The women of Richmond, VA understood something fundamental about affordability more than 160 years ago -- a living wage is essential to survival. Labor Day is often associated with the modern American workplace—paychecks, unions, working conditions, the eight-hour workday and workers' rights. But the struggle for economic dignity has a much longer history. Before women had the right to vote, before modern labor laws and before the language of equal pay became part of the national conversation, working women in Richmond, Virginia, took to the streets because their labor was no longer enough to feed their families. It was April 1863, during the Civil War. Richmond was the Confederate capital, and the war had transformed the city into a major center of military manufacturing. Women were working in Confederate government offices, factories and the Confederate ordnance laboratory, making ammunition and other supplies needed for the war. Many had entered the wor...