1. Women and Reform
Chapter 8: Lesson 3

2. Women’s Roles in the Mid-1800s
After getting married women were restricted to the home and taking care of their family.
Cult of Domesticity- The ideal that housework and childcare were the only proper activities of married women.
Women earned half the pay of men to do the same job.
Women could neither vote, nor sit on juries
When a woman got married all of her properties were then considered her husband's.

3. The Mobilization for Reform
Women actively participated in important reform movements
The Second Great Awakening inspired many middle class white women.
Women Abolitionists
Lucretia Mott
Leading voice of the abolitionist and feminist movement of her time
Helped form the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society in 1833, and later was among the founders of the American women’s rights movement.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
She helped organize the world’s first women’s rights convention in 1848, and formed the National Women’s Loyal League with Susan B. Anthony in 1863.
Sarah and Angelina Grimke
the first women to testify before a state legislature on the question of African American rights.
Had first hand experiences with the institution and horrors of slavery.

4. Women Working for Temperance
The Temperance Movement- the effort to prohibit the drinking of alcohol.
This ideal was an influence of churches and the women's’ rights movement.
Alcohol was very important to daily life in the 19th century.
Despite this many Americans saw drunkenness as a serious issue.
Temperance Societies emerged throughout the country. They held rallies, made pamphlets, and brought the level of alcohol consumption down.
Elaborate on how alcohol was a normal drink with everyday meals, and doctors used it to numb their patients before operating.
Temperance Societies were a group of people against the consumption of alcohol

5. Strides in Education
Up until the 1820’s there were little education given to American girls.
In 1821 Emma Willard opened one of the nation’s first academically rigorous schools.
In 1837 Mary Lyon founded another large learning institution for women.
In this same year Oberlin College became the nation’s first fully coeducational college, after admitting four women.
Black women faced greater obstacles as it relates to education. Only after the Civil War did educational opportunities for black women slowly begin to expand
Fix Bullet Point and elaborate on the opposition that these women got for wanting to get educated.

6. Health Reform
In the mid-19th century, educated women began to work for healthcare reforms.
Elizabeth Blackwell, the first woman to graduate from medical college, opened the first infirmary for women and children
At this time there were three sick women for every healthy one.
Amelia Bloomer, publisher of a temperance newspaper, stepped out of fashion norms and often wore pants. This led to many other women following in her footsteps, to the dismay of the men of the time.
Elaborate on how it was because women rarely bathed or exercised, and often wore very restrictive corsets

7. Women's Rights Movement
Different reform movements of the mid 19th century led to the women’s rights movement, by giving women opportunities to work outside of the home
Seneca Falls Convention
Elizabeth Stanton and Lucretia Mott held a women’s rights convention.
Declaration of Sentiments- A detailed statements of grievances closely modeled after the Declaration of Independence

8. Seneca Falls (cont.) Nearly 300 women and men were at this convention.
The participants unanimously approved the declaration that included several resolutions for women to participate in public issues equally with men.
The one exception, that was not unanimously voted on, but still passed was the resolution calling for women to vote.
Elaborate saying many women said that they didn’t need the right to vote and that they wouldn’t even if they could. Many had no interest in politics at all

9. Sojourner Truth
Although conditions for white women were improving, conditions for slaves only worsened.
Isabella Baumfree, a slave for a large part of her life, who eventually took on the name Sojourner Truth, when she decided to travel through the country preaching and fighting for abolition.
Sojourner was rejected by many white women because she supported abolition.
Some reformers also feared that her speaking would make their cause less popular.