Do you consider yourself a feminist? Do you believe a woman should play a traditional role in society?

 A. Cult of Domesticity – housework and childcare are the only acceptable work for women. 1.About 1 in 10 single white women worked outside the home – earning about half than men. 2.Could not vote even though they were tax payers. 3.Any property she owned or money she earned belonged to her husband. I. Women’s roles in the mid 1800’s

 A. Women Abolitionists – Sarah and Angelina Grimke were daughters of a SC slaveholder. 1. Called upon the “horrible system of suppression and cruelty”. 2. Raised money, distributed literature and collected signatures to petition Congress. II. Women mobilize for Reform..

 “What made Angelina and her sister Sarah unique within abolitionist circles was neither their oratorical and literary talents nor their energetic commitment to the causes of racial and gender equality. What made them exceptional was their first-hand experience with the institution of slavery and with its daily horrors and injustices”



  Angelina Grimke was born in 1805, the youngest of fourteen children born to John Grimke and Mary Smith Grimke. As the daughter of one of Charleston’s leading judges, she could look forward to a life of luxury and ease,  her comfort assured by the presence of slaves trained to respond to her wishes.  As an eligible young woman, she could have enjoyed the lively social life of Charleston’s planter society with its balls and dinner parties that would have led eventually to a good marriage and an elegant home of her own.

  Angelina witnessed suffering that disturbed her: a young slave boy who walked with difficulty due to the whip-mark scars on his back and legs; family slaves who were mistreated and abused; and screams of pain from the nearby workhouse, where slaves were dragged on a treadmill, suspended by their arms.



  Reformers argued that no social vice caused more crime, disorder and poverty than the excessive se of alcohol. The Temperance Movement..

 Many Americans were recognizing drunkenness as a serious problem.. 1.Men who drank too much, argued, spent most money on liquor rather on food for families – sometimes abused their wives and children. 2.Alcoholism was widespread during the 1800’s. – people drank in the country to ease boredom – people drank in the cities because if was the main leisure activity! 3.Although advocates of temperance (moderate consumption of alcohol) had always been there – groups joined together more than ever – formed the American Temperance Union: a. Pushed for laws to stop sale of liquor

 C. Education for women - Women were only suppose to know” chemistry for boiling water, and geography to know where the kitchen was” 1.In 1821, nation’s first academically rigorous schools opened for girls – The Troy Female Seminary. 2.African-American girls faced an even tougher battle – only after the Civil War would opportunities open up for them though.. 3.Emma Willard – founded a girl’s boarding school in Vermont was an early educational pioneer – did teach domestic duties – but ALSO,math, history and science

 4. Mary Lyon opened Mount Holyoke Female Seminary in MA – 1 st higher education institution. 5. Elizabeth Blackwell became the FIRST WOMAN TO EARN A MEDICAL DEGREE!!!! 6. In 1857, she founded the New York Infirmary for Women and Children – staffed entirely by women



 D. Women and Health Reform… Educated women now began to work toward health reform. 1. Elizabeth Blackwell became the first female to graduate from medical college – she applied to 29 (yes, 29) schools before being accepted at Geneva College. 2.Later opened the NY Infirmary for Women and Children. 3.Discovered that women were much sicker on a whole than imagined – why?

 Women rarely bathed or were able to exercise and the fashion of the say included restricted corsets and breathing was difficult. 4. Woman named Amelia Bloomer often wore a costume of loose-fitting pants tied at the ankles – nicknamed the “bloomers”

  E. Prison Reform: 1.The “Reform Spirit” also promoted Americans (mostly women) to impose the prison system. Mentally Ill to violent offenders were crowded together in fitly conditions – no running water, food, etc. 2.The main belief in this movement was to rehabilitate prisoners rather than locking them up. a. Designed forms of rigid discipline to rid criminals of “laxness” – or created solitary confinement. b. New prison names were called “penitentiaries” – highlighting it as a place to do penance and think about your crimes….

 F. Educational Reform! 1.Reformers began to push for a system of public education – government funded school open to all citizens. 2.Immigrants convinced many of the need for public education – (wanted to Americanize these immigrants). 3.Most elected officials realized that a democratic republic could ONLY survive if the public is well educated and informed. 4.Horace Mann – President of the MA Senate crated the first state board of education: a. doubled teachers’ salaries (woohoo!!) b. opened 50 new high schools c. Established teacher training.

 A.Seneca Falls – Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott held a women’s rights convention in Seneca Falls, NY. 1.Created a Declaration of Sentiments – nearly 300 men AND women shoed up and approved all parts of the new Declaration – everything was approved except one measurement: 2.“to secure to themselves their sacred right to the elective franchise” – (what does that mean)? 4. Women’s Rights Movement:

 The Right to Vote…