Esther V. Cooper's “The Negro Woman Domestic Worker in Relation to Trade Unionism”: Black Left Feminism and the Popular Front

Esther V. Cooper’s brilliant 120-page 1940 M.A. thesis, ‘‘The Negro Woman Domestic Worker in Relation to Trade Unionism,’’ still stands as the most thorough sociological and historical study written on the working conditions and status of black women household workers and their efforts to unionize during the Depression. The ‘‘Negro Woman Domestic Worker’’ was a crucial part of her early intellectual foundation, helping to set the stage for her staunch support for civil rights, social justice, internationalism, and radical democracy with special concern for African-American women that were trade marks of her life’s work. It also stands as a marker for what could have been a significantly different life journey for her.