Women | Page 8 | MNopedia

Women Industrial Workers in the Twin Cities, 1860s–1945

For women to earn wage income in the 1800s, they first had to overcome the conventional, and often legal, strictures that led to the saying, “a woman’s place is in the home.” In the early twentieth century, technological and economic change—as well as two world wars—transformed the industrial workplace, and much of daily life. In Minnesota and throughout the US, the women’s suffrage movement overlapped with these changes and helped the campaign for economic and social equality, including the right to work.

Henrietta Barclay Paist

Henrietta Barclay Paist between 1910 and 1915.

Women’s Auxiliary Board

Drawings of the members of the Women’s Auxiliary Board of Minnesota, who chose a design for the state flag in 1893. From the St. Paul Daily Globe, October 13, 1893, page 1.

Lenette and Lauraine Lee shopping

Sisters Lauraine and Lennette Lee shopping at a grocery store, 1970. From the St. Paul Pioneer Press, July 26, 1970.

This Day in Minnesota History

February 8, 1823

Sarah Jane Steele is born in Pennsylvania. She married fur trader Henry Sibley in 1843; when he became the state of Minnesota's first governor in 1858, she became its first First Lady. Before her death in 1869, she advocated for historical preservation, making a particular effort to save and interpret Mount Vernon, the home of George Washington. The Sibleys' own house in Mendota has been called "the Mount Vernon of Minnesota."

Winona LaDuke

Winona LaDuke, founder of the White Earth Land Recovery Project (WELRP) and a co-founder of Honor the Earth, speaks at the University of Washington’s Intellectual House in Seattle on March 10, 2018. CC BY 4.0

T. B. Walker and Harriet Granger Walker

Thomas Barlow (T. B.) Walker and Harriet Granger Walker.

Casiville Bullard and family

Casiville Bullard, Addison Bullard, and their children, ca. 1908. Pictured are (clockwise, left to right) Casiville, Lilly, Addison, Howard, Janet, and Casiville Jr. Public domain.