I hope that your review of American history is going well and that you are starting to feel ready for the AP test coming up on Friday. To help you prepare for the test, we are going to spend time this week on the most frequently asked topics in American history. For Wednesday's class you will be responsible for two quality posts.
The usual posting rules will apply: you must build off of one another's posts and avoid repetition, be sure to include the link/video that you used for research, and the post will be counted as a quiz grade.
Please respond to the following question:
Who are the most influential women or policies in changing the role of women in American history? Explain how and why you chose your individual. Be sure to include the historical context of the difference maker.
Anna Eleanor Roosevelt
ReplyDeleteEleanor Roosevelt was born in New York City on October 11, 1884, daughter Anna Hall and Elliott Roosevelt. When her mother died in 1892, she went to live with her grandmother; two years later, her father died of Alcoholism. After becoming an orphan, she attended a distinguished school in England, where she developed self-confidence among other girls. Eleanor Roosevelt is a very influential women in American history, not only because of the things she did when she became the first lady, but also because of the things she accomplished before her husband obtained the presidency. The fact that she had many children did not stopped her from helping other, for that reason she an active public server working for the Red Cross during World War I. After her husband suffered a polio attack in 1921, she stepped forward to help Franklin Roosevelt with his political career. When her husband became president in 1933, she dramatically changed the role of the first lady. Not happy by staying in the background and handling domestic matters, Eleanor showed the entire world that the first lady was an important part of American politics. She gave press conferences and she even had her own newspaper column titled My Day. Not only that, but Eleanor also spoke out for human rights, women's issues, and children's causes. She also wanted to help the country's poor and stood against racial discrimination.
These things she did were very important because it proved how women were know becoming more involved in politics. Even though every women had the right to vote alright, not many of them were involved in politics, and many even were discriminated to be less than man. However, it can be argued that Eleanor did things better than her husband, not only because he had polio, but also because she was very appealing to the people, and she wanted to help everyone. As it was written on the government’s website “…This made her a tempting target for political enemies but her integrity, her graciousness, and her sincerity of purpose endeared her personally to many.” Even after her husband’s presidency, Eleanor Roosevelt was selected to be a delegate to the United Nations General Assembly, serving from 1945 to 1953. She also became a member of the United Nation's Human Rights Commission, and as a part of this commission, she helped to write the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/first-ladies/eleanorroosevelt
The Seneca Falls Convention spring boarded the women’s rights movement that gained so much success in the future. The masterminds behind it were Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott. The duo met each other during an Anti-Slavery convention that refused them because of their sex. Outraged, they set their sights on a change. In July, 1848, Mott, Stanton, Wright, Mary Ann McClintock, and Jane Hunt met at Stanton’s house in Seneca Falls to discuss their grievances with the way women are treated. They also believe in abolition and the temperance movement. Stanton was in charge of drafting the “Declaration of Sentiments”, building on the country’s Declaration of Independence, including that “all men are created equal”, but adding in women as well. The convention called for women’s rights in the areas of suffrage, retaining property after marriage, equal educational opportunities, and divorce and child custody rights. The convention was held on July 19th, with an audience of about 300, mostly Quaker. Famous abolitionist, Frederick Douglass was present, and argued against the present Quaker’s idea that suffrage should not be included. He was an important guest because of his publication of the report in his newspaper, The North Star. Initially, the press mocked the convention. Douglass responded with a powerful and meaningful quote, "A discussion of the rights of animals would be regarded with far more complacency by many of what are called the wise and the good of our land, than would be a discussion of the rights of woman." Stanton enjoyed the attention it received, naturally. By the time suffrage was gained, in 1920, all but one of the signers passed away, Charlotte Woodward Pierce but all of their influence will live on forever.
ReplyDeleteIt is painfully obvious that the Seneca Falls Convention was one of the most influential events that led to equality of women. It was the first official stand against the unjust social standings of women, one that would have a lasting effect. It called for, though controversial, mature rights that are undeniable as stated in the Declaration of Independence. It was the beginning of feminism in America, an act that would have unparalleled success in America.
http://www.npg.si.edu/col/seneca/senfalls1.htm
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteMargaret Sanger has been a woman’s activist since a young age. She is best known for her fight for birth control. It’s such a sensitive topic to her because her mother had 11 children in total and several miscarriages. She believed this caused her fragile mental state and early death (40) because she had no right to deny a pregnancy. She had no option; no one did until Margaret’s coined term “birth control.”
ReplyDeleteShe moved to New York City with her husband, socializing with the likes of Upton Sinclair, famous muckraker, and anarchist, Emma Goldman. Here in the city, she joined the Women's Committee of the New York Socialist Party and the Liberal Club. She participated in many strikes, proving her worth when it comes to change. Her benevolent pursuit of educating women about sex started in 1912 in her newspaper column titled “What Every Woman Should Know.” She also worked as a nurse, which exposed her to women attempting abortions that caused them a great deal of pain. This only fueled her already fiery ambition. She fought to make contraception a tangible thing for women. She once said, "No woman can call herself free until she can choose consciously whether she will or will not be a mother." In 1914, her informative birth control publication called The Women Rebel got her in trouble since it was illegal to send out information on contraception through the mail, specified in the Comstock Act of 1873, deeming it an “immoral material.”
She then fled to England to do research on more contraceptive methods. She returned to the United States with a boom, opening up a birth control clinic, only for it to be raided nine days after, resulting in HER arrest under the Comstock Law. Later appealing her conviction, she succeeded by the government making an exception for contraception, allowing doctors to prescribe it for medical reasons. Her work was not done there, though. She later established the American Birth Control League, Birth Control Clinical Research Bureau, and the National Committee on Federal Legislation for Birth Control, which aimed to make it legal for doctors to distribute birth control freely. In 1936, the U.S Court of Appeals allowed birth control to be shipped into the country, a huge win for Sanger.
ReplyDeleteUntil her death, she fought for the same causes in other countries. She helped women so much with her radical, yet reasonable desires. She is absolutely an influential woman, paving the way for the Roe vs. Wade victory, as well. Margaret Sanger was an outspoken reformer who openly championed birth control for women, and did so with utmost swagger.
http://www.biography.com/people/margaret-sanger-9471186
Many women influenced American history drastically but the most influential of all is Jane Addams. She won worldwide recognition as a pioneer social worker in America, feminist and also an internationalist.
ReplyDeleteAfter her successful years at Rockford Female Seminary, Jane began to study medicine but because of poor health she stopped. She spent two years reading and writing about her future plans. When she was twenty seven she went to Europe with a friend named Ellen G. Starr. It was during this second tour in Europe that she discovered Toynbee Hall. Toynbee Hall was a settlement house in the slums of London. That’s when she and Ellen decided to establish a settlement house in Chicago. After receiving help from local supporters, Jane and Ellen founded Hull House in 1889. Hull House was a center to help the urban poor by offering schooling, medical care, legal aid, child care, music, art, and drama. Jane and Ellen made speeches in order to raise money and convince women to help out. By 1893, the settlement house was serving more than 2,000 people a week. Jane and other Hull House supporters launched the Immigrants Protective League and the Juvenile Protective Association. She was also appointed to Chicago’s Board of education and became the first woman president of the National Conference of Charities and Corrections. During this time she was also chairman of the School Management Committee.
In 1910, she received the first honorary degree ever awarded to a woman by Yale University. Before women’s suffrage she believed that women should let their voices be heard in politics and therefore have the right to vote. She also believed that women should have goals and dreams and have opportunities to realize them.
Jane strongly opposed war therefore she organized the Women’s Peace Party and the International Congress of Women. In 1915 she took part in the International Congress of women rally at the Hague to stop World War I. in 1917 when the United Sates entered the war Jane’s efforts to stop it caused her to be expelled from the Daughters of the American Revolution. Even with the criticism she was having she was elected president of the Women’s international League for Peace and Freedom. And Hull House was continuing to be successful. December 10, 1931 Jane Addams received the Nobel Peace Prize.
Jane Addams served in many reform groups and made her voice be heard. Her greatest accomplishment being the establishment of the Hull House really made a great influence in America. Not only was she helping the poor but she was also educating them and making women have more of an impact in society. She was lowering the degree of ignorance among the poor and helping them succeed in life. She became an inspiration to everyone. I think she gave a different outlook on women during that time and made them be just as equal as men.
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1931/addams-bio.html
Harriet Beecher Stowe
ReplyDeleteI chose Harriet Beecher Stowe because in the midst of extreme tensions between the North and the South on the issue of slavery, she wrote heavily influential works on the anti-slavery movement. [She could be considered a sort of first muckraker for the abolitionists!] She began writing as a serial for the boldly controversial Washington anti-slavery weekly, the National Era. She was better known as an American abolitionist and an author, and she was very famous for stirring up the troubles between the two brothers. Her first novel, and her most famous, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, was an anti-slavery novel, and it was written on the worst, but true, conditions of slave plantation owners. It was written as to not only shock the North into action and open their eyes, but to encourage the realization of what was going on in the South.
Stowe worked her hardest when writing on the stance of abolitionism, to the point of writing A Key Uncle Tom’s Cabin as a reply to all of the critics claiming her inability to understand the actual society that the South was built on and that slavery really was, as well as further proof against those who refused to believe her works. She held documentations of the events from her original book to prove herself and her works to be true. She held very complex and detailed descriptions that allowed for the substantial evidence standing up for her Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Stowe was a direct cause to the protests held by strong abolitionists through her controversial works. She was so significant with her works as to have so many people believe that Lincoln, the president at the time, had welcomed her as “the little lady who made this big war.” I believe that she was the biggest catalyst needed for the road to anti-slavery, and it was only just that it came from such a surprising source: a young, talented woman.
http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/stowe/StoweHB.html
http://mindyjgirl.hubpages.com/hub/Top-10-most-influential-women-in-Americas-history
http://www.harrietbeecherstowecenter.org/utc/
One of the most important events that lead to the success of the women’s suffrage was the Suffrage Movement in 1869. This remarkable suffrage success story began when Wyoming Territory approved full and equal suffrage for scarcely one thousand women. Since there were not many men available to take the charges they usually took on the east coast, women needed to step up and take control of some things. This created a contagious excitement on every woman in the nation, and for those reason women's rights spread quickly across the Rocky Mountain landscape. The West even became to symbolize political equality and opportunity as a result of women's enfranchisement. It also awaked the nation in its steady eastward march toward political freedom for women and all citizens. After this, western women were winning many battles for the ballot in popular elections and legislatures, and that is how state by state, women were gaining more rights. Before World War I started, Jeannette Rankin of Montana won the first woman's seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. This was impressive and controversial because by 1916, only women in a few states east of the Mississippi River could vote at all. Finally, the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution made full women's suffrage the law of the nation in 1920. However, this new amendment did not assure voting rights for, Native Americans, and the indigenous peoples of Hawaii and Alaska. All those things that happened were thanks to the gain of women’s right in Wyoming in 1869 because people started to realize that women were really capable of so much more than just being a mother of 4 children. For that reason, the suffrage movement in the western United States dramatically expanded women's rights not only at home, nor at work, nor in the community, but also to the entire nation.
ReplyDeletehttp://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/conlaw/nineteentham.htm
In my opinion.one of the most influential women of the times is Harriet Tubman. One could argue she had little to no effect on many people or many contributions. As many know Harriet Tubman was a runaway slave. She was known as "The Conductor" of the Underground Railroad. Harriet Tubman had escaped to better herself and get away from the terrible conditions of plantations. She was much like many of the women who attended the Seneca falls convention wanted to be rid of slavery. In a way Tubman had actually done something about it she had put her on stolen freedom at risk by gambling the chances being saving other slaves. Tubman had also led the slave through a safe path that gave them a loophole through the fugitive slave act.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion that was the bravest thing that could be said and done this even lead way to bigger things in the civil rights movement. Frederick Douglas even mentioned something of her bravery.
The Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade was a significant change for women’s role in society. Roe v. Wade occurred when a single pregnant woman referred to as Roe, challenged the constitutionality of the Texas criminal abortion law. Texas’s law banned all abortions except if it’s necessary to save the life of the mother. Roe claimed that her life was not endangered but she could not afford to get an abortion out of state. The lawsuit was filed against Henry Wade who was the Dallas Country District Attorney. The court then ruled that Texas was violating Roe’s constitutional right to privacy. The court also said that the first, fourth, ninth and fourteenth amendments protect a person’s zone of privacy which includes marriage, contraception, and child bearing as being part of the zone of privacy. The court decided that abortions were legal for women across the United States. To this day the decision of the court has been very controversial. There have been many debates about it and it revolves around ethics, religion and biology. The decision of this court case definitely changed the role of women in society because they were now able to make decisions about what they want in their lives. They had a voice for once. They were no longer going to be looked at the same, just being there to have children.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.pbs.org/wnet/supremecourt/rights/landmark_roe.html
DeleteThe Lowell system was a textile factory in Lowell, Massachusetts had been the first place to have a semi balance between business kindness. Almost close to a union. A man named Francis Lowell of a mill company had come up with the idea of drawing women into the factory doing work for cheap labor but good quality at the same time. However he took it a step further he knew in order to draw these women he'd have to do something. So he used the tactic of paternal management which drew the women in like flies to honey. He had give the women good housin, good pay and good other things. However when business hit a snag and the ideals began to slowly fade. Once the money began a downfall. Management shortened pay and was removing what was given. The young women decided it was time to fight against this by creating the Lowell Female Labor Reform Association. However little change was made with this new group. And the company took to hiring Irish immigrants because they were willing to take cheaper pay.
ReplyDeleteBetty Friedan was one of the most influential figures of the 20th century and her legacy still lives on today. Betty Friedan is an American feminist, writer and activist who dedicated her whole life to crusading for women’s rights. One of her most famous accomplishments is the writing of her book in 1963, The Feminine Mystique. The book was about a theory that Friedan made which stated that being a stay at home wife made women lose their identity and become insane. When the economy was good, it led to an increase of stay at home wives. She thought this led to women becoming bored and miserable and it also led to society problems such as juvenile delinquency, child abuse and divorce. This book was considered one of the most influential books of the 20th century and it was the main spark in starting the second-wave feminism. After Friedan wrote the book, in 1966, she then founded and became the first president of the largest feminist organization in the United States, the National Organization of Women (NOW). This organization still exists today and consists of more than 500,000 members. This organization helps issues like racism, feminist rights, homophobia and equality. After Friedan stepped down as president from NOW, she led the Women’s Strike for Equality in 1970. This strike was to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the 19th amendment, which effectively gave women the right to vote. It was described by Time magazine as “the first big demonstration of the Women’s Liberation movement.” Friedan asked women to stop working for a day to draw attention to the problem of unequal pay for women’s work. There were 50,000 participants and it got nationwide attention that helped demonstrate to other what women were all about. The next year, the day of the strike, August 26th, became known as Women’s Equality Day. These three major things started by Betty Friedan prove how influential she is. She wrote a book that is still popular today and the created the nation’s largest feminist organization. She has hundreds of thousands of people who support what she has done and follow in her footsteps.
ReplyDeleteAlthough many women throughout history have made a huge impact in the women’s rights movements, I believe Abigail Adams is one of the most courageous and truest of them all. Abigail Adams lived at a time where there were many more problems to worry about besides women’s rights and to be honest, the thoughts of giving women complete equality were not really even thought of. Most women in the colonial America would have known that there was no hope and would have kept their mouths shut, but not Abigail Adams. This woman firmly believed that women should have the same rights as the men that they lived with. Abigail Adams intrigued me because of what she believed in and the time period in which she voiced her opinions. This brave woman was the first to step up and let out her opinions, she represented and was the voice of every single colonial woman who was just too weak to say how they felt. Although her bold ideas were denied and ignored by the framers of the constitution, the same very ideas that she wanted turned up in the constitution. The same ideas of individual rights and the perception that all men under God are created equal! It seems as though Abigail Adams was far ahead of her time and her small effort to get rights for women was simply a benchmark for later women to work off of and eventually get what they wanted. Abigail Adams had ideas that were far too much to handle in her time period, however she started the long and hard battle that women faced to receive their rights. Abigail Adams due to her courage and wisdom should be seen as a hero in the world of women’s rights.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXQZIo6JN2Q
DeleteAbigail Adams really was a speacial person at her time to express the ideas and opinions that she felt. She was the single voice and figure for women at this time and she had ideas that were recognized to all women one hundred years after her time.
As Christine had stated, the Lowell factories in Massachusetts was the first factory to really hire and count on women as workers. This was a HUGE deal for women and a HUGE change for the country at this time. During the 1820’s and 1830’s not only did these factories hire women, but the majority of workers in these factories were young women! This was something women could do that made them feel independent and actually worth something more than a maid at home. This gave the women a chance to help provide their families or themselves and not be 100% dependant on a man. Before this factory system the women would stay at home and cook, clean, and watch after the kids. Women never got to feel independent or special or been rewarded for something they did, and this Lowell System of factories was something women dreamed about. This was another step in the right direction for women and for their battle for rights and liberties. Also these factories gave immigrant women jobs as they came to America from their homelands. Women of all kinds could find themselves out of the house, making money for their family so they could eat and be safe. It was not easy work and it was not fun work, but it was work that women would do because it was something they never thought they would be able to do. This opened up a whole new world of opportunity and moved women up in the social class, inching closer to equality with men. This factory was only the early start, but it proved women that they were worth something and the things that they were fighting for were actually achievable. The Lowell factories inspired women and gave them positive hope for the future to come.
ReplyDeleteYou're silly. WumboMePanda is Christine.
DeleteSusan B. Anthony was a very influential figure in history and made a number of lasting changes to women’s rights. She played a vital role in introducing women’s suffrage into the United States. It was not until later on in her career when she started getting concerned with women’s right to vote. In her early part of her career, she focused on temperance. However, male members of the temperance movement wouldn’t allow her to take part simply because of the fact that she was a woman. She then realized she couldn’t take part and make an impact in the temperance movement so she moved on to rights. The passage of the New York State Married Woman's Property and Guardianship Law in 1860, which gave married women in New York greater property rights, was her first major legislative victory. After the civil war ended, her efforts for trying to create suffrage for both women and African Americans were rejected. Being the strong woman she is, she fought back and created the newspaper, The Revolution, which helped promote her view on women’s suffrage. After it went bankrupt after lasting two years, Anthony went on to become the first woman to vote for a presidential election. She then was caught and arrested for doing so. After her court case got turned down and she got out of jail, Anthony still protested for women’s rights and did until the day she died. She then wrote a law that she tried to get passed that would effectively give women the right to vote. When she died in 1906, only four states had granted women the right to vote. Fourteen years later the Nineteenth Amendment, which gave women the right to vote, was added to the U.S. Constitution, all due to Susan B. Anthony. All in all, she was a very historic hero in American history who changed the way women are perceived. She single handedly created the nineteenth amendment and gave women more rights and freedom.
ReplyDeleteI believe that Carry A. Nation was a significant figure in shaping the role of women and their history. She is most remembered for her attacks against liquor. Her life has much influence on her motives and her reason for her fights. Although she was born under a plantation owner, she wasn’t fit for her father’s plantations. She focused mostly with the Bible when she learned how to read, therefore she became very religious and she brought religion into her temperance fights. In 1867, she wedded a man named Charles Gloyd and he turned out to be a very heavy drinker which later unfortunately affected their child, Charlien. Carry A. Nation had to leave Gloyd due to his instability. It only took him 6 more months to pass away with his addiction to alcohol. Being a single mother, she had to take on a new lifestyle to be able to support herself and her child which was very difficult since women didn’t have much of an advantage in society.
ReplyDeleteIt was not until 1877, when she had married David Nation, a preacher, editor, and attorney. He became pastor of the Christian Church when they have moved to Medicine Lodge, Kansas in 1889. It also became the place where Carry taught Sunday School. She then became aware of the poor people and felt like there was a need to change. This later pushed her towards the establishment of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union. From past experiences with her formal husband, she spoke out against alcohol. She also spoke of other topics such as tobacco, women’s dressing, health and hygiene, prison reform, and world peace. At one point in American history, the WCTU was one of the largest organizations to be made.
Her beliefs only strengthened with instances of “divine protection”, protection from God. During a fire in 1889, she felt as if she was blessed when her house was left untouched. Religion played a huge role in Carry’s life evidently.
Her words and speeches were very convincing. Plenty of Kansas residents voted for prohibition, but that didn’t stop the owners of saloons from continuing their sale of alcohol. They ignored any laws against them so Nation wasn’t going to let that happen. In 1890, she prayed in front of a saloon in attempt to change their minds. Seeing the slow and nonexistent results, she turned to more forcing techniques. On June 1st, 1900, she finally struck against a saloon. She was showing them she really wasn’t messing. She used things such as rocks and bricks, and later brought a hatchet. “I felt invincible. My strength was that of a giant. God was certainly standing by me. I smashed five saloons with rocks before I ever took a hatchet.” She finally closed the saloons in Medicine Lodge with her assertive methods. She was a woman and she wasn’t about to quit. I’m sure being the fact that women had few rights at that time period, people ridiculed her. I have no doubt the saloon owners did as well until she struck at them. She was not a small woman, she stood 6 feet tall and she was going to fight.
After the success of her goal in closing the saloons, other towns were pleading her to help them as well. She traveled to countless of towns where alcohol sales were legal and fought against it. She did it with one town, who says she can’t change the mind of many others? She was sent to jail time after time yet it didn’t stop her from doing what she believed. If “disturbing the peace” was what she had to do to win this fight, she’s going right in without any hesitation. “I want all hellions to quit puffing that hell fume in God's clean air.” Using her religion, she fought against the wrongs of the world. As a woman, she was very confident and had no problem fighting against authorities. She believed God was on her side and knew this was what she had to do for her life. She didn’t care for the people who ridiculed her and said she couldn’t do it as a woman. She showed that women had the ability to protest just as well as men. It was because of her that this issue became nationwide 8 years after her death as well as the ratification of the 18th Amendment, prohibiting the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcoholic beverages for consumption. During her fight for temperance, she really showed society what women were capable of. Not just a house wife doing chores.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/1900/peopleevents/pande4.html
http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1058.html
Woman's rights was one of the most important issues, dating back to early colonial times. Women were never treated in the same manner that men are, even though they make up 50% of the Earth's population. They always have been seen as people who stay at home and care for the family, and haven't been seen as people who could influence society on a grander scale.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, isn't it ironic that many of the reforms in our society where directly caused by women? Susan B. Anthony was one of these women: she changed the world. One of the two women to have earned the honor of having her face printed on a piece of circulating coinage, she was one of the women that were a direct catalyst for woman’s suffrage, which would come through an amendment passed to the US constitution 14 years after her death on March 13, 1906.
She started off small. She printed a journal called “The Revolution,” which was published every week. She did not fund the journal very well, but was able to keep it alive despite accumulating a $10,000 ($184,000 nowadays) that took her six years to pay off. She did not allow ads for alcohol or patent medicines to be published in it, which cut off a huge amount of revenue she could have been accumulating to help finance the paper. It was finally sold to a woman named Laura Curtis Bullard for a grand total of one dollar. However, Anthony didn’t stop there. She went on to do bigger and better things, like founding the National Woman Suffrage Association, which was wholly dedicated to gaining woman’s suffrage. She was the vice-president and later the president of that organization, in a position where she could influence many more women and finally unite the women of this country under the banner of expanding the voting privilege to all women instead of just white men.
http://susanbanthonydollar.org/
This is a picture that helps to show how much of an influence she was on society. As I said, she was one of the two women to have her face printed on circulating coinage.
http://chnm.gmu.edu/tah-loudoun/wp-content/lessons/lee/ho-to-kansas.jpg
ReplyDeletehttp://chnm.gmu.edu/tah-loudoun/wp-content/lessons/lee/millions-of-acres.jpg
These are just two of the many posters that appeared dotting the American store windows. They all say the same thing: "New land available out west! Cheap to buy! Westward ho!"
These ads attracted many people to the west- America was built by people who wanted to explore the unknown in the first place. But not only did these expeditions out west lead to the discovery and founding of new states such as Oregon and Washington, they also offered lots of opportunity for women. These journeys took men and women and children far out of their comfort zone into a world where danger was second nature and you had to keep on your toes if you wanted to survive. Many a caravan never reached their destination. Since danger was so prevalent, and these people were basically constructing a civilization with their bare hands, it was all hands on deck. Women were treated as equals in almost every way out west, because they couldn't shirk away from doing their part in creating a civilization. They had a taste of equality, and once you've tasted something like that, there's no turning back. The western movement planted a seed in these women's minds, a seed that said that the world needed realigning, that women needed to be considered equal to men. The fight for women's rights began, and though it was a long, rough road, the seed finally blossomed into a gigantic tree. Sure, there is still some sexism in our world, and it will likely never be fully eliminated. But the fact remains that, finally, women have been allowed to assume 50% of the work that is put in to maintaining America, as they make up 50% of the population.
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ReplyDeleteThe woman flexing her muscles with her hair pulled up under a bandanna played a huge role in Women’s history. Rosie the Riveter symbolized women in their changing roles in society during the World War II. Before Rosie appeared on the cover of Saturday Evening Post on May 29th, 1943 and presented a new transformation of women, women were expected to deal with more feminine chores. Women were expected to run the house and town issues. It was when Geraldine Hoff, a 19 year old telephone operator, accepted Norman Rockwell to paint her. He presented her as bigger to create Rosie. He had in fact taken the name from a song from 1942, “Rose the Riveter” which consisted of lines like, "Rosie buys a lot of war bonds, that girl really has sense, wishes she could purchase more bonds, putting all her cash into national defense”. Rosie inspired all women, and urged them to contribute to the defense of the U.S if they couldn’t necessarily physically fight in the war that their husbands were all fighting. Women started creating planes, weapons, and supplies to send to their overseas troops and their allies. Women were transforming again and contributing much, much more. They were willing to do this more physical required work to show their patriotism. There was of course doubt that women couldn’t do it, just like everything else they “couldn’t do”. Women filled in the gap that men had left in America when they went to fight in WWII. By the peak of WWII, William E. Boeing’s workforce was made up of 46% women. Boeing was the creator of Boeing Aircraft, United Aircraft, and United Airlines. Boeing had said "Women took an awfully bad beating in Final Assembly. It was the first time women and men had worked together. There was a great deal of chauvinism. Women were considered too stupid to know how to do anything." Men believed women just had a sense of exaggerated pride or patriotism. Women often got into fights with unions and employers considering they were not very accepted just as well as minorities. They didn’t have many benefits when they had joined this new workforce. Their presence was believed to be just temporary until the war’s end when the men return, yet that did not turn out to be true. After the war’s end, some women continued to work on these more physical labor jobs and enjoyed that they had the freedom and ability to do what men could do and there were some who had to continue to be able to support their families and husbands who have been disabled from the war.
ReplyDeleteWomen had dealt with working for extra income to having to balance that with taking care of their family and homes. Rosie the Riveter showed what society refused to see women as—strong. They were mentally and physically capable of doing what society couldn’t believe them to do, and they proved it to themselves and society. Women ARE in fact capable of doing a “man’s job”.
http://stories.washingtonhistory.org/suffrage/Times/workers.aspx
Frances Perkins
ReplyDeleteFrances Perkins, born on April 10, 1882, is best described as a woman "with a mission." In her younger years, Perkins was a teacher at many universities and was constantly involved in the women rights movement. With a strong sense of independence an equality, she was constantly giving speeches and participating in marches. Perkins was also attracted to making a difference for the poor working class. She spent numerous hours visiting factories and examining the harsh working conditions. She also helped out at the Hull House. In 1910, Perkins received her masters in economics and sociology from Columbia University. From there, she began to make incredible steps. She became secretary of the National Consumer's League and successfully lobbied for a bill limiting a work week to 54 hours for women and children. Perkins became a huge influence; as a woman, great changes were hard to make. But in 1929, Franklin D. Roosevelt - governor of New York at the time - appointed Perkins as Industrial Commissioner of New York. She kept fighting for better working conditions and factory investigations and shorter work weeks.
Frances Perkins is most notably an extremely influential woman figure in American history because she was the first woman cabinet member. In 1933, Roosevelt appointed her as his Secretary of Labor (she held the position until 1945 - the longest running term for a Secretary of Labor.) She played a vital role in the success of the New Deal. Many of the reforms that we previously mentioned in or blogs were developed primarily because of her tireless efforts. The Wagner Act (1935) gave workers the right to collective bargaining. She was also on the committee that got the radical Social Security Act passed. The Fair Labor Standards Act was also passed due to her work, which most notably established a minimum wage.
Overall, Perkins is so noteworthy because of her ability to step up as a woman during an era of gender inequality. Women were just unseen in politics. However, Perkins was not only able to make a name for herself; but she became the fist woman cabinet member and made a difference for America during a time of corruption and depression.
Part I
ReplyDeleteI chose Betty Naomi Goldstein because she had a great impact in the women's rights movement.
In 1963, author Betty Naomi Goldstein Friedan's first book, The Feminine Mystique, launched the feminist movement, which eventually expanded the lifestyle choices for U.S. women. By the 1990s, she had also become a spokesperson for older and economically disadvantaged people and was recognized and honored by women outside the United States for her global leadership and influence on women's issues.
She was born Elizabeth Naomi Goldstein on February 4, 1921, in Peoria, Illinois. Her father, Harry Goldstein, was a successful storeowner who emigrated from Russia. Her mother, Miriam Horowitz Goldstein, graduated from Bradley Polytechnic Institute and wrote society news as a Peoria newspaper journalist. Friedan entered Smith College in 1939, majored in psychology, and served as editor of the college newspaper. After graduating summa cum laude in 1942, she interviewed for the only type of job available to women journalists at the time: researcher for a major U.S. news magazine. But the position of researcher amounted to doing all the work while someone else received the byline, and Friedan was not interested in that. Instead, she wrote for a Greenwich Village news agency, covering the labor movement.
When WWII ended, Friedan lost her job to a returning veteran. Friedan then thought of going to medical school, a choice very few women could pursue. But instead, she followed the traditional path, marrying returning veteran Carl Friedan in 1947 and starting a family. After her first child was born, she worked for another newspaper, but was fired when she became pregnant with her second child. She protested to the newspaper guild, as no one had ever questioned her ability to perform her job, but was told that losing her job was "her fault" because she was pregnant. At that time, the term sex discrimination did not exist.
While she was a mother and housewife living in suburban New York, Friedan wrote articles for women's magazines such as McCall's and Ladies' Home Journal on a freelance basis. Tapped by McCall's to report on the state of the alumnae of the Smith class of 1942 as they returned for their fifteenth reunion in 1957, Friedan visited the campus and was struck by the students' lack of interest in careers after graduation. This disinterest in intellectual pursuits contrasted greatly with Friedan's perception of her Smith classmates of the 1930s and 1940s.
”Men weren’t really the enemy-they were fellow victims suffering from an outmoded masculine mystique that made them feel unnecessarily inadequate when there were no bears to kill.”
-Betty Friedan.
Part II
ReplyDeleteExtensive research over the next several years brought Friedan to the conclusion that women's magazines were at fault because they defined women solely in relationship to their husbands and children. This had not always been the case; the magazines had evolved in the postwar years from promoters of women's independence into paeans to consumerism, bent on keeping U.S. housewives in the home by selling them more and more household products.
Friedan was unable to get her work on this issue published in an acceptable format by the women's magazines she was criticizing. Her report was published in book form in 1963 as The Feminine Mystique, in which she chronicled the dissatisfaction of sub-urban housewives, dubbing it "the problem with no name." The book struck a common chord among U.S. women, who recognized themselves in the women she described in its pages. For the first time since the women's suffrage movement ended successfully with the passage of the 19th amendment women the right to vote, women gathered together on a large scale to work for equal rights with men.
In 1966, with Kathryn Clarenbach, Friedan cofounded the National Organization of Women. NOW's original statement of purpose was written by Friedan: "Women want feminism to take the actions needed to bring women into the mainstream of American society, now; full equality for women, in fully equal partnership with men." Friedan served as NOW's president until 1970. Under her leadership, NOW propelled the women's movement from middle-class suburbia to nationwide activism. Friedan also helped organize the National Abortion Rights Action League in 1969, and the National Women's Political Caucus in 1971. All three organizations were still active participants in U.S. politics and culture into the 2000s.
On August 26, 1970, the fiftieth anniversary of the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, the Women's Strike for Equality took place. Friedan's brainchild, this women’s rights demonstration was the largest that had ever occurred in the United States. Thousands of U.S. women marched in the streets for a day rather than working as housewives, secretaries, and waitresses, to show how poorly society would fare without women's labor and to demand three things for women: equal opportunity in employment and education, 24-hour child care centers, and legalized abortion. Although the media at the time portrayed the strike as frivolous or a result of female hysteria, their compulsion to pay the event any attention at all was a step forward for the women's movement.
One of the first females to ever make a historical change in American history was during the colonial times of America. Back in colonial times, women wore the long dresses with petticoats, along with a headdress to conceal their hair. Along with the fashion of the common women in the colonial era, women were refrained from speaking out. In fact, it was against the law to do so. Can anyone being a woman at that time period and seeing how sexist the men were being and could not take action for it? Who would voice out women's opinions about the new world and how we should live it? Anne Hutchinson did just that.
ReplyDeleteAnne Hutchinson was married and boar 15 children during this time. 15 children alone would give anyone inspiration to do anything to speak their opinion. Anne Hutchinson was also a very religious Puritan. She began preaching about the views of the church, since the church was run by an all MALE clergy. She believed that people should be able to communicate with God without the help of the ministers or the bible itself. At first, people thought that her views and opinions were valid, valid enough for her opinion to be improved by the governor at that particular time. However, since her religion was Puritan and the clergy were the most powerful figures above the governor, the church's view was completely different. They wanted to have Hutchinson suffer for voicing her views, since it was illegal for a woman to give her opinion to a higher authority, or a male in that matter. Since the clergy were afraid of a movement happening with Anne's views and opinions, she was exiled out of Massachusetts Bay.
After exile, Anne Hutchinson died during a Native American attack and never got an opportunity to spread her ideas. But, even though her life was too short lived, she was not only the first female to even voice reason publicly, but she began the path of Americans finding religious freedoms like the Great Awakening. As well as religious freedoms, Anne Hutchinson inspired women to speak up about what they feel is right or wrong, starting am era of women's rights.
http://pbskids.org/wayback/civilrights/features_hutchison.html
ReplyDeletehttp://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap1/hutchinson.html?all
Rosa Parks was one of the most influential people in the civil rights movement. She as a huge advocate for African American rights, but also the fact that she was a woman made her one of the most influential woman in our history as well. Someone with the nicknames like “the first lady of civil rights” and “the mother of the freedom movement must have had a huge impact on our history. Something that really sticks out to me is unlike many other women who were fighting for women’s rights in history Rosa Parks was fighting for African American rights. Rosa Parks during the civil rights movement was on a bus when a man had tried to take her seat, and send her to the back of the bus. When she refused to do this the bus driver also tried to tell her that she should move to the back. After a second refusal Rosa was arrested, and by her actions had started the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Although Rosa was not the first person to do this action her effect on the people was much stronger. Just by this one action it has sparked everyone else to fight against segregation and racism. Without Rosa Parks who know if Martin Luther King who had gained much of his national attention. The incident on the bus may seem small in retrospect, nut when you really think about the impact it had on our history it is realized how important it really was. After this Rosa Parks got a job working for the NAACP where she continued fighting for black rights.
ReplyDeleteWomens Strike for Equality. August 26, 1970
ReplyDeleteThe Women’s Strike for Equality was a nationwide demonstration for women’s rights held on August 26, 1970, the 50th anniversary of women’s suffrage. It was described by Time magazine as “the first big demonstration of the Women’s Liberation movement.” The Women’s Strike for Equality was organized by the National Organization for Women and its president Betty Friedan. At a NOW conference in March 1970, Betty Friedan called for the Strike for Equality, asking women to stop working for a day to draw attention to the prevalent problem of unequal pay for women’s work. She then headed the National Women’s Strike Coalition to organize the protest, which used “Don’t Iron While the Strike is Hot!” with many other slogans.
Fifty years after women were granted the right to vote in the United States, feminists were again taking a political message to their government and demanding equality and more political power. The Equal Rights Amendment was being discussed in Congress, and the protesting women warned politicians to pay attention or risk losing their seats in the next election.
Flappers
ReplyDeleteFlappers were the "New Women" of the roaring twenties. Between 1920 and 1929, America changed drastically due to WWI disillusionment, prohibition, women's suffrage, materialism, and music and fashion developments. These changes effected women's morals, attitudes, and actions. This era led to women independence. World War I gave women more independence because, with the men off at war, they were left behind to do work in the home and out of home. With constant devastation, the youth of the nineteen twenties was forced to live in the moment. This led to rebellious acts such as drinking and smoking. In addition, women gained independence from not only making their own money but from being eligible to vote as well. Their growing equality to men became apparent and women started to go out and spend money. Automobiles also became more popular, giving flappers the freedom of travel. Flappers also engaged in drinking, despite the prohibition of alcohol during the 1920's. This rebellious act proved that they were on the hunt for independence and were not going to be tamed. Flappers were viewed by the older generation to be wasting their energy towards corruption rather than bettering themselves. However, the flappers are what originally pushed the female population towards breaking free from restrictions. Flappers also created certain trademarks. They developed their own slang - the first noted slag developed by women - that was mocked by older generations. They also wore much more make up and refused the corsets that bound their mothers. Instead, they fashioned shorter skirts of dresses and short bobs for haircuts rather than long locks.
The flappers did more than just defy tradition. In the twenties, they symbolized the "flaming youth." They dared to be free, and ended up defying the norms of American society and making way for a new generation of women. Along the way, flappers certainly caused a brief uproar with their partying and shocking fashion statements. But for American history, they can be considered one of the most influential group of women for two main reasons: 1) they exemplified the roaring youth of the 1920's and the ramped discontentment of the "new youth identity" and 2) they inspired women to be strong rather than submissive in order to gain freedom and equality.
The most important of the women's rights movement was the Equal Rights Amendment. It is just one sentence that was combined with both the words of Lucretia Moss, the 15th, and the 19th amendment. The Amendment states, "Equality of rights under the law shall not be abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex." This amendment influenced the women's rights because it gave the protesters not only what they wanted, but it gave women the evidence on paper and pen that they are really free. Their fate of complete suffrage is similar to African American rights and freedoms.
ReplyDeleteEven though African Americans were reportedly treated worse than white females, no one knew what was going on in the homes. Before the ERA, women were brutally discriminated in the homes, antithetical to the Hollywood portrayal of women in their aprons baking pies as the kids run around the house and the husband coming home from work. Like the African Americans, women's full suffrage took years to accomplish.
The first evidence of women suffrage was the 19th amendment, stating that women were allowed to vote. Even though white females were able to do what they wished before the 19th amendment, they still wanted to be able to vote and voice their opinions on the candidates and the presidents that they will have in office. In order for women to vote, they had to wait after every other race could vote, which isn't fair at all. Women saw this and thought that the right to vote was not good enough for them.
The second one, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, is the act in which that it is unconstitutional to discriminate on the basis of sex, as well as race in hiring, promoting, and firing. This was another turning point because the Act had actually added sex last, making the women almost forgettable in the decision making of civil rights. Females at the time believed that the civil rights act was not beneficial to them, but the African Americans. They believed that they needed their own Act or Amendment so that they can use that and claim that female sexism is illegal and unconstitutional.
Finally, the ERA was set in motion. After years of parading around blocks about women equality, women finally received the opportunity to be virtually free from a male grip. Now, all men and women were equal and were counted as citizens as well, instead of a kitchen appliance. Women are no longer deemed as weak individuals, but strong in a sense that they can do anything as long as they put their minds to it like men can.
http://www.equalrightsamendment.org/era.htm
Deletehttp://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=true&doc=63
http://www.ushistory.org/us/57c.asp
http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/civil-rights-act/
Although major milestones for women’s role in society really took off during the 1960s and 1970s with the feminist movement, there were many previous actions that impacted their lives. In particular, starting in the 19th century, other types of work opportunities opened up for women, especially in the medical field when education for the practice of medicine became more popular. Nonetheless, gender discrimination often hindered women’s education. For example, women were not allowed to go to traditionally male medical schools. Also, the 1846 American Medical Association prohibited women from membership. As a solution, the first female medical school, Female Medical College of Pennsylvania, was established in 1850, which many women began to enroll in. Because the establishment of this college, by 1910, women were attending many top medical schools like the University of Michigan and the University of Iowa. Other women’s medical schools were created in major cities like Chicago, Boston, and Baltimore. The American Medical Association even started allowing female members in 1915. Despite these early accomplishments by women, it did not make a very significant change in society; only 5 percent of women were doctors by 1890. At the time, in the entire workforce, women were still often excluded. During the Antebellum period in America, for instance, women (as well as blacks) were often left out of the new reforms that improved education. Nonetheless, it was early successes like the establishment of the Female Medical College of Pennsylvania that were the roots of the women’s rights movement, further increasing their hunger for equality, resulting with even more effective accomplishments like the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibited both gender and racial discrimination in the workforce.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.homeoint.org/cazalet/histo/pennsylvfem.htm
This link provides further background on women’s medical schools in America and includes pictures as well.
Sarah Moore Grimke was one of the first women in American history to support abolition and women’s suffrage publicly. Born in 1792, Grimke was raised on her family’s Charleston, South Carolina plantation. Even at a young age, she was very headstrong in her beliefs. For instance, disgusted by the slavery that she saw growing up, she often rebelled against her family’s acts of slavery during her teen years. However, it wasn’t until she became a Quaker and moved to Philadelphia--a peaceful, anti-slavery society--that her activism really began. Her sister Angela even joined her years later. The two started off advocating for anti-slavery by given to public speeches to women of the American anti-slavery society, and her audiences eventually became larger--with both men and women. Contributing to the early idea of equality and women‘s suffrage, Sarah even wrote An Epistle to the Clergy of the Southern States and Letters on the Equality of the Sexes and the Condition of Woman in 1838, where she argued for an “continued domestic role” for women.
ReplyDeleteGrimke deliberately went against the norms of society to gain public awareness about what she believed in despite the fact that society was against it. For instance, during a time that slavery was rampant, there were many reasons people had to refute anti-slavery including the belief that the Bible supported it. In 1836 however, Grimke, a devoted Christian rejected this popular belief in support of slavery when she published "An Epistle to the Clergy of the Southern States". Also, in the state of opposition, she still publicly advocated for women even though it was taboo. There were times when her efforts ended in violence. For example, after a speech she gave to both women and men in Philadelphia, an angry mob attacked the building they were in and burned it the next day. The fact itself that a woman was publicly speaking clearly was not something that society was accustom to. Even so, it was Grimke’s determination that made a change in society, one that would encourage other women leaders to join the cause not only for their own rights but in the rights of others as well. During the Civil War, she supported the Union and urged other women to participate in the war effort. Perhaps, she had a contribution in the amount of women who worked as nurses and even fought in the war. After the war, she was still very active in the suffrage movement, and she died in Boston in 1873. Grimke’s contribution to women (and abolitionism) brought awareness about women and their capabilities, and she was one of the first introduced the idea of women emerging into the society.
http://avhs-apush.wikispaces.com/Grimke,+Sarah
http://www.teenink.com/nonfiction/academic/article/311698/Womens-Rights-and-The-Great-Awakening/
ReplyDeleteI would like to believe that one of the strongest events for women’s rights that happened was the Second Great Awakening. During the Second Great Awakening, the Temperance Movement, the Abolitionist Movement, and the Women’s Rights Movement all were closely surrounding each other and fueled by the revival of religious belief. The Second Great Awakening was the moment in America where there was a unified belief that purification should occur—that people should work to bring good into their land and homes through God.
Because of this idea, people began to go against slavery because they believed it to be immoral and that God did not want something so cruel to occur amongst us. Slavery hurt the African Americans and the Black Americans, and they were human. They deserved citizenship, they deserved equal rights. This idea helped root the one for women—if African Americans could become citizens and have equal rights, then so should women. African Americans were once thought as the “inferior race,” and women were as well. This allowed for the growth of the belief of an even playing field between women and men. Also, many people who were a part of the Abolitionist movement were a part of the Women’s Rights Movement. This is a continuation of the support between the groups because of religion.
Also because of this idea, people took the Temperance movement seriously. Alcohol was damaging to the human body and only made fools of men. Alcohol was highly discouraged, especially by women, because of what it made their husbands. Anti-alcohol was a part of helping women grow out of their shells. They were speaking for themselves and fought against alcohol to prevent further harm. Temperance was spoken of at the conventions; it was supported, alongside other domestic issues, such as property rights, equal wages, and marriage reform.
Zach Patronick
ReplyDeleteElizabeth Cady Stanton was an American abolitionist and leading figure of women’s rights movement. Stanton, along with many other women, made attempts to achieve more rights, freedom and general equality to others in the economy. One attempt was made during the Seneca Falls convention, which Stanton and many other women attended. The attendees drew up, with the help of Stanton and Lucretea Mott (another women’s rights activist), the ever so popular “Declaration of sentiments”. This declaration outlined basic natural rights that all women should be born with, and God-given equality, much like the Declaration of Independence. She is very significant to the history of women’s rights activists. With her help, women now had an entire document that outlined their natural rights in the American society. Later on in Stanton’s life, she became a lecturer and speech giver on women’s rights. She would travel around the country to inform largely populated areas on how crucial it is to bring equality along with men. She also led the attempt to establish an amendment in the constitution to allow women the right to vote.