Mary Kenney O'Sullivan

A Chicago bookbinder, Kenney O'Sullivan organised women in the printing and garment trades, became the American Federation of Labor's first woman national organiser in 1892, and in 1903 co-founded the Women's Trade Union League, which brought working women and wealthy "allies" together to fund strikes and lobby for protective laws. She also worked with Jane Addams at Hull House on Illinois's first factory inspection law. Her career shows how women built their own institutions when men's unions would not admit them.