676 ★ CHAPTER 17 Freedom’s Boundaries, at Home and Abroad
the Homestead and Pullman strikes demonstrated, direct confrontations with
the large corporations were likely to prove suicidal. Unions, declared Samuel
Gompers, the AFL’s founder and longtime president, should not seek economic
independence, pursue the Knights’ utopian dream of creating a “cooperative
commonwealth,” or form independent parties with the aim of achieving power
in government. Rather, the labor movement should devote itself to negotiat-
ing with employers for higher wages and better working conditions for its
members. Like Washington, Gompers spoke the language of the era’s business
culture. Indeed, the AFL policies he pioneered were known as “business union-
ism.” Gompers embraced the idea of “freedom of contract,” shrewdly turning
it into an argument against interference by judges with workers’ right to orga-
nize unions.
During the 1890s, union membership rebounded from its decline in the late
1880s. But at the same time, the labor movement became less and less inclu-
sive. Abandoning the Knights’ ideal of labor solidarity, the AFL restricted mem-
bership to skilled workers— a small minority of the labor force— effectively
excluding the vast majority of unskilled workers and, therefore, nearly all
blacks, women, and new European immigrants. AFL membership centered
on sectors of the economy like printing and building construction that were
dominated by small competitive businesses. AFL unions had little presence in
basic industries like steel and rubber, or in the large- scale factories that now
dominated the economy.
The Women’s Era
Changes in the women’s movement reflected the same combination of expand-
ing activities and narrowing boundaries. The 1890s launched what would later
be called the “women’s era”—three decades during which women, although
still denied the vote, enjoyed larger opportunities than in the past for economic
independence and played a greater and greater role in public life. By now,
nearly every state had adopted laws giving married women control over their
own wages and property and the right to sign separate contracts and make sep-
arate wills. Nearly 5 million women worked for wages in 1900. Although most
were young, unmarried, and concentrated in traditional jobs such as domestic
service and the garment industry, a generation of college- educated women was
beginning to take its place in better- paying clerical and professional positions.
Through a network of women’s clubs, temperance associations, and social
reform organizations, women exerted a growing influence on public affairs.
Founded in 1874, the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) grew to
become the era’s largest female organization, with a membership by 1890 of
150,000. Under the banner of Home Protection, it moved from demanding the