Most of the attention in the history of the newsboy strike goes to the boys, and rightfully so as they lead most of the strike. However, there were some women and girls who sold papers at the time of the strike who should not be ignored.

Far fewer of the women and girls who sold papers joined in the strike than the men and boys. This was in part due to the fact that the strikers had a strong sense of chivalry. Kid Blink once told a reporter that “A feller can’t soak a lady.” While the strikers were beating up any man or boy they found selling the World or Journal, women could usually sell whatever they wanted unharmed.

Some women and girls sold the papers openly, not caring if the newsboys saw them selling them because they knew they were protected by their status as women. Others would pretend to be with the strikers, while secretly hiding the boycotted papers under their skirts and selling them to people who asked. Mrs. Shea is described in the Tribune as “the richest woman in the paper selling business”, and continued to sell the boycotted papers. Mrs. “Aunty” Corceran lost several of her customers to the strikers, and threatened to beat some of the strikers up as punishment.

For the most part, the women who sold the boycotted papers didn’t do it because they were desperate for money to survive. They simply wanted to make more of a profit. As one striking newsboy put it, “some of the others [women] has got money to burn, they are scabs just the same.“

There were, however, some women who were loyal to the strike. Mrs. Cry Baby, for instance, was an “eccentric German newspaper woman” who sold by the bridge and was loyal to the strike. Jennie was a girl with red hair who broke up a fight between some strikers and some scabs, scaring the scabs off when she appeared on the street. The Squealer was a woman who screams when upset; she sold the boycotted papers initially, but was convinced to stop after being attacked by a group of strikers who apparently didn’t get the memo not to hurt a woman. And then there was Annie Kelly, the most famous woman of the strike, who was so influential she deserves her own post.

Even though the main leaders on both sides of the strike were men and boys, there were still many women, both loyal to the strikers and not, whose stories are important and ought to be told.