Trainor, Augusta M.

Feminist and socialist, Augusta (Cappella) Trainor grew up in Plymouth, Massachusetts, where her father worked for the railroad. She graduated from high school in 1934, inspired by her teachers to read extensively on notable American women. In 1936 she met socialist leader and birth control advocate Dr. Antoinette Konikow and joined the Trotskyist movement. In 1937 she married Lawrence Trainor, a newpaper printer who became a leader in the Socialist Workers Party; they had two children. Trainor worked in a garment factory, a bindery, and an auto plant, and at Boeing in Seattle, where she gave orientation classes for union women. A founder of Mass Choice, 9to5, Coalition of Labor Union Women, and Boston Women United, Trainor also taught women's liberation and women's history classes in the Boston area.