Bellanca, Dorothy

Dorothy Jacobs Bellanca, labor organizer and leader, co-founder and first woman vice-president, Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America (ACWA) .

One of the most influential women in the labor movement during the early 20th century, Dorothy Bellanca was born in Latvia in 1894 and emigrated to the U.S. in 1900. She began working as a buttonhole maker in a Baltimore clothing factory while still in her mid-teens. While there, she helped to found United Garment Workers of American Local 170, and later led it into the ACWA. She was the first full-time woman organizer of the ACWU, served briefly as head of the union's Women's Department in the 1920s, and later served on the executive board of the union.

Bellanca also held a number of positions outside of the ACWA. She served on the Textile Workers' Organizing Committee of the CIO and as labor advisor to regional conferences of the International Labor Organization. She also served on several government committees on discrimination in employment and on maternal and child welfare. She died in 1946.

From the description of Dorothy Jacobs Bellanca papers, 1914-1946, 1925-1940 (bulk). (Cornell University Library). WorldCat record id: 63891335