Eugene V. Debs Champion of Women's Equality

Major American Socialist Argued for Domestic and Labor Rights

Sep 3, 2009

Five-time presidential candidate Eugene V. Debs argued passionately for socialism and labor reform but proved to be a progressive champion for women's rights as well.

Debs' personal and professional experiences created a fierce belief in fair treatment for everyone, regardless of the era’s business and social policies. Although this sparked controversy in the labor movement, Debs steadfastly used his stance to help both socialism and the women's movement in the early twentieth century.

Debs Stands with Margaret Sanger

In 1918, Debs declared that he "would give [woman] every right I claim for myself” in Margaret Sanger’s Birth Control Review, perfectly encapsulating his lifelong views on women as fully equal members of society. During the burgeoning women’s, political, and labor movements of the late 1800s and early 1900s, Debs managed to play a significant role in each, lending superior oratorical and organizational skills, credibility and support.

Although his name is often only briefly mentioned in women’s histories, Debs used his position as a labor leader and prominent socialist to help women, earning appreciation from Susan B. Anthony, Margaret Sanger, Emma Goldman, Mother Jones and countless unnamed women struggling for the rights to vote, own property, and have control over their bodies.

Moving Beyond Victorian Stereotypes

With the example of his intelligent, entrepreneurial mother who effectively saved their family from financial ruin, Debs grew up with the idea of a hard-working woman managing business affairs. His mother Marguerite started a grocery store with their last forty dollars and Debs learned from an early age how to work with his female customers--and boss.

Like many late 19th century young men, he idealized women in his Victorian-shaped prose, primarily remarking on beauty and domesticity. Yet, even then, his written work repeatedly and fervently calls for equality in domestic affairs, at work, and in the voting booth.

Labor Reform Movement for Men—and Women

As editor of the railroad union’s Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen Magazine, Debs created a Woman’s Page and appointed suffragist Ida Husted Harper to edit the section. Filled with articles ranging from typical household issues to political discussions and suffrage coverage, Debs endured criticism from many of the railroad workers for the attention devoted to the controversial causes such as voting, equal pay and marital equality in addition to labor reform. Instead of bending, he reiterated his position in the February 15, 1891, edition of the BLFM with his article, “The Policy of the Magazine.”

In spite of this acrimony, Debs and Harper successfully invited Susan B. Anthony to speak in his hometown of Terre Haute, Indiana, and continued to publish the Woman’s Page and include women’s concerns when he spoke publicly.

Debs as Socialist, Suffragist and Birth Control Advocate

As a socialist deeply involved in the American pre-war movement, Debs found more like minds among his political peers. Debs continued speaking and writing on behalf of women using pamphlets, popular speeches and articles, many of which have been diligently preserved by the Eugene V. Debs Foundation.

Never one to shy away from confrontations concerning his deeply-held beliefs, Debs adamantly demanded access to birth control to alleviate the poverty and broken health caused by multiple pregnancies. To further improve families, he claimed that equal pay for women was a necessity, especially since he had personally seen what happened to the widows and orphans left after railroad workers were killed, a routine occurrence in the pre-union railway industry.

In order to bring about these changes, Debs thought it was vital for women to vote. He noted that suffrage was of the “most far-reaching and transcendent importance” in his 1894 article “Equality of Men and Women” and wondered how even a “survival of the Stone Age” in “Pickets at the Gate” could protest this basic right of adults to help choose their representatives in government. Perhaps naively, Debs also believed that if women were able to vote, they would automatically drift towards socialism, which he believed would vastly improve their lives and help America progress towards his utopian vision.

“Equality of Men and Women.” Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen Magazine, ed. Eugene V. Debs. March 1894.

“The Policy of the Magazine.” Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen Magazine, ed. Eugene V. Debs. February 1915.

Letters of Eugene V. Debs, ed. J. Robert Constantine. 3 vols. Chicago: University of Illinois, 1990.

“Revolutionary Unionism.” Writings and Speeches of Eugene V. Debs, ed A. M. Schlesinger. New York: Hermitage Press, 1948, 209-233.

The copyright of the article Eugene V. Debs Champion of Women's Equality in Historical Biographies is owned by Bonnye Good. Permission to republish Eugene V. Debs Champion of Women's Equality in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.