Women’s Issues of the Progressive Era

Women’s Suffrage

National American Women Suffrage Association (NAWSA) Suffrage for Women Leaders: Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan Anthony, Lucretia Mott, Carrie Chapman Catt, Alice Paul, Lucy Burns   National American Women Suffrage Association (NAWSA) First president = Stanton, then Anthony, next was Catt Stanton seated, Anthony standing Catt

Congressional Union formed by Alice Paul and Lucy Burns to lobby Congress to add an amendment to the Constitution. Alice Paul at desk and Lucy Burns in chair

The National Women’s Party (NWP) formed from this organization.

Western states had votes early Wyoming (1869), Utah (1870), Colorado (1893), Idaho (1896)

Jeanette Rankin a Republican (Montana), first woman to be elected to Congress -- 1916

Arguments against Liquor industry feared women voters would support Prohibition White southerners feared women voting would lead to African Americans voting Men saw women as threat to their dominance in politics

Arguments for Women voters would help to ensure purer and more honest politics White women voters would offset votes of immigrants and racial minorities and protect traditional values against “alien” assaults in large cities

Women voters would be simply extending their roles as traditional wives and mothers, by voting on issues dealing with domestics

Many of the women who picketed the White House were thrown into jail for protesting.

The 19th Amendment granted women the Constitutional right to vote in August 1920 – 72 years after the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848.

RULES OF CONDUCT FOR TEACHERS (From a school bulletin – 1915): You will not marry during the term of your contract. You are not to keep company with men. You must be home between the hours of 8 P.M. and 6 A.M. unless attending a school function. 4. You may not loiter downtown in ice cream stores. 5. You may not travel beyond the city limits unless you have the permission of the chairman of the board. 6. You may not ride in a carriage or automobile with any man unless he is your father or brother. 7. You may not smoke cigarettes. You may not dress in bright colors. You may under no circumstances dye your hair. You must wear at least two petticoats. Your dresses must not be shorter than two inches above the ankle. To keep the schoolroom neat and clean, you must: sweep the floor at least once daily; scrub the floor at least once a week with hot, soapy water; clean the blackboards at least once a day and start the fire at 7 A.M. so the room will be warm by 8 A.M.

In addition to suffrage women would work for better working conditions, and temperance I. Women’s contributions to progressive reforms: A. Temperance movement to prohibition movement = passage of 18th Amendment in 1919 * Carrie Nation * Frances Willard– Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (1 million members, organized in 1874) was allied with the Anti-Saloon League (1893)

Prohibition * Anti-Saloon League (1890s) and Women’s Christian Temperance Union = leading progressive organization advocating prohibition of liquor

1st State to adopt Prohibition = Oklahoma (1907) Prohibitionists = drys Anti-Prohibitionists = wets

1919 18th Amendment passed because Efforts of the ASL and WCTU Fervor of WWI lending patriotism to the cause Progressive belief in social reform… reduce the effects of alcohol on families and businesses Cumulative impact of state prohibition laws

II. Settlement Houses – Jane Addams, Hull House

III. Women’s Club Movement A. originally to educate women to improve themselves B. led to thinking of themselves

IV. Women’s Trade Union League and National Consumers A. Agitated to keep children out of mills and sweat shops B. Pensions for mother with dependent children C. Safe food products D. Florence Kelley, first chief factory inspector of Illinois

V. Federal Agencies A. Children’s Bureau (1912) B. Women’s Bureau (1920) Mary Anderson Julia Lathrop

VI. Women’s issues A. Muller V Oregon (1908) * Stated women were the weaker sex, therefore they needed to be protected in the workplace. This opened the door to workplace discrimination for women.

VI. Women’s issues A. Muller V Oregon (1908) * “That woman's physical structure and the performance of maternal functions place her at a disadvantage in the struggle for subsistence is obvious. This is especially true when the burdens of motherhood are upon her. Even when they are not, by abundant testimony of the medical fraternity continuance for a long time on her feet at work, repeating this from day to day, tends to injurious effects upon the body, and as healthy mothers are essential to vigorous offspring, the physical well-being of woman becomes an object of public interest and care in order to preserve the strength and vigor of the race." 208 U.S. at 412

The Comstock Law of 1873 prohibited the making, selling, distribution, or importation of contraceptives, as well as any transmission of birth control information through the mails. * Margaret Sanger coined the term “birth control” in 1914. Sanger would organize the American Birth Control League to promote birth control.

C. Sheppard-Towner Maternity Act 1921 Federally funded instruction in maternal and infant healthcare

VII. Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire (1911) A. led to massive strike by women in needles trade B. NY passed stronger laws regulating hours and conditions of sweatshop toil C. Other states followed D. By 1917 30 states had laws for workers compensation

The End!