1. Progressive Reform and U.S. Citizenship, 1890-1920
1. Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, and Fine-Tuning
the “New Civilization”
2. Core Ingredients of Progressivism
Demographic Traits of Reformers
Three Key Areas of Activity
Making society and economy more efficient and orderly
(Not overthrowing capitalism, but improving it)
Curbing Abuses of Power, Cleaning Up Politics
Social Welfare and Social Justice
3. Progressivism and Women
4. The Success of Women’s Suffrage
Changing the Political Party System: Civil Service Reform, Restricting Immigrant Voting, Electoral Reforms

2. Thomas Edison Henry Ford
“In a lot of respects we Americans are the rawest and
crudest of all. Our production, our factory laws, our
charities, our relations between capital and labor, our
distribution – all wrong, out of gear. We’ve stumbled
along for a while, trying to run a new civilization in old
ways, but we’ve got to start to make this world over.”
Edison to Ford, 1912
Thomas Edison
Henry Ford

3. Range of Progressive Reforms
Making political system more responsive and transparent, less corrupt
Extending suffrage to women
Regulating railroads, monopolies, and other concentrated economic power
Moral reform, such as regulating consumption of alcohol
Consumer and workplace reforms such as making foods safer, improving
factory safety, and limiting child and women labor
Social reforms such as popularizing birth control
Environmental reforms such as utilitarian conservation (national forests),
wilderness preservation (national parks), urban sanitation
Americanization programs for immigrants
Urban reform such as city planning and systems of parks and playgrounds
Improving public school systems
Application of social science to make society, economy more efficient

4. Women tended to be the staunchest advocates for prohibition, whether kneeling in prayer before an Ohio saloon ( ) or using their gendered identity to appeal to men to ban the use of alcoholic beverages.

5. Women Enrolled in Colleges and Universities, 1870-1920
Year Total Percentage of all Students
, %
, %
, %
, %
, %
, %
, %
In 1870, 41% of women students attended co-ed schools.
In 1930, 83% attended co-ed schools.

6. Hull House, Chicago – The most prominent
settlement house in the U.S.
Jane Addams

7. Women protesting on behalf of suffrage—the right to vote—in the 1910s.

8. The western states generally granted suffrage to women before the states of the South and Northeast. They were also more receptive to Progressive-era “Direct Democracy” reforms—the initiative, referendum, and recall. All U.S. women received the right to vote in 1920

9. Progressive Reforms to Political Process, 1880-1920
States pass stricter voter registration laws, requiring voters to present proof of residency and to register in advance of an election.
States pass laws requiring that immigrants become naturalized before they can cast ballots.
Civil Service reforms reduced political parties’ ability to reward loyal members by paying them directly and by giving them patronage jobs
Direct Election of U.S. Senators (17th Amendment, ratified 1913)
Adoption of “Direct Democracy,” i.e. legalizing the initiative, the recall, and the referendum
Introduction of the Australian (or secret) ballot in all but two states between 1888 and 1910
States play a bigger role in guaranteeing fair elections and better-informed voters (by 1918, 11 states were publishing voters’ guides)

10. Reformed Polling place in New York City, c. 1900
Note private booths on the left.