Women Win Reforms

• At this point, women can’t vote or hold political office & few break “the mold” of gender roles in society– What “gender roles” do you think women fall under at this time

period?

Alcohol• Temperance movement to end the sale of alcoholic

beverages began in the early 1800s• Women lead this movement = wives & mothers

recognize alcohol as a threat to the family (violence & hardship)

Alcohol

• Women opposed saloons: where alcohol is served & political bosses made political decisions out of the reach of women– Most refused entry to women– Women’s Christian Temperance Union – WCTU: 1874

that worked to ban the sale of liquor in the U.S.

18th Amendment• Temperance movement gets

support when we go to WW1 in 1917

• Argument: the grain to make liquor should be used to feed the American soldiers

• 18th Amendment: 1917 – it is illegal to sell alcoholic drinks anywhere in the U.S.

Seneca Falls Convention 1848 sets the scene for women’s suffrage & reform

Key Players

• Elizabeth Cady Stanton

• Susan B. Anthony– Both renew calls for suffrage– “ oppose 15th amendment as it gives the vote to

African American men but not women• National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) – 1869

Stanton & Anthony set up a group that worked for a constitutional amendment to give women the right to vote

Support grows

– By early 1900s 5 million + earn wages in jobs • smaller than men, but still…wages

– Suffragists: people who worked for women’s right to vote• PROPAGANDA, WOMEN’S VOTING SYMBOLS, ACTIVITY, ACTION

Picketing– Soon after he became president, Wilson met with women

to discuss women’s rights.– He did not oppose them, however he was not prepared to

back a constitutional amendment.• Why or why not?

Women picket outside of White House > solitary confinement in prison

> hunger strike = feeding

• 1918 – Wilson agreed to support suffrage• 1919 – congress passed 19th Amendment:

Guarantees women the right to vote – (remember: “1919-19”)

• Women’s Clubs– Reading & tea-time reformers, fundraisers, educators,

combatants for women/ children rights, advocates supporting a better food/ drug industry, social work

Myeaa Sheeee….

If I appeal to these women, I will not only be

a great guy…I’ll win the entire women’s

vote!!!

Women in the West get the first votes– “West is the best”– Pioneer women had worked alongside men to

build farms and cities– The right to vote meant that the state recognizes

these contributions