"Diary of a Shirt Waist Striker"

The writing style of "Diary of a Shirt Waist Striker" makes it harder to analyze
than most texts, but there was one point that stood out. That was the
transformation of the narrator from having only a passing interest to becoming
an active participant in the strike. Mostly this was because the strike brought
into focus for her the conditions that the other girls worked under. Still the
question is if this is very realistic. Given the same situation in real life
would a person who had only a passing interest become almost a leader of their
section of the movement, or is this a convenient plot device to allow the
narrator plausible access so that all areas of the strike can be shown in the
text. I’d say yes this is entirely plausible. Given the proper circumstance
humans can transform themselves incredibly. If anything this transformation is
on the lower end of that scale. One other question that occurs though is how
much of the reference to the Jewish girls being the main part of the strike is
bias. Admittedly my knowledge of this strike is limited. But the Theresa
Malkiel, the author of this text, is Jewish herself. Given that how much of the
repeated mentions of the Jewish girls being the driving force is real and how
much is inflated bias. There is no idea denying that the Jewish girls were the
driving force, the question is simply to what extent bias on the authors part
inflated their role. The answer could range from none at all with them playing
just as important a role in reality as in the text to a significant inflation of
their importance. Without a deeper knowledge of the author, the author’s writing
style, and other sources of information on the strike the answer is uncertain.
The text does not only deal with the strike though. It also approaches the question of gender equality, and the differences in views of how male and female workers should act. The main point explored seemed to be that most people regarded the concept of females working being improper. Even male workers who strongly supported their own unions right to strike viewed this as improper. This goes back to the text we read on social reproduction. Women are the main workers in social reproduction. Meaning that their role is to produce new generations of workers by raising and educating children and by taking car of the household. So any females in the workforce are regarded as being outside the norm. As long as no crisis's arise the extent of female participation in the workforce can be ignored, but if a crisis like the the strike occurs, then society can gauge the amount of women who are not doing what society expects of them, and in light of this it will respond in a matter designed to re balance the population into accepted cultural outlets. In the case of females this means trying to put them back into a position where they manage the household. This is illustrated in the text by the narrator's father and Joe deciding to marry her to Joe and move her into a new household in order to remove her from the strike.