Basic Information
Rose Winslow, also known as Ruza Wenclawska, was born in Suwalki, Poland to a steel worker and a coal miner in 1889. At five years old, she moved to western Pennsylvania with her family. Winslow is known for her recruitment and fundraising for the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage, as an advocate for female immigrant workers, and for her White House protest that led to her infamous hunger-strike in 1917. Winslow eventually passed away in 1977.
Background Information
At the young age of 11, Winslow started working in a silk mill. After just working at the mill for a few years, she was forced to quit at age 19 when she was diagnosed with tuberculosis and became disabled for two more years. Unfortunately, her body felt the aftereffects of the illness for the rest of her life. Her parents dreamed of creating a better life for her in a “free democratic country,” (Bedwin, 2020), and despite her physical disadvantages, Winslow began to work towards making her parents’ dream a reality. Putting herself through night school, Winslow started to gain experience as a labor coordinator. Because she could no longer work in factories, she would hold inspections over them and used her newly acquired education to help organize the National Women’s Trade Union League and the National Consumers’ League in New York City (Dublin and Shotwell, 2015). Organization was not the extent of her talents, however, as she also enjoyed the arts of acting and poetry.
Contributions to the First Wave
As an immigrant and working-class citizen herself, Winslow understood the struggle for women of her time (both within and outside of her own social sphere) to maintain prevalence and independence within society, and therefore the necessity for women to obtain labor rights and the right to vote through The National Woman’s Party (NWP) activism. In addition to being a very good organizer, Winslow was also proficient at speaking, a skill she used with the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage (CU) and with the NWP as she organized public gatherings for suffrage rallies, at union halls, and even on the streets. Winslow and Doris Stevens held a protest on suffrage rights in February of 1914, going as far as to march all the way to the White House to meet with Woodrow Wilson directly. Wilson did agree to speak to Winslow and 25 other women (Officers and National Organizers).
Also in 1914, Lucy Burns recruited Winslow to join leadership of the CU campaign in California, working towards inciting voters to vote against congressional candidates who supported Democratic values and who were in turn blocking the National Suffrage Amendment. Burns and Winslow led one of the nine organizations in San Francisco that were supporting this cause, and at the same time toured across the U.S, giving many speeches that advocated for working-class women who were constantly plagued with illness and over exhaustion (Dublin and Shotwell, 2015, p. 282). In 1916, Winslow worked with other advocates of the National Suffrage Amendment in Wyoming during the 1916 electoral campaigns.
According to the Library of Congress, in their article titled, Officers and National Organizers, the author asserts that Winslow, although working alongside Alice Paul in the fight towards women’s suffrage rights, did not always get along with her counterpart. Winslow maintained a concern for male miner and factory worker rights as well as promoting equality amongst classist outreach, whilst Paul did not. Paul also disliked Winslow’s unreliable health conditions, as she preferred to preserve a strong and persistent front for the NWP. Nonetheless, both women displayed great prowess and energy on the platform during their speaking tours and worked well together as leading demonstrators at picket lines such as the 1917 silent protests (Officers and National Organizers). On November 9, 1917, both women were jailed for picketing the White House in Washington, D. C. and thus went on a hunger strike, believing that they should be referred to as “political prisoners,” (Chapman and Mills, 2011), arguing that they were simply exercising their right to public assembly as stated in the First Amendment. Being treated as political prisoners meant not only that they would not have to engage in prison work or obtain separate housing, but it also meant that the public would understand that they were not committing a crime; simply utilizing their rights as American citizens. Nonetheless, the prison denied this proposal and the women were forced to go on a hunger strike in protest. Even so, this wasn’t Winslow’s first time in jail, as she had previously also served jail time in the Occoquan Workhouse and the District jail for her silent protests at the White House.
Fifteen other women also went on a hunger strike to protest the injustice, but were all eventually set free. Paul and Winslow’s resolve inspired other civil-disobedient acts following their imprisonment. These acts questioned the hypocritical and discriminatory charges placed upon suffragists that contradicted Constitutional rights, pressuring Woodrow Wilson and the White House to endorse suffragist endeavors (Officers and National Organizers).
During her time of imprisonment alongside Alice Paul and other women suffragists, Winslow smuggled notes to her friends and family that gave suffragists a unique perspective into the onslaught of unjust imprisonment. Amongst these notes is an excerpt titled, Prison Notes, Smuggled to Friends from the District Jail written by Winslow in 1917,
“All the officers here know we are making this hunger strike that women fighting for liberty may be considered political prisoners; we have told them. God knows we don’t want other women ever to have to do this over again.”
– Winslow, Rose (Dublin and Shotwell, 2015)
Analysis and Conclusion
Due to her history as a working-class immigrant in America, Winslow was able to sympathize with those who had similar upbringings and realize the importance of establishing equal rights amongst classes; something that colleagues like Alice Paul, (who received higher education and was raised on a wealthy Quaker farm with values of gender equality but not necessarily class equality) did not seem to prioritize (History.com Editors, 2009). She knew the dangers of being overworked from a very young age, and suffered the consequences for the rest of her life. Winslow’s advocacy for voting and labor rights, and resilience despite her illness and impoverished upbringing, inspired hundreds of people to act in civil disobedience when being unjustly treated. She made remarkable strides towards equality amongst classes, civil rights, and labor laws that should no longer go unrecognized or overshadowed.
References
Bedwin, C. (2020, September 14). Rose Winslow on starving for the vote. Joan Koster. https://www.joankoster.com/rose-winslow-on-starving-for-the-vote/
Chapman, M., & Mills, A. (2012). p. 282-283. In Treacherous texts: An anthology of U.S. suffrage literature, 1846-1946. essay, Rutgers University Press.
Dublin, T., & Shotwell, H. (2015). Biographical sketch of Rose Winslow (Ruza Wenclawska). Biographical Sketch of Rose Winslow (Ruza Wenclawska) | Alexander Street Documents. https://documents.alexanderstreet.com/d/1011146165
History.com Editors. (2009, November 9). Alice Paul – Biography, facts & legacy. History.com. https://www.history.com/topics/womens-history/alice-paul
Officers and national organizers : selected leaders of the National Woman’s Party : articles and essays : women of protest: Photographs from the records of the National Woman’s Party : digital collections : library of Congress. The Library of Congress. (n.d.-a). https://www.loc.gov/collections/women-of-protest/articles-and-essays/selected-leaders-of-the-national-womans-party/officers-and-national-organizers/