Krista Luttrell

Try to imagine this scene: on a brisk early March morning in 1935, Alice Broderick pulls on her wool coat and sturdy boots, steps out into the frozen streets of Portland, and heads off to work. She was just an ordinary woman with a job to do to pay the bills, and she likely did it with certainty and a pride in doing it well.

Alice had come a long way to get to that late winter morning. She was born in 1889 on Prince Edward Island to a Canadian-Irish family, and arrived in Maine in 1903 at just 14, as part of a wave of families from PEI seeking better prospects across the border. The world she grew into was anything but easy. She came of age in the shadow of the First World War, watched the hopeful 1920s collapse into economic ruin, marked by the Great Depression, and lived through the long, exhausting years of the Second World War, all of which affected everyone. Grief and worry were common. Stability, uncertain. Yet, women like Alice got up every morning and held things together in their families, homes, communities, and out on factory floors.

By the 1930s, Alice was working at the Portland Company on Munjoy Hill. She was an Assembler in the Machine Shop, using the Chapman Neutralizer, a precision machine that drew static electricity from textiles and paper. It was focused, skilled work, the kind that demanded patience and a very steady hand. Alice spent many years at that machine, working alongside several other women.

Alice seemingly built a life on her own terms. When the Cable Act of 1922 finally gave women the right to seek citizenship independently, meaning without needing a husband to do it for them, Alice and her sister Anastasia “Anna” didn’t hesitate. They petitioned together in late 1923, and in 1926, they were sworn in as United States citizens. Two sisters making their own choices. Alice never married and didn’t need to. She carved out her own life path, having work she was proud of, a sister beside her, and a citizenship she had claimed for herself in a country she had spent decades helping to build.

This Women’s History and Irish-American Heritage Month, we celebrate the Alice Brodericks of the world. These independent working-class women showed up and got things done. They navigated wars and hard times in a world that didn’t always make room for them. Alice didn’t make it into the history books. But without hard-working, spirited women like her, our world would look a little bit different today.

A special feature of this story is that Alice’s 96-year-old nephew, Father Joseph McKenna, agreed to do a video interview about her. I followed a script and recorded the session on my iPhone. The footage is raw because I do not have video-making experience. I hope you allow me some grace with that part!

Thank you for reading this story and watching Father Joe’s interview.

♥︎ Krista