American History Chapter 9: Life at the Turn of the Twentieth Century IV. The Changing Roles of Women

Bell Ringer Do women have full equality with men in American society today. Explain your answers. What were women’s rights like at the turn of the century?

Objectives Examine the issues in the debate over women’s equality. Discover how women’s work n the home changed at the turn of the century. Learn how stores and catalogs served women’s new role as consumers. Find out about the kinds of work that women did outside the home.

A) The Debate Over Women’s Equality The Women Question? Women should be allowed to vote, control property and income, access to higher education and professional jobs. Would upset the social order Quote 337

B) Women’s Work in the Home Women worked 18-28 hours a week to keep house clean New technology – vacuum cleaners Used to make own bread, preserve meat – now food coming in tin cans and cereals Buy own clothing

C) From Producer to Consumer Women began to shop – magazines advertised towards them Department stores: large retail establishments that carried a wide variety of goods Macy’s and Marshall Field 16)Rural free delivery: Post Office deliver mail to the country for free Farmers could order by mail 17)Mail order catalogs: printed materials advertising a wide range of goods that could be purchased by mail Montgomery ward – Sears Roebuck and Company

D) Working Outside the Home Most working women single – 16-24 Mostly domestic – maid – nanny Paid less then men Typewriter invented Quote 340 Joined clubs – increased education, learned about finance, and became more self-confident (suffrage) Women went on unsupervised dates (shock!) Divorced more Birth control (bigger shock) Suffrage would unit all women This pamphlet, produced by Sanger, teaches adolescent girls about "the beauty and wonder and sacredness of the sex functions.“ Do you think Sanger overstepped her bounds by providing such information to little girls in the early 1900s?

Review What were the issues in the debate over women’s equality? How did women’s work in the home change at the turn of the century? How did stores and catalogs serve women’s new role as consumers? What kind of work did women do outside the home?