Women's History

March each year is Women’s History Month, so this is a good time to reflect on the contributions that UE women have made to their union and to the long, continuing struggle for women’s equality in the United States.

UE joins progressive women and men in honoring the life and work of Betty Friedan and mourning her passing. UE is particularly proud of the late author´s contributions to this union.

From 1946 to 1952 as the young writer and activist Betty Goldstein, she was employed as a journalist and staff writer for the UE News.

As a Local 610 steward in the 1970s, Lisa Kannenberg thought she and her co-workers were “pioneers” by organizing a District Six women’s conference. The late Evelyn Bell, longtime District office manager, set them straight, Kannenberg said.

Nearly 30 years earlier, Helen Quirini thought UE’s national women’s conference was an innovation, only to discover a groundswell of district and local women’s meetings. “We thought we were smart like you were smart,” Quirini said to Kannenberg, “but they were all doing it.”