Women context Flashcards
Margaret Sanger
Campaigned for birth control in the progressive era, opening the first birth control clinic in 1916
The married women’s property act
Guaranteed women the right to own property separate from their husbands
Began to be rolled out across individual states in 1839
1887: 1/3 states had not provided statuatory protection for married women to control earnings
Muller v Oregon 1908
Restricted the working hours of women
During Gilded age three US states granted married women the right to control earnings
Cult of domesticity
Providing value system among the upper and middle class
Emphasised new ideas of femininity, the woman’s role within the home and dynamics of work and family
4 cardinal virtues:
- Piety
- Purity
- Domesticity
- Submissiveness
Coverture
Married women’s legal existence was considered to be merged with that of her husband
No independent legal existence of her own
Reconstruction era
- After the war, there was a great surge for education among the women - great need for women to find paid employment
- Suffrage movement started - white women abandoned African Americans
- Victoria Woohull - announced her candiancy, first women run for President
- Asked to present before congress in 1891 for Suffrage but was rejected by majority vote
Gilded age
- Many upper class women were not content with the cult domescity
- Frances Willead, President of the Women’s Chrostian Temperance Union - nations foremost prohibition organisation
- Settlement house movement - immgrants could go when they had nobody else
- By 1900 there was nearly 100
Progressive era
- Political and social activism provided a break from traditional roles and make contribution to public life
- Women of diverse age, class, race and social status
- Margaret Sanger
- Charlotte Hawkins Brown worked to ensure black children recieved good eduation
- Florence Kelly fought for laws that protected women in the workplace
WW1
- First war where American women were allowe to enlist in the armed forces
- Initial resistance to hiring women for jobs done by men
- Middle and upper class women participated in voluntary organisations - more free time
- Working class women were generally the and enlisiting in the armed forces
- The were protests for peace
The Great Depression
- First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt wrote “It’s up to the women”
- Inspirational and practical handbooks
- Meal plans and recipies
- Black women had less job opportunities than white women
