Women in the late 19 th Century

1. Women in the late 19th Century

2. Working Conditions 1890s: • More than a million women joined work force • Single • Jobs depended on race/class/ethnicity • Long hours, low pay, advancement limited • Black women- domestic services • Immigrant women- clustered in particular industries

3. Memorable Women • Jane Addams & Lillian Wald: settlement houses  became centers of women’s activism and social reform • Florence Kelly: led lobby for Illinois  anti-sweatshop law- protected women workers/ prohibited child labor • Florence Kelly: led lobby for Illinois  anti-sweatshop law- protected women workers/ prohibited child labor • Charlotte Perkins Gilman: Women and Economics- classic in feminist literature (Called on women to abandon their dependent status an contribute more to society through productive involvement in the economy.) • Mary Baker Eddy: 1879 she founded Church of Christ, Scientist

4. Feminists demand the right to vote • 1890 - National American Women Suffrage Association • Elizabeth Cady Stanton • Susan B. Anthony • 1900 - new generation of woman suffragists • Carrie Chapman Catt

5. Suffrage continued… • Wyoming territory: first unrestricted suffrage to women in 1869 • General Federation of Women’s clubs • Suffrage movement and other women’s organizations excluded black women • Ida B. Wells inspired black women to launch a nationwide anti-lynching crusade • Also helped establish the National Association of Colored Women in 1896

6. Women and Prohibition • 1874: Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) • Women joined the fight against alcohol and helped bring about Prohibition

7. Other Important Facts • Clara Barton helped establish the American Red Cross in 1881 • By 1700 every 4th college graduate was a woman • Kate Chopin and Emily Dickinson were literary figures • Soaring divorce rates, the spreading practice of birth control, increasingly frank discussion of sexual topics