The Journey

Italian Immigrant Women: Weaving their Way into the Multi-Cultural Society in Connecticut

A New Life

The Journey

Italian Immigrant Women with a child. National Park Service, Statue of Liberty National Monument, Eastman, 1905.


Each woman who travelled to Connecticut went through Ellis Island. However, not all travelled to the rising state for economic opportunity. Many emigrated to join their long-lost lovers. Some wives emigrated with the intention to travel back to their hometown together with their husbands. Other women were forcibly sent to Connecticut to settle familial disputes. There were many cases in which a mother would send her daughter to Connecticut in order to forbid men from marrying her without her approval. Other cases involved fathers sending their daughters to live with relatives to uphold family honor. All with different reasons to take the difficult journey, Italian women voyaged across the Atlantic, changing their lives completely and the identity of their families. 




Settling In

Italian immigrant mother and child, Ellis Island, New York, 1905, Lewis Hine. AFL-CIO Still Images, Photographic Prints Collection


"Their expanded roles as working mothers altered the Southern Italian code of female deference to patriarchal authority."
~ Anthony V. Riccio, author of the book, "Farms, Factories, and Families: Italian American Women of Connecicut 

After completing the process at Ellis Island, a great majority of women entered the workforce in the booming industries in Connecticut, including corset factories, rubber plants, shirt and dress factories. More valuable than the material gains they brought to America, women transported their enormous wealth of work experience. Almost all women worked as small proprietors of stores, seamstresses, and midwives in their hometowns. With this priceless experience, women helped provide basic necessities for their families. Soon enough, Italian immigrant women received wage-earning jobs. They tirelessly worked long hours, with enough energy to cook and clean back home for their families. This was totally different to the Southern Italian code of women in society. Many women found other ways to profit by opening boarding houses, offering laundry services and even home-cooked meals in exchange for weekly cash payments. They renovated street-level rooms into grocery stores. Those with experience as midwives provided medical advice and even filled birth records at City Hall. They also delivered babies for a much lower cost than doctors. Women were finding their place in their home, defying previous traditional codes set in Italy.




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