Chapter 9 Part 2

Pages 313-316

Women in Public Life

Terms to Know

• NACW

• Suffrage

• Susan B. Anthony

• NAWSA

During the Progressive Period

• Women expanded their role in Public Life

• Before the Civil War

• Women devoted themselves to their homes and families

• Upper class and middle class women did not normally work outside of the home

Women and Work

• Poorer women had to work outside of the home

• Women on farms had all the Household duties: cleaning, cooking, sewing, laundry, etc.

• AND took care of livestoce and often plowed and harvested

Women in Industry

• Men’s labor unions rejected women

• Women made about ½ the wages of men for similar work

• ½ of all working women were in the garment industry

• Long hours, poor wages, unsafe conditions

But

• Women who needed jobs flocked to the towns and cities

• By 1900 1/5 of all American women worked

• 25% of them were in manufacturing

Pink Collar Jobs

• Some required a High School diploms

• By 1890 more women than men had graduated from high school

• Some even attended new business schools Bookkeepers, stenographers, typists

Domestic Workers

• For those without skills or an education

• Cleaning, washing, cooking and serving other families

• Many former women slaves were domestic servants

• By 1870 70% of all working women were in domestic service

Women and Reform Movements

• Reform needed in the workplace

• Wages, Conditions, Hours

• The fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Co.

• 146 were needlessly killed

By 1910 Women’s Clubs

• Middle-class women, many educated

• Many took a leadership role in reform:

• Child Labor

• Prohibition

• Civil Rights for the Freed Black population

• Women’s Rights

Higher Education for Women

• New Women’s Colleges:

• Vasser by 1860s

• Smith and Wellesley by 1875

• Columbia, Harvard and Brown did not admit women but DID open separate colleges for them

By Late 19th Century

• Marriage was not the only option

• About ½ of college-educated women never married

• Many devoted themselves to Reform Movements: the workplace, housing, education, food and drug laws

African American Women

• Founded the NACW: the National Association of Colored Women in 1896

• Set up Nurseries, Kindergartens, reading rooms

Seneca Falls Convention 1848

• Wrote the Declaration of Rights and Sentiments

• Demanded equality across the board

1869 The Movement Split

• Over the 14th and 15th Amendments which did not extend the rights of citizenship or the vote to women

• Some women continued to support the above and also work for their own amendment But others would not support the above because women were not included

The NWSA

• National Women’s Suffrage Association

• Founded by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton

• Others: Lucy Stone & Julia Ward Howe (Battle Hymn of the Republic)

Those Opposed to Women Suffrage

• Whiskey Distillers: worried that if women had the vote, prohibition would be next

• Those who employed child workers worried that women would put an end to child labor

• Others who like women in their traditional role

Strategy for Suffrage

1. Through the state legislatures:

1869 Wyoming

1890’s Idaho, Utah, Colorado

Then it stalled

Strategies for Suffrage

2. Through the courts

Test cases for citizenship and 14th Amend.

In 1871 and 1872 the Courts ruled that women were citizens but they were not given the vote

Anthony and others voted illegally 150 times in 10 states to test the law

Strategy

3. Women worked for a constitutional amendment

Had to wait

The 19th amendment in 1920