….……. 133 Mazel or ―Luck‖………………………………………...….. 140 Experiences with Charities…………………………………. 142 Summary……………………………………………………. 149 CHAPTER SIX: JEWISH WOMEN’S LEADERSHIP…...…… 152 Aspects and Challenges of Identity…………………...……. 152 Cultural Entrepreneurs……………………………………… 158 Feminist Leadership: Style and Substance…………………. 160 Benevolent Societies and Labor Unions…………………… 164 Strike of the Twenty Thousand……………………….……. 171 The Triangle Factory Fire…………………………….……. 174 The Triangle Factory Fire – Aftermath……………………. 178 Summary…………………………………………………… 182 CHAPTER SEVEN: SUMMARY & CONCLUSION……..…… 185 Summary of Methods, Purposes, and Findings......……...…. 185 Discussion...………………………………………………… 196 Implications …………………………………....………….... 200 Focus on Implications………………………...…….. 201 Direction for Future Research Opportunities……...... 201 Conclusions…………………………………………………. 203 ix REFERENCES……………………………………………………. 207 APPENDICES…………………………………………………….. 219 Appendix A……………………………………………….… 220 Appendix B……………………………………………….… 221 Appendix C……………………………………………….… 222 Appendix D………………………………………………… 223 1 CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION When Jewish immigrant women arrived in New York City at the close of the 19th century, the majority found ready employment with their sewing skills, in the sweatshops of New York‘s garment industry. When they worked, the work Jewish women did define them as Jewish women. The image of immigrant girls bent over sewing machines in turn-of–the–century New York tenements rests on the historical reality that, at the end of the first decade of the 20th century, about two-thirds of the female garment workers were Jewish (Nadell,
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