Raising a Glass - Irish Women in America by Jo-Ann Roberts

 

Happy March! Happy Spring!  As we speak, I'm in the middle of writing my upcoming release, Olivia's Odyssey (July 2024). This is my first mail-order bride book, and admittedly, it's been a bit of a challenge to plot. Since I've never written one before, so the research on who, why, where, and when these women chose to travel hundreds or thousands of miles to marry a man sight unseen was a bit daunting.

When I finally decided on the heroine's 4w's (who, why, where, when) Olivia Glennon, an Irish American shoe factory worker from South Boston, Massachusetts emerged. With the loss of her mother, she was raised by her father, spending most of her formative years sleeping in saloons while her father lost money playing cards. The plot is still in the formative stages, so I'll stop there!

The Irish, like many, many ethnicities, had a tremendous impact on American history and culture. It is estimated that 36.9 million Americans claim Irish roots. The Irish are the second-largest heritage group after the Germans. However, the Irish were unique among all immigrant groups...

...they sent more daughters than sons to America!

Between 1820 and 1860, the Irish constituted over one-third of all immigrants to the U.S., and by the 1840s--at the height of the Potato Famine--they comprised nearly half. Even after the crisis, Irish women continued to migrate in increasing numbers. By the end of the 19th century, single women accounted for 53% of Irish immigrants.

These girls and women moved to America for the same reason as men: opportunity and freedom. They left behind hard scrabble farms where they worked as long and as hard as men to bring in a crop while maintaining homes and taking care of children. Poor as church mice, the women--many of them widows or orphans--had few employment opportunities and diminished marriage prospects as the Famine had driven many men to leave the Emerald Isle...so they, too, left for America. Determined not to work in the fields, they settled in cities where many took jobs as servants, domestic workers, or seamstresses. 

More than 60% worked as maids, cooks, nannies, or housekeepers. Living with wealthy or middle-class American families came with advantages. They exposed the Irish women to American culture speeding up their assimilation to their environment. However, the greatest advantage was financial. Not only were the wages higher than those for factory workers, but as live-in help domestics, they had no housing expenses, enabling them to save money.

Women sent money back home to support families and also paid the passage for their female sisters, nieces, cousins, and friends. They were young, most under the age of 24, unmarried, and had a desire for independence. (Think of all the mail-order bride books you've read with Irish heroines!)

These girls were literate as well, having been educated in Catholic schools in Ireland. Building on their success in Ireland, Irish-Catholic nuns and priests established scores of schools and colleges in America, adding social and economic mobility for successive generations.

Education also helped pave the way for Irish American women's entrance into the workforce. Second-generation women became teachers, bookkeepers, typists, journalists, and nurses, turning their back on servitude, preferring regular hours found in government and business.

Once in the workplace, these second-generation Irish American women protested discrimination and were among the first to organize and join labor unions, rising through the ranks in union leadership, and introducing unions to service and professional fields. They organized teacher unions to eliminate male and female pay discrepancies.

Irish American women also made their mark through literature and journalism, their choice of subject matter revealing abuse of the mentally ill, and addressing subjects like body images, alcoholism, and difficulties in marriage.

Irish women found the adventure of a lifetime in America as compelling as the economic opportunities, firmly establishing themselves as a force with which to be reckoned. Their strong bonds, formed by immigration and shared membership in the Catholic Church, nurtured a culture and pride among Irish American women that continues to this day.

Pictures Courtesy of Library of Congress

Raising a Glass to Irish American Women | National Women's History Museum (womenshistory.org)