Women in Public Life Ch. 9.2
Women in the Work Force Married, middle class women – devoted to care of home & family Late 19 th century (1800s), poorer women had no other choice but to work Farm women Women in Industry Domestic Workers
Triangle Shirtwaist Factory New York workers died in factory fire Fire spread swiftly through the oil-soaked machines & piles of cloth No sprinkler system Emergency exits were chained and pad locked. Why? Only one door was unlocked but blocked by fire A jury acquitted the factory owners of manslaughter Public outrage ensued and the state of New York set up a task force to study factory working conditions
Women Lead Reforms Women in Higher Education; alternatives for women -Vassar College (1865) -Smith & Wellesley Colleges (1875) -Columbia, Brown, Harvard refused women, but set up separate colleges for them -½ of educated women in the late- 19 th c. never married Women in Reform - Uneducated laborers started efforts to reform workplace health and safety NACW (National Association of Colored Women) Left: Mary Eliza Church Terrell
Suffrage Right to vote! Seneca Falls convention of )Women’s suffrage 2)Abolition After the Civil War: -14 th ;& 15 th Amendment? -Women? Susan B. Anthony & Elizabeth Cady Stanton est. National American Women Suffrage Association
NAWSA National American Woman Suffrage Association Opposition to women’s suffrage 1)Prohibition 2)Restriction of Child Labor
Three Part Strategy for Suffrage 1)Convince state legislatures to grant women suffrage (WY – 1869, UT, CO, ID by the 1890s) 2)Court cases argued on the 14 th Amendment (citizenship) - Minor vs. Happersett (1875) 3)National constitutional Amendment – took 41 years, but by 1920 – 19 th Amendment was passed