Reconstruction period (1865-77)

Question 1

How did reconstruction impact AA women socially

Answer 1

• AA women gained legal freedom but faced segregation and discrimination
• many worked as domestic servants or sharecroppers in the south

Question 2

What was the ‘Cult of Domesticity’ and how did it impact women?

Answer 2

• reinforced the idea that women’s primary role was in the home as caregivers and moral guardians
• limited opportunities outside domestic life

Question 3

What role did women play in reform movements during reconstruction?

Answer 3

• women’s activism in abolition, temperance and education reforms grew massively
• still excluded from political rights

Question 4

What role did women play in benefitting AA women post abolition of slavery

Answer 4

• white women from the north travelled the South to help freed slaves, working as teachers in Freedmen’s schools
• Prominent female abolitionists like Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman continued advocating for women’s rights

Question 5

What was Women’s role in the temperance movement?

Answer 5

• many women felt alcohol abuse led to domestic violence, poverty and the breakdown of families
• Women’s Christian Temperance Union was formed in 1873 to promote prohibition
• successful in organising campaigns but excluded from political decision making

Question 6

what percentage of women were employed outside the home in 1870?

Answer 6

• only 13%
• mostly in textile mills, teaching and domestic services

Question 7

what type of jobs were available for women during this period

Answer 7

• factories
• domestic service
• nursing
• teachers

Question 8

What economic challenges did AA women face?

Answer 8

• forced into low-paying jobs
• often as sharecroppers or domestic workers

Question 9

How did the 14th amendment impact women?

Answer 9

• 1868
• granted citizenship to all persons born in the US
• explicitly defined ‘citizens’ as male, excluding women from political rights

Question 10

What was the impact of the 15th amendment on women

Answer 10

• 1870
• granted AA men the right to vote
• excluded women

Question 11

what were the main women’s suffrage groups during this period?

Answer 11

• American Woman Suffrage Association: supported 15th Amendment, believed women’s suffrage should come later
• National Women Suffrage Association: opposed 15th amendment unless women were included, led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony.

Question 12

What was the view by the American Woman suffrage association?

Answer 12

• moderate and less radical
• focused on gaining the vote for women at state level
• believed that supporting AA male suffrage was crucial, even if women had to wait for their own rights
• used petitions and lobbying rather than direct controversial

Question 13

What was the approach of the National Woman Suffrage Association?

Answer 13

• took a radical and confrontational approach
• argued it was unfair to grant voting rights for AA men while ignoring women
• saw US gov as sexist and discriminatory
• focused on a national constitutional amendment for women’s suffrage

Question 14

when was the Bradwell v Illinois case and why was it significant?

Answer 14

• 1873
• states could bar women from practicing law

Question 15

when was Minor v Happersett and what was decided

Answer 15

• 1875
• supreme court ruled women were citizens, but could not vote