The experiences of the women printers have been typical of the difficulties which women have had to face in what is called a man’s trade of the highly organized class.  The tragic alternative that is too often offered to women, just as it is offered to any race or class placed at an economic disadvantage, of being kept outside a skilled trade, through the short-sighted policy of the workers in possession, or of entering it by some back door, whether as mere undersellers or as actual strike-breakers, is illustrated in all its phases in the printing trade.

As early as 1856 the Boston Typographical Union seriously considered discharging any member found working with female compositors.  This feeling, though not always so bluntly expressed, lasted for many years.  It was not singular, therefore, that under these circumstances, employers took advantage of such a situation, and whenever it suited them, employed women.  These were not even non-unionists, seeing that as women they were by the men of their own trade judged ineligible for admission to the union.  It is believed that women were thus the means of the printers losing many strikes.  In 1864 the proprietor of one of the Chicago daily papers boasted that he “placed materials in remote rooms in the city and there secretly instructed girls to set type, and kept them there till they were sufficiently proficient to enter the office, and thus enabled the employer to take a ‘snap judgment’ on his journeymen.”

After this a wiser policy was adopted by the typographical unions.  The keener-sighted among their members began not only to adopt a softer tone towards their hardly pressed sisters in toil, but made it clear that what they were really objecting to was the low wage for which women worked.

The first sign of the great change of heart was the action of the “Big Six,” of New York, which undertook all the initial expenses of starting a women’s union.  On October 12, 1868, the Women’s Typographical Union No. 1 was organized, with Miss Augusta Lewis as president.  Within the next three years women were admitted into the printers’ unions of Chicago, Washington, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Boston.  Meantime, the Women’s Typographical No. 1 was growing in numbers and influence, and was evidently backed by the New York men’s union.  It obtained national recognition on June 11, 1869, by receiving a charter from the International Typographical Union of North America.  It was represented by two delegates at the International Convention held in Cincinnati in 1870.  One of these delegates was Miss Lewis herself.  She was elected corresponding secretary of the International Union, and served, we are told, with unusual ability and tact.  It is less encouraging to have to add, that since her day, no woman has held an international office.