Women and Reform

1. Women and Reform Chapter 4 Section 3

2. Women’s Role in the Mid-1800s The Cult of Domesticity In the Early 19th Century Women referred to their limited role in society as The Cult Of Domesticity. In this time period women were unable to work and be independent after they were married, after marriage women were restricted to housework and/ or childcare.

3. The Limited Role Of Women In the early 1800s women were not allowed to sit on juries even if they were taxpayers. In addition any property/money a woman acquired prior to her marriage went to her husband once she was married. If a woman’s marriage were to break up she did not have the right to keep custody of the children.

4. Statistics As of 1850 only one in five women had eared wages before getting married and only one in ten single women worked outside of the home. If a woman were to attain a job outside of the home her wages would be half of those given to a man doing the same job.

5. Women Mobilize for Reform Women Abolitionists • An Appeal to Christian Women of the South, written by Angelina Grimke from SC (1836) • Instructed women to “overthrow this horrible system of oppression and cruelty” • Women abolitionists: • Raised $ • Distributed literature • Collected signatures for petitions to Congress

6. Working for Temperance • Temperance Movement – the effort to prohibit the drinking of alcohol • American Temperance Society founded in 1826 • Held rallies • Made pamphlets • Declined the consumption of alcohol

7. Education for Women • Until 1820s American girls had few educational opportunities open to them after elementary school • Troy Female Seminary – opened in 1821 by Emma Willard in Troy, NY • Became nation’s first academically rigorous schools for girls • Mount Holyoke Female Seminary – 1837 by Mary Lyon in South Hadley, MA • 1837 – Ohio’s Oberlin College became nation’s first fully coeducational college (admitted 4 women to its degree program) • 1831 – white Quaker, Prudence Crandall, opened a girls school in Canterbury, CT and admitted a black girl. Caused too much controversy, so it was changed to an all black girls school. This caused even more protest against desegregated education that the school was closed

8. Women and Health Reform • Educated women began to work for health reforms by the mid-19th century • Elizabeth Blackwell • 1849 - first woman to graduate from medical college • Opened the New York Infirmary for Women and Children • Women were often unhealthy because of their lack of bathing, exercise, and restrictive corsets that made it hard for them to breathe • Amelia Bloomer • Publisher of a temperance newspaper • Rebelled by wearing loose-fitting pants tied at the ankles covered by a short skirt: “bloomers” • Men were outraged by Bloomer’s trend of women wearing pants

9. Women’s Rights Movement Emerges • Reform toward women’s rights grew as opportunities for women increased with industrialization • 1848- Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott organized the Seneca Falls Convention where the Declaration of Sentiments was formed. • Mimicked the Declaration of Independence, addressing the faults of man against woman • 300 men and women came to the convention at Wesleyan Methodist Church and almost all parts of the declaration were voted unanimously in favor of a positive change for women • All parts excluding the right to vote

10. Sojourner Truth • Worked to improve social conditions in the mid-19th century • Sojourner was a slave for 30 years • She traveled the country preaching and arguing for abolition • 1951- attended a women’s rights convention and urged men to give women their rights • Women were constant workers just like men, therefore they deserve the same rights