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The Progressive Movement
The drive for economic and social reform had begun because of the 1879 book Progress and Poverty by Henry George. What happened was the problems with the United States increased. The number of poor people and the nation's wealth increased. -
Ella Flagg Young became Chicago's superintendent of schools
Her choices were limited when it came to choosing what she wanted to do. She was the first women to hold a job like that in a major city. She promoted public education by raising teachers' salaries. -
Rheta Childe Dorr wrote "What Eight Million Women Want"
Rheta Childe Dorr's book "What Eight Million Women Want" was a widely read book. The book also noted the special role of women in the reform movement. The book was about how women had started getting educated and getting more jobs, even in the lower class in the community. -
Triangle Shirtwaist Fire
A tragic event in 1911 highlighted the need for such reforms. On Saturday, March 25, some 500 employees, most of them young Jewish or Italian immigrant women were completing their six-day workweek at New York City's Triangle Shirtwaist Company. As they rose from their crowded work tables and started to leave, a fire erupted in a rag bin. Within moments the entire eighth floor of the 10-story building was ablaze. -
Progressive Party convention in Chicago
The party's platform supported women's suffrage and an end to child labor. One of the women were named Jane Addams, and she was a delegate of the party. She described her experience as a delagate as "It would have been much more unnatural if they had not been there, when such matters of a social welfare were being considered." -
Women working more for less
Almost half of the women who worked in such jobs as a factory workers, store clerks, and laundresses worked more for less. The women earned less than $6.00 a week. The Commission on Industrial Relations reported in 1916 that this salary means that every penny must be counted, every normal desire stifled, and each basic necessity of life barely satisfied.