Bread and Roses

"Bread and Roses" is a political slogan associated with women's suffrage and the labor movement, as well as an associated poem and song. It originated in a speech given by American women's suffrage activist Helen Todd; a line in that speech about "bread for all, and roses too" inspired the title of the poem "Bread and Roses" by James Oppenheim. The poem was first published in The American Magazine in December 1911, with the attribution line "'Bread for all, and Roses, too'—a slogan of the women in the West." The poem has been translated into other languages and has been set to music by at least three composers.

The phrase is commonly associated with the textile strike in Lawrence, Massachusetts, between January and March 1912, now often referred to as the "Bread and Roses strike." The slogan pairing bread and roses, appealing for both fair wages and dignified working conditions, found resonance as transcending the "sometimes tedious struggles for marginal economic advances" in the "light of labor struggles as based on striving for dignity and respect", as American sociologist and activist Robert J. S. Ross wrote in 2013.

The background of the motif "Bread and Roses" is the miracle of the roses in the legend of Elisabeth of Hungary. She is the saint mostly related to charity and care for the poor. The legend tells the story of Elisabeth smuggling bread to the poor, against her husband's will. When caught in the act, she had to uncover her basket but only roses were found in it. A very similar legend is associated with Elizabeth of Portugal, who smuggled bread under her cloak to offer the poor. While the legend has either bread or roses for the poor, the political claim demands both. The bread represents basic needs and the rose the dignity, appreciation, and human rights.

The first mention of the phrase and its meaning appears in The American Magazine in September 1911. Helen Todd describes in an article how a group of women from the Chicago Women's Club, after listening to advice from Senator Robert La Follette, decided to initiate an automobile campaign around the state of Illinois for the right of women to vote in June 1910. The women who made up the first automobile campaign were Catherine McCulloch, a lawyer and justice of the peace; Anna Blount, a physician and surgeon; Kate Hughes, a minister; Helen Todd, a state factory inspector; and Jennie Johnson, a singer. Each speaker was assigned a subject in which they were an expert. McCulloch gave a record of the votes of the representatives and senators to their home constituents. Blount's subject was taxation without representation as concerns women. Hughes gave her speech on the history of the women's suffrage movement. Johnson opened up the speeches with a set of suffrage songs which was intended to focus and quiet the audience for the subsequent speeches. Todd, as a factory inspector, represented the working women and discussed the need for laws concerning wages, work conditions, and hours.

It is in Todd's speech on the condition of working women that the phrase is first mentioned. A young hired girl expressed to Todd, who was staying with the girl's family overnight during the campaign, what she had liked the most about the speeches the night before: "It was that about the women votin' so's everybody would have bread and flowers too." Todd then goes on to explain how the phrase "Bread for all, and Roses too" expresses the soul of the women's movement and explains the meaning of the phrase in her speech.

Not at once; but woman is the mothering element in the world and her vote will go toward helping forward the time when life's Bread, which is home, shelter and security, and the Roses of life, music, education, nature and books, shall be the heritage of every child that is born in the country, in the government of which she has a voice.

— Helen Todd, 1910

Helen Todd became involved in the fall of 1910 with the Chicago garment workers' strike, led by the Women's Trade Union League of Chicago. The Women's Trade Union League worked closely with the Chicago Women's Club in organizing the strike, picket lines, speeches, and worker relief activities. Todd and the president of the Women's Trade Union League Margaret Robins made a number of speeches during the strike and manned the picket lines with the thousands of striking garment workers. During the strike, it was later reported that a sign was seen with the slogan "We want bread – and roses, too."