Women’s Movements and Reforms in the Progressive Era

As the first world war came to an end ushering in a new era of industrialization and American civilization, there was hope for a bold new world of expanding businesses, increased wealth concentration, shifting in labor requirements, and the rise of the middle class. Radical transformations were also observed in technology, consumerism tendencies, beliefs and societal values among other facets. The progressive era brought with it awakening among the Americans and a widespread sense of dissatisfaction

with the new trends in the American society and the many problems that had plagued them in the Gilded Age.

This period involved many calls for reforms which included cleaning up the country’s politics, black Americans fighting for their civil rights, employees demanding for a pay rise and union identification, and above all women demanding for their rights to vote and play equal roles in the society. Women began forming their movements and eventually joined the Progressive Era.

For centuries, women have been viewed as being unequal to the man or not capable as much as far as working outside of the home.

This chauvinism had been perpetrated for years by defining roles by a gender. Even in the face of war, the role of women was limited as they could not march into the war front and fight alongside men. In workplaces, women were sidelined, paid unequal wages to their male counterparts for the same tasks and were treated poorly. An incident to highlight this is the fire incident at the Triangle Shirtwaist factory in Manhattan.

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The majority of the employees left behind when the fire broke out were women, approximately more than 200 and the doors to the factory had been locked, and only the managers kept the keys. Workers were not allowed to take unsanctioned breaks. The sight of the whole scene was horrific, and 71 people had gotten injuries whereas 146 had succumbed to the inferno. The owners of the factory were acquitted without proper trial in the court. From a narrative by one of the company worker and labor organizer, Rose Schneiderman, he openly declared that women and men were low-priced as compared to assets. The fire event forced Americans, among them women to see the urge for reforms.

In governance and politics, the tale was no different. The patriarchal society had ignored the problems women faced and for this reason did not support women’s right to vote in American politics. Therefore, through the desire for reform, women began activist activities in the American public, and this became their long campaign for women’s suffrage. They held to the belief that having women vote during elections, would cleanse the politics and fight social ills.

Some organizations formed by women were biracial. However, such movements could not be sustained as American prejudice rose and resulted in white female campaigners banning the inclusion of their African American counterparts. The separation into distinct clubs became an excellent ground for black women to produce vibrant movements that championed for black women rights. An example of a biracial movement is the Baptist women convention that was led by Nannie Helen and Virginia Broughton. This convention worked to protect black women from sexual violence perpetrated on them by white men.

There was also the desire for women who felt the need for equality in churches and the manner in which worship services were conducted. They fought for the right to be treated equal and the right to access the pulpit as preachers. Consumption of alcohol had become a social problem, and just like the other reformers, women movements such as Woman’s Christian Temperance Union was formed to campaign for complete prohibition of alcohol, which was thought to lead to domestic violence, impoverishment, misconduct, and sickness as women and children often fell victims of domestic abuse.

Women movements that were working through churches and reform establishments aimed to bring morality into American life. Women in these groups would sometimes be referred to as ‘moral vigilantes.’

An example, Carrie A. Nation who had a deep conviction in working for God’s will, became renown when she began destroying all liquor joints. Sometimes she would face the law. Her approach in combating alcoholism was through assaulting which was viewed by leaders in her chapter she had found as unchristian.

Her organization was later turned to a national political organization. However, alcohol consumption was viewed by women reformers as home wreckers and a risk for domestic abuse to children and women.

Women movements also targeted to achieve full suffrage. For instance, there were movements that were explicitly crucial in activism for suffrage and women’s rights, and they were predominantly comprised of upper-middle-class, educated, northern women. Women’s suffrage was characteristically entangled with several reform struggles. Various suffragists reasoned that women votes were compulsory to clean up politics and rectify social immoralities.

The first largest women’s organization, formed in 1890, Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) recommended suffrage. Other notable movements included the General Federation of Women’s Clubs of 1990 that was New York-based and Washington D.C. based National Association of Colored Women of 1896. Other activists such as Kelly Adams, through her Organization, the Hull House strived to push for better working conditions for women and children such as the anti-sweatshop legislation that limited the working hours for children and women to eight hours a day.

Additionally, in 1905, working groups of women formed a Union to campaign side by side with the National American Suffrage Association for the vote. All the members believed that the vote was a means of furthering their economic interests and nurturing a new sense of esteem for the employed women. Another organization, the National Women’s Party, arose with a strict and militant approach to suffrage attainment. They organized several women who marched in the streets openly demanding for their voting rights. At one time, in 1917, they got arrested for picketing the White House

Some groups of women suffragists, specifically the whites, had a harsher objective of maintaining white supremacy through the vote. A huge population of American women took it as an advantage to sticking to their arguments for the vote on the need of preserving white sovereignty by giving white, working-class women the vote. Other groups of women, especially the black women organized vibrant movements whose goal was to fight racial segregation as well as uplift civil rights for the blacks, in particular, equal rights for women. For example, some women’s clubs whose organization were biracial in the late-nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, something which was had to maintain a relationship between the white women and African Americans. The white women ended up banning the black’s inclusion in the organizations forcing the latter to be segregated into separate clubs from where they rose again to fight for reforms and their rights.

Successes of Women Movements, Women had fully come into the American public life to try and raise their voices for reforms. What brought them into the light of progressivism was suffrage, and the women movements had worked hard to achieve notable victories in the West. Many women were organized, and male politicians were open to new kinds of governance. By 1911, constitutions had been subjected to suffrage amendments.

In January 1918, President Woodrow Wilson openly supported the women’s suffrage amendment, which twenty-four months later became authentic. Women came in full motivation to vote after the Nineteenth Amendment was ratified. This achievement came years after pushing so hard for such reforms culminating in the Alice Paul led National Women’s Party march and picket of the eve of World War 1. Women were driven by the promise of transformation besides their concerns. A lot had reformed since their activism, the U.S. had become more industrialized ever, causing more town to develop. Also, immigrants enjoyed some rights and ushered a new American culture in urban settings.

In conclusion, The Progressive Era encompassed desire for reforms, and this set women on a mission of raising their voices to be represented in the society and stop all injustices they were subjected to such as gender inequality, denied voting rights, and racial segregation. They, therefore, formed women movements whose goals were to bring morality into American life, advocate for full women suffrage, and uplift civil rights. After a protracted period of activism, women suffrage movements’ efforts bore fruit, and won the support of the people, the presidency of the time inclusive and later made legislation. Women could now vote and enjoy rights provided for by the constitution similar to the rest of the people. Women’s commitment and desire to have changed in various societal aspects indicate how central they were in reform movements.