Expanding Roles and Rights

Wanted to do more than fulfill their roles as

wives and mother

• Expand their role in the community

Education helped women achieve their

goals

• 1890s – a growing number of women attended

women’s colleges to prepare them for careers

as teachers or nurses

• Led to many middle-class white women to

tackle problems in society

W o r k i n g W o m e nHard sh i p s

• Sometimes expected to hand over wages to their husbands

• Many women had little or no education

o Led to being cheated and/or bullied by their employers

• Could not vote - little influence on the politicians who could expand their rights R e fo rm er s Wo rk f o r Wo m en’s R i gh t s

• Muller v. Oregono Stated: Women could be “properly placed in a class” by themselves. As a result, laws could limit their work hours,

even if similar laws would not be allowed for men

o Ruling was used to justify paying women less than men for the same job• National Consumers League (NCL)

o Goals: factory inspections, workplace safety, labels (e.g. “goods produced under fair, safe, and healthy working

conditions”)

• Women’s Trade Union League (WTUL)o Goals: laws that set a minimum wage and an 8 hour workday

o Created the first workers’ strike fund - used to help support families who refused to work in unsafe or unfair

conditions

The Tem peranc e Mo vem ent• The practice of never drinking alcohol which often led men to spend their earnings on liquor, neglect their

families, and abuse their wives

• The work of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union led to the passage of the Eighteenth Amendment,

which outlawed the production and sale of alcoholMarga re t S ange r• Thought that family life and women’s health would improve if

mothers had fewer children

• Opened the first birth-control clinic

• Founded the American Birth Control League to make information

more available to women

I d a B . We l l s• Helped form the National Association of Colored Women

• Goals: help families strive for success and assist the less fortunate

(e.g. day-care centers to protect and educate black children while

parents worked)

Political Issues Reach Inside People’s Homes

Question: Why did women argue they needed the right to vote?

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Voting was the only way to make sure that the government would protect children, foster education, and support family life. As Jane Addams explained, women needed the vote because political issues reached inside people’s homes.

Sample Response:

Carrie Chapman Catt

• President of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA)

• Winning Plan

• Called for action on two fronts: lobby Congress to pass a

constitutional amendment giving women the right to vote and use

the new referendum process to try to pass state suffrage laws

• Society Plan

• Recruit women from all levels of society who would later be called

“suffragettes”

The National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage (NAOWS) • Believed that the effort to win the vote would take women’s attention

away from familyAlice Paul • Formed the National Woman’s Party (NWP) which believed in more drastic

measures: public protest marches with picket signs Hundreds of women

were arrested I these protests

• Some went on hunger strikes, refusing to eat until they could vote

Reformers had failed at the federal level, but by the end of

the 1890s women in western states, such as Wyoming and

Colorado, had won the right to vote

Document title: ______________________________________________Date: _____________Creator: ________________________________________________

Reasons why women should not gain suffrage (according to the document):

1. _____________________________________________________________________

2. _____________________________________________________________________

3. _____________________________________________________________________

4. _____________________________________________________________________

5. _____________________________________________________________________

The Woman’s Reason

1. Because… __________________________________________________________________________________

2. Because… __________________________________________________________________________________

3. Because… __________________________________________________________________________________

4. Because… __________________________________________________________________________________

5. Because… __________________________________________________________________________________

6. Because… __________________________________________________________________________________

7. Because… __________________________________________________________________________________

8. Because… __________________________________________________________________________________

9. Because… __________________________________________________________________________________

10.Because… __________________________________________________________________________________

Directions: First, identify the publisher of the article. Then, try your best to

summarize each reason in your own words.

Thinking Critically: Why was the banner that was unveiled when the Russians visited Wilson so effective in stirring public opinion?

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Sample Response:

Because it was addressed to foreigners and was so critical of the United States, the banner probably embarrassed many Americans.

Stated that the right to vote “shall not be denied or abridged on account of sex.”

• 1920 - Millions of American women voted for the first time in a presidential election

Question: What pattern do you see in the passage of suffrage at the state level?

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Sample Response:

Overall, most of the midwestern and western states granted suffrage to women earlier than did he eastern states.

Culture Desk: Has Anything Changed for Female Politicians?