Question

Read the excerpt from We Shall Not Be Moved.

Yet what they wanted was modest enough: a fifty-two-hour week with extra pay for overtime, an end to the fines and petty tyrannies, and a living wage. These were the demands that were hammered out by the shop groups behind the closed doors of the meeting halls. The officers of Local 25 sent them on to the owners — along with one more demand, recognition of the union.

Which historical detail best helps clarify a reader’s understanding of the information in the excerpt?

Female factory workers had to work long hours, sometimes up to eighty hours a week.
Many union men believed that women factory workers would never come together to strike.
Women’s clothing first began to be mass produced in the early twentieth century.
“Gorillas” were men who were hired to threaten and harass striking factory workers.

Answer 1

Female factory workers had to work long hours, sometimes up to eighty hours a week.

Explanation: knowing the extreme hours they worked makes the demand for a fifty-two-hour week, overtime pay, and a living wage meaningful and shows why the workers organized and pressed those specific demands.