U S HISTORY CHAPTER 6, SECTION 2

WOMEN IN PUBLIC LIFE

INTRODUCTION

Women during the Progressive Era actively campaigned for reforms in education, children’s welfare, temperance, and suffrage (voting rights).

READ “The Inside Story” page 177

OPPORTUNITIES FOR WOMEN

Higher EducationEarly 1800’s: limited opportunities

1833 Oberlin college in Ohio began admitting women

By 1870, about 20 percent of college students were women

Opportunities for Women (con’t) Employment Opportunities

Job opportunities for education middle class women expanded in the late 1800’s

Teachers, nurses, bookkeepers, typists, secretaries, shop clerks

Also, businesses such as newspapers and magazines began to hire more women as artists and journalists

Opportunities for women (con’t)

Working class women & those without high school education:

Jobs in industry (such as the garment industry)

Change in perspective: many women began to see opportunities beyond the home

Opinion / Thought Question:How were opportunities in society

limited for women in the 1800’s?

How did changes in society change opportunities for women?

Are women still limited in opportunity?

Are there any areas in which you think women should be limited?

Gaining Political ExperienceWomen were leaders in many reforms

during the Progressive Era

CHILDREN’S HEALTH & WELFAREMany campaigned for the rights of children: ending child labor; improving children’s health; promoting education

Gaining Political ExperiencePROHBITION

A movement calling for a ban on the making, selling, distributing of alcoholic beverages

Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU)Frances Willard (head from 1879-1898)

Also, many preachers (Billy Sunday)

Prohbition (con’t)

Cary Nation: woman evangelist who took a hatchet in one hand and a Bible in the other, and “busted up” saloons in Kansas

18th Amendment: passed by Congress in 1917, ratified in 1919 – prohibited the manufacture, sale, and distribution of alcohol

Prohibition (con’t)

WOMEN’S SUFFRAGE MOVEMENT

Suffragists: those who campaigned for women’s right to vote

WOMEN’S SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATION: formed by Cady Santon & Susan B. Anthony 1869

1869 Wyoming Territory: 1st to grant women right to vote (1870, Utah – later 12 states)

Susan B. Anthony tests lawSusan B. Anthony wrote pamphlets,

made speeches for women’s rights

1872 she and thee others voted in Rochester, NY – arrested, tried, fined

Arguments against women voting• Interfere with women’s duties at

home• Destroy families• Didn’t have education or experience

to vote• Thought most Americans did not

want• Force “unwilling women” to vote• Vote for prohibition or other business

regulations (business leaders)• Replace the “position” of the man

(churches)

Two Organizations merge…

1890 new organization formed:

NATIONAL AMERICAN WOMAN SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATION (NAWSA)

Finally, women won the vote nationwide: 1920