Women Gain Rights in the Early 1900s

Women Gain Rights in the Early 1900s

• In the early 1900s, women sought to expand beyond traditional roles.

• Many women pursued higher education to become teachers and nurses.

• Women had previously achieved a shorter workday, but reformers aimed for more substantial changes.

National Consumers League (NCL)

• Florence Kelley founded the NCL due to her belief that unfair pricing of household goods harmed women and families.

• The NCL's activities included:

  • Labeling products from safe workplaces.

  • Advocating for government improvements in food and workplace safety.

  • Supporting the underemployed.

Women's Rights Movement

• Women continued to fight for various rights:

  • The right to vote.

  • The right to own property.

  • The right to receive an education.

• Despite not yet gaining the right to vote, there was a significant increase in women attending college.

Temperance Movement

• The Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) led the temperance movement.

• The goal was to reduce or eliminate alcohol consumption.

• Members believed alcohol led to abuse and neglect of families by men.

Birth Control

• Margaret Sanger advocated for fewer children per family.

• She believed it would improve family life and women’s health.

• Sanger opened the first birth-control clinic in the nation.

National Association of Colored Women

• Ida B. Wells established the National Association of Colored Women.

• The organization supported African American families through childcare and education.

Women's Suffrage Movement

• Women's suffrage, the right to vote, was a major goal of progressivism.

• The fight for suffrage, which began in the 1860s, was revitalized by Carrie Chapman Catt in the 1890s.

• Carrie Chapman Catt led the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) and:

  • She toured the country encouraging women to join NAWSA.

  • She lobbied Congress for the right to vote.

  • NAWSA used the referendum process to try to get women the vote in several states.

• By 1918, these strategies helped women gain the right to vote in several states.

• Alice Paul adopted more radical tactics, establishing the National Women’s Party (NWP) in 1917.

  • The NWP organized protest marches.

  • They staged hunger strikes.

  • They picketed the White House to demand voting rights.

Nineteenth Amendment

• When the U.S. entered World War I in 1917, NAWSA supported the war effort.

• The actions of both NAWSA and the NWP influenced legislators to support a women’s suffrage amendment.

• In 1920, the Nineteenth Amendment was ratified, granting women the right to vote for President.