Women's Rights 1865–1920

1. Women's Rights 1865–1920

2. Objectives Describe how women won the right to vote. Identify the new opportunities that women gained during the Progressive Era. Explain how the temperance movement gained strength during the early 1900s.

3. Terms and People Carrie Chapman Catt– leader of the women’s movement who devised a strategy to win suffrage suffragist – person who worked for women’s right to vote Alice Paul– suffragist who worked for a constitutional amendment guaranteeing women the right to vote

4. Terms and People(continued) Frances Willard– president of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union prohibition – a ban on the sale and consumption of alcohol

5. How did women gain new rights? At the turn of the century, women gained new rights by laboring in fields and factories, working as reformers, and petitioning the government for equality.

6. Women continued to struggle for equality in the professional world. By 1900, there were: Slowly, more and more women gained the advanced degrees needed to enter a profession. • 1,000 women lawyers • 7,000 women doctors

7. Women made important contributions as reformers,tackling many difficult issues of the day. • Raised money for libraries, schools, and parks • Demanded pure food and drugs • Pressed for laws protecting women and children • Boycotted goods produced by children • Investigated conditions in sweatshops • Worked to end segregation and violence against African Americans

8. Many women took a leading role in the temperance movement, favoring prohibition. They hoped to convince others of what they believed were the moral evils of alcohol.

9. Frances Willard, the president of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, called for states to ban the sale of alcohol. Carrie Nation took more violent actions, storming into saloons and smashing liquor bottles.

10. In 1917, Congress passed the Eighteenth Amendment, enforcing prohibition. Eighteenth Amendment • The amendment was ratified by the states in 1919.

11. By far, however, the most important goal of women reformers was women’s suffrage. The Seneca Falls Convention of 1848 marked the start of an organized women’s movement, which continued after the Civil War. • Founded by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony in 1869 • Pushed for a constitutional amendment giving women the right to vote National Woman Suffrage Association

12. In the West, where women worked alongside men, women won the right to vote before 1900. As more and more women began to work outside the home, support for women’s suffrage grew across the nation.

13. Though some women could vote in state and local elections, many still could not vote in federal elections. Calls continued for an amendment allowing women in all the states to vote in all elections. Most politicians, however, opposed women’s suffrage.

14. In the early 1900s, a new generation of suffragistssuch as Carrie Chapman Catt took up the campaign to win the vote. She and her supporters devised a plan to win suffrage state by state.

15. One by one, states in the West and Midwest gave women the right to vote.

16. The suffragist Alice Paultook her protests to the White House. President Wilson eventually pledged his support.

17. Finally, in 1919, Congress passed the Nineteenth Amendment, guaranteeing women the right to vote. Nineteenth Amendment • The amendment was ratified by the states in 1920.

18. The Nineteenth Amendmentdoubled the number of eligible voters. Some people saw women’s suffrage as the final victory, while others saw it as one step on the road to full equality.