Of the nine amazing women we've studied this past section by far the most inspirational would have to be Mary Harris. Overcoming what most would consider crippling trauma in her personal life to fight tirelessly, some may even say ruthlessly, alongside labor unions for the rights of child and adult workers is to me true heroism.

Because of a certain mystique she intentionally created around herself, Mary Harris's birthdate is still disputed by historians. One thing is well known though. By the time yellow fever broke out in the mid-19th century, she had a family, including a husband, and four children, all of whom she lost to the disease. After mourning her loss she managed to move on, only to lose everything she owned in the Great Chicago Fire.

Unfettered, and quite possibly motivated by such tragedy, Mother Jones went on to be a driving force in the labor movement. She is perhaps best known for the March of the Mill Children in which she led dozens of broken and physically and probably psychologically scarred children across country to confront President Roosevelt about child labor legislation. Although the march attracted a lot of media attention, shining a light on the effect of factory machinery from the north built for child laborers in the south no change in legislation was effected.

Even after a law was on the books making it illegal for children under 14 to work in the factories, mothers lied about their age so they could work, This was a necessity according to the mothers, a matter of "perjury or starvation" because wages were so low. Upon realizing this, Mother Jones returned to working strikes alongside adults. I have called Mother Jones ruthless in her work, though the appellation "warrior" may well be closer. Although she gave speeches and was in fact a highly effective, engaging, and truthful orator, she also took an active role in at least a handful of strikes. Two tactics jump immediately to mind. At the first first she taught wives of the workers to sew bonnets for themselves to replace the kerchiefs they wore, a strategy meant to blur the line between the working and upper classes. At a second strike she organized the miner's wives to guard the mines against scabbers, choosing another woman to lead them as she knew the strike would collapse if she was arrested.

Mary Harris, known as Mother Jones to many, and to an unknown number of mine and factory workers simply as "Mother" overcame major personal trauma to become a key figure in the labor movement. She fought tooth and nail for the rights of wage laborers, forcing a country's complicity in what amounts to little better than child abuse into the light, and empowering worker's families to fight for their human rights. She took her beliefs and put them into practice, something I wish many more of us today could do, and this is why I fin Mother Jones to be truly inspirational.