Established in 1903, the National Women’s Trade Union League (WTUL) advocated for improved wages and working conditions for women. The WTUL was composed of both working-class and more prosperous women, many of whom were white and Protestant and had gained experience in advocacy and social work as part of the settlement house movement. The settlement house movement was a reformist social movement that fought for the creation of large-scale urban housing and for social services to support the swelling numbers of working-class urban poor. The women who participated in this movement developed an intimate understanding of the plight of working-class women in America’s growing cities, and they also began to appreciate that the settlement house model of charity and philanthropic efforts had distinct limitations. The WTUL was born of a recognition that only legislation and political advocacy could address the needs of the urban poor.