Women workers played a unique role in the 1912 Lawrence, 
Massachusetts, textile mills strike. The strike began spontaneously 
the first payday after Massachusetts passed a law reducing the 
maximum work hours for women and children. Mill owners used the law 
to justify lowering wages in an industry already marked by poor pay 
and working conditions. When Polish women opened their pay envelopes 
they began shouting, "Short pay!" and calling for a strike, which 
eventually involved 23,000 workers from 25 different ethnic groups. 
Tactics included mass picketing and huge solidarity parades, in 
which women carried signs reading, "We want bread and roses too!"
  
Coeta
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