Even though the ideal was that Jewish married women 'didn't work', in reality the traditional roles of homemaker and breadwinner remained the norm for women in the new-immigrant community of the late-19th century.

Jewish women in the East End of London who worked in the clothing trades, unlike their sisters in Leeds, rarely, if at all, became actively involved in trades unions. Their role was to ensure that the family financially survived the hard times.

One of the rare examples of a Jewish woman who did become actively involved in the trades union movement was Sarah Wesker. She was a member of the United Ladies' Tailors' Trade Union (ULTTU), a Jewish union founded before the First World War.

A member of the Communist Party, in 1929 Wesker was one of those who founded the breakaway, communist-inspired and short-lived, United Clothing Workers' Union (UCWU). It was only several years after the demise of the UCWU that Wesker was allowed to rejoin the ULTTU, which lost its separate Jewish identity when it amalgamated with the National Union of Tailors and Garment Workers in 1939.

Women did however take action as consumers, for example boycotting bread that had not been baked by members of the Jewish Bakers Union, or taking part in rent strikes. The radical political movements in the East End at the end of the 19th century also attracted some female supporters, like the anarchist Rudolf Rocker's partner Molly Witkop and her sister Rose.

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