Women's Role In The Progressive Era

Levanni Mendoza Ms Brackbill US History 09 May 2023 Reasons why the Era of New Women was Progressive World War I was a time of great hardship and loss, but it also provided opportunities for women to break free from traditional gender roles and contribute to the war effort in various ways. After the war, the rise of feminism and the women's rights movement was greatly influenced by the experiences and accomplishments of women during the war, leading to significant advancements in gender equality. This led to the rise of flappers, the passing of the 19th Amendment, and new job opportunities for women. However, after the boom and glamour of the 1920s, the Great Depression hit in 1929, causing widespread unemployment and economic hardship, which

Women’s rights activists gave their movement the title “the women movement”. These women wanted to expand their professions out of the house and into higher paying jobs. They spread their belief that women’s unique homemaking traits would make society more humanized. Women’s clubs through the late nineteenth century began taking a stand on public affairs. These reformers started working more outside of the house in jobs such as consumer protection and housing improvement.

It is encouraging to see how powerless women can come together to build an empowering impact. The beginning of the paper showed how people from all backgrounds came together to honor the late Sister Mary Irene. This single individual was able to use her life to create an organization for women and children. It was said how history books tend to leave her out as a public figure, but her achievements should be recognized worldwide. This subject matter relates back to our class discussions where we talked about the privileges women were deprived of.

Between the 1890s and World War One, reform efforts started taking place by the progressives. The progressives were not a single unified group and even had some contradicting goals. They were middle class urban dwellers and some were women. The progressives wanted to end prostitution, Americanize immigrants, antitrust legislation created, women’s suffrage, and the start of prohibition.

The 1900s was a time period filled with political corruption, social inequality and injustice, discrimination, poor working and living conditions. The progressive movement resulted in response to these issues. Members and advocates of this movement were usually white (some blacks too), middle-class, Christian, college educated women (and men). They sought to achieve social justice through equality and enhance life in America for everyone. To further the nation’s democratic ideals, they hoped to incorporate reforms based on the expectations of the majority public.

The popularity of the Progressive movement in the early 1900's was due to several social and cultural changes in the United States. In the wake of chaotic reorganizations of the country after industrialization and urbanization, as well as the influences of earlier ideological movements such as Populism and Pragmatism, the Progressives sought to bring order and progress to society through central planning, social reform, and even social control. The intellectuals were understood to have the best interests of the people in mind, and therefore had the responsibility to intervene in society through the means of the state. These areas of intervention included sanitation, inculcation of certain moral and behavioral habits, environmental conservation,

Individuals such as Jane Addams and Theodore Roosevelt influenced the changes corresponding to a movement called The Progressive Era, which focused on the elimination of a corrupt government as its attempt to become a democracy. Jane Adams was an individual whom pursued change and a like many other Victorians’ left home to join the quest that would eventually led her to find new hope and adjustment. Through her search for change, Jane Adams came across the ideological transformation that drove most middle-class people to want change not only in their world but in the world around them. This movement caused domesticity to fall and was the rise of an era were women increased their opportunities for education. The late nineteenth century was filled with the uplift of women’s enrollment in universities which influenced the increase of women’s independence.

Why did it take so long for America to allow women’s suffrage during the Progressive Era? Progressives in America did analyze and attempt to solve the unjust and unfair problems that emerged with the increasing number of immigrants, unregulated businesses, urban cities, and economic disparity. There was exploitation of people by the rich and powerful. Even though women contributed behind the scenes during wars and started to represent in work forces, there was still opposition towards their right to vote. At that time, men of the country probably had the notion that women were still not educated enough to be involved in politics.

1900-1920, that was a time period to address the issues created during the Gilded Age. The Progressive Era addressed a lot of issues, some issues were about women 's voting rights,and civil rights, while other issues addressed things like food, drugs, child labor, etc. These issues needed to be addressed and a few people decided to stand up and address them, like Upton Sinclair, Susan B. Anthony, and a few others, these people saw an issue and decided they would confront it, some of them wrote books, went on strike, decided to protest, they all had something in common though, they all decided to fight for what they thought was the right choice. These people who addressed these issues, they changed the face of America, not only by addressing these issues, but by giving new opportunities to other people. The Jungle, also known as a famous book written by Upton Sinclair, who was a famous muckraker, a muckraker is a journalist who exposes social injustice, Sinclair wrote this book to expose the meat packaging companies, he talked about all the bad things that were happening in the companies.

During Progressive Era, there were many reforms that occurred, such as Child Labor Reform or Pure Food and Drug Act. Women Suffrage Movement was the last remarkable reform, and it was fighting about the right of women to vote, which was basically about women’s right movement. Many great leaders – Elizabeth Cad Stanton and Susan B. Anthony - formed the National American Women Suffrage Association (NAWSA). Although those influential leaders faced hardship during this movement, they never gave up and kept trying their best. This movement was occurred in New York that has a huge impact on the whole United States.

In the period between 1900 and 1920, the federal government and reformers were very successful in bringing social, economic, and political reform to the federal government. While not every aspect of it was successful, the rights of women, fighting against child labor and limiting the control of trusts and monopolies were three distinct successes of that time. Even before the progressive era, women challenged their place and articulated new visions of social, political and economic equality. The progressive era was a turning point for women as organizations evolved fighting for equal rights. Woman began to become very involved in a variety of reform movements.

During the Progressive Era, the federal government and reformers were mostly successful in bringing about national reform. An increased effort to improve working conditions, equality for race and gender, and the nation’s economy and government was taken. This action was enforced by the federal government, therefore showing that they were involved in the process.

Jane Addams The Progressive Era, 1890-1920, accomplished great change in the Unites States of America. Many reformers and activits demanded for change in education, food and drug policies, and most importantly the govermenet. The goal for the movement was the purify the nation. One of the main activits during this time was Jane Addams. Jane Addams is often refered to as a social and political pioneer.

Women in the Progressive Era The Progressive Era was a time of change across America, a time when the country chose to reform into an industrialized urban country. Prosperity was widespread across America, so people turned to social issues to try to expand. Minorities in particular became a focus of this time period, and everyone tried to find a way to integrate them into society.

The living standard was lowered. But the positive impact brought by two world wars is women status had risen because most of the soldiers were male. More women participated in the market. They achieved gender equality.