Women’s Rights

Thinking Skill: Identify the goals and purposes of the Women’s

Movement

Women’s Issues QuestionsWhy do you think the United States has still not had a woman President in this day and age?

Do you think Americans are ready for a woman President?

What other issues should we discuss regarding women today?

What were some advances won for women during the Progressive era?

What was the main goal of women’s rights activists during the Progressive era? Why?

Women’s Efforts:

Margaret Sanger- crusade for birth control

Florence Kelly- child labor protection, workers’ strike fund

Maximum 10-hour work day

Carrie Nation- Temperance movement to ban alcohol- Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU)

Ida B. Wells – daycare centers and aid for African-American women

Suffrage Leaders

Susan B. Anthony

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Anthony and Stanton, NAWSA

Women’s Suffrage MovementStarted in 1848 at Seneca FallsThe Declaration of Sentiments (primary source interpretation)

Does any of the language sound familiar?List some specific grievances mentioned

Diverted by Civil War (1861-1865); many abolitionists unsupportive of women’s movementDVD – Susan B. Anthony arrested in 1872 for voting (primary source interpretation)

Explain some of her strongest arguments.Do you agree that unjust laws must be violated?

Question: Why were so many people opposed to women’s suffrage?

The Work of NAWSA in the 1900s

Carrie Chapman Catt

Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton start NAWSA

Carrie Chapman Catt succeeds Anthony as President when she retires

The Work of NAWSA in the 1900s

Carrie Chapman Catt focused on women’s special role; needed to vote to protect their role as homemakers and educators

“Winning Plan”- grassroots rallies from state to state; push for national amendment and state laws

“Society Plan” recruit wealthy, educated women

By 1910, women had suffrage in Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, and Idaho; By 1918, added NY, MI, OK

The National Woman’s PartyAlice Paul felt NAWSA’s focus was too slow; formed NWP in 1913

focused on national woman’s suffrage amendment

More radical – protest marches, first group to picket White House, hunger strikes

The Vote: At lastNineteenth Amendment- gave women voting rights, passed in 1920Passed because many felt women earned right to vote because of service in WW IQuestion: Which group …

…was more controversial?…was more effective?…would you have joined?

Closure Question: What cause would you make sacrifices for?

Margaret Sanger and the Birth Control Movement

Founded Birth Control LeagueWhy did Margaret Sanger think birth control was such an important issue for women?“Do you know that 300,000 babies under one year of age die in the US every year from poverty and neglect, while 600,000 parents remain in ignorance of how to prevent 300,000 more babies from coming into the world the next year to die of poverty and neglect?”Do you agree or disagree that it is an important women’s issue?

What were the arguments against birth control?

“Solicitude for woman’s morals has ever been the cloak Authority has worn in its age-long conspiracy to keep woman in bondage…”

Belief that birth control would cause women (and men) to be immoral

How did Margaret Sanger respond?

“Our present laws force women into one of two ways: celibacy….or abortion…”

“Is woman’s health not to be considered? Is she to remain a prod ucing machine? Is she to have time to think, to study, to care for herself?”

QUESTION: Should schools teach birth control methods, or abstinence only today?