An excerpt from essay by undercover journalist Bessie Van Vorst about working women’s labor conditions, 1903.
Bess Van Vorst’s investigative journalism article, “The woman that toils,” features text and illustrations detailing the challenges of women’s factory work and tenement life in Chicago. Van Vorst and her sister-in-law Marie Van Vorst posed as working women to experience these conditions firsthand. The authors were frequently criticized for having a condescending attitude toward their subjects.