Women Gilded Age

Question 1

Positive view

Answer 1

Economic diversification of the Gilded Age offered positive opportunities for women, particularly in certain industries and clerical work. Unmarried women in particular benefitted, and although Separate Spheres was the ideal, evidence shows many women did not conform to this

Question 2

Wyoming

Answer 2

Wyoming granted women the vote in 1869, Utah in 1870

Question 3

Prohibition

Answer 3

Prohibition and WCTU of 1874 gave women a foothold in political and public life
Membership was at 169,000 by 1880s
Frances Willard was able to exert political pressure via lobbying

Question 4

Populist party

Answer 4

Influence growing - many female activists involved e.g. Elizabeth Lease

Question 5

Supreme Court advance

Answer 5

In 1879, through special Congressional legislation, Belva Lockwood became the first woman admitted to try a case before the Supreme Court

Question 6

Increased property control

Answer 6

By 1900, every state had passed legislation modeled after New York’s Married Women’s Property Act of 1848
Granted married women some control over their property and earnings

Question 7

Female unionism increasing

Answer 7

‘Mother Jones’, a female unionist who struggled for mine workers resulted in female union membership increasing markedly
In 1881, the KOL offered support to women workers
Union membership was at 50,000 by mid 1880s

Question 8

Increased educational opportunities

Answer 8

Radcliffe College Harvard opened in 1879

First training school for nurses was set up in 1873 and by 1890 there were 35

Question 9

Mixed view

Answer 9

Some women (unmarried) certainly benefitted from more opportunities to enter the work force. However, married, poor and immigrant women suffered from even greater inequality. generally highlights economic progress, hut lack of political, social and reproductive progress.

Question 10

Limit of temperance campaigns

Answer 10

WCTU was largely viewed as an extension of the woman’s role to protect the home and their duty to serve the family 
Was made up of predominantly upper/middle class women

Question 11

Lack of rural progress

Answer 11

Continuity in less rural areas where female activism was more focused on charitable work

Question 12

Woman in white collar work

Answer 12

By the 1890s, women could work white-collar jobs and earn $7/week doing so
However, there was no career path available to them

Question 13

Negative view

Answer 13

Gender inequality enshrined in any new opportunities. Progression from household and agricultural economy to separate factories separated the concept of ‘separate spheres. Politics dominated by men, and ongoing women’s campaigns largely ignores

Question 14

Minor v. Happersett

Answer 14

In 1875, the SC declared that despite the privileges and immunities clause, a state can prohibit a woman from voting

Question 15

Suffrage divisions

Answer 15

NWSA and AWSA were divided in both their demographics and their aims
This weakened the suffrage movement significantly and continued to jeopardise their efforts until NAWSA where they merged

Question 16

Susan B Anthony’s failure

Answer 16

Susan B Anthony and 150 other women attempted to test the 14th and 15th Amendments in 1871 by attempting to vote
They were arrested and trialed for elective malpractice

Question 17

Immigration

Answer 17

Large levels of immigration lowered wages considerably which in turn saw the development of a wage gap

Question 18

Gender pay gap

Answer 18

A 1890 Bureau of Labour study of 800 men and women showed a gender pay gap of 57%
Even larger in southern factories

Question 19

Limits of unionism

Answer 19

Unions often did not champion the role of women

AFL in particular

Question 20

Sexual harassment

Answer 20

Sexual harassment at the workplace was rife

15 year old Fanny Hyde killed her boss over this

Question 21

Limited access to higher education

Answer 21

By the turn of the century, only 4% of women gained access in the state of South Carolina

Question 22

Lack of rights for marginal female groups

Answer 22

As young white women left the factory floor, their places in the factories were increasingly taken by young immigrant women - European, Hispanic and some African American women whose experience of work was very different

As cheap, unskilled workers, unprotected by legislation, their working conditions were poor, their hours long, and their wages low

By the end of the nineteenth century, immigrant factory workers had to work, on average, 70 hours to earn just $5

Question 23

Issues of mechanisation of farming

Answer 23

The mechanisation of farming at the end of the nineteenth century not only reduced the need for a large workforce but ensured that farm work became a male preserve as the new technology was unsuitable for female operatives

Question 24

Bad conditions for poor women

Answer 24

Working class married women, in need of money to augment the family income, were frequently exploited by devious entrepreneurs who bought old tenement buildings and obliged their home workers to live there
No right in law protecting women in the workplace

Question 25

Decreasing birth rates

Answer 25

Decrease in average birth rates from 5.42 in 1850 to 3.56 in 1900
This was largely caused by middle class families who practiced some form of birth control to ensure the reduction in family size
Immigrant families still remained large (6-8 children)

Question 26

Co-ed colleges

Answer 26

By 1870, 30% of colleges were co-educational

Question 27

High school graduation progress

Answer 27

By 1900, half of high school graduates were women

Question 28

Hull House

Answer 28

Jane Addams established Hull House in Chicago in 1889 as a social centre to support the settlement of newly arrived immigrant families

Question 29

NCL

Answer 29

In 1899, Addams set up the National Consumers’ League (NCL), which successfully exerted pressure for the improvement of the wages of female sales clerk and the implementation of protective legislation for women and children in the workplace

Question 30

NACW

Answer 30

The National Association of Colored Women (NACW) was formed in 1896, and had 50,000 members by 1916
Unlike white women, black women suffered racial prejudice as wekk as gender discrimination, and as such any concern with social issues was dominated by campaigns for the acquisition of civil rights

Question 31

Successful strike

Answer 31

The Collar Laundry of Troy

successfully struck for higher wages in the 1860s.

Question 32

Legal protection

Answer 32

Although lacked regulations in general, by 1900 36% states had protection over women’s working hours.