Goldman's formal schooling ended when her father put her to work full time in a corset factory. He wanted her to marry a man of his choosing, which was the custom of the time. Fifteen­year­old Goldman rejected his demands, protesting that above all, she wanted an opportunity to study. Angrily, her father told her, "Girls do not have to learn much, only how to prepare minced fish, cut noodles fine, and give the man plenty of children!"

Determined to escape her father's authority, she and her half­sister Helena set sail for America in 1885. In her article "Was My Life Worth Living?" written in 1934 after her brief tour of the United States, she reflects upon her life in Russia and her first years as an immigrant in the United States.

Excerpt from "Was My Life Worth Living?" by Emma Goldman.

On coming to America I had the same hopes as have most European immigrants and the same disillusionment, though the latter affected me more keenly and more deeply. The immigrant without money and without connections is not permitted to cherish the comforting illusion that America is a benevolent uncle who assumes a tender and impartial guardianship of nephews and nieces. I soon learned that in a republic there are myriad ways by which the strong, the cunning, the rich can seize power and hold it. I saw the many work for small wages which kept them always on the borderline of want for the few who made huge profits. I saw the courts, the halls of legislation, the press, and the schools--in fact every avenue of education and protection--effectively used as an instrument for the safeguarding of a minority, while the masses were denied every right. I found that the politicians knew how to befog every issue, how to control public opinion and manipulate votes to their own advantage and to that of their financial and industrial allies. This was the picture of democracy I soon discovered on my arrival in the United States. Fundamentally there have been few changes since that time.