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Republican Motherhood
riginally, women were called upon to run the household and help tend to the children. During the American Revolution, many women had helped nurse the wounded men, and others even fought with them. This was referred to as Republican Motherhood. After the war, women continued to have this attitude, and now had the drive to continue to aid the community, hold a job, and publicly express their opinions. -
Seneca Falls Convention
Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott held a convention in Seneca Falls NY to discuss the idea of women’s equality, and to convince others to legally support the integration of women into American society. The attendees helped to create a list of both sentiments against men, and resolutions, that if passed, would give legal power to American women. The sentiments consisted of respectable and accurate complaints against American men, and their control and oppression of women. -
Role of Women in Civil War
They held jobs that helped the men of the war, and they established themselves as a group that had the power to help the American people. Thousands of Civil War era women signed up to be both Union and Confederate nurses. The Union women had created the United States’ Sanitary Commission which brought aid to a vast amount of union soldiers. These commission women were so successful, that they ended up collecting almost 15 million dollars worth of supplies. -
Women's Roles in the Industrial Revolution
Finally women were able to enter the work force ina more dynamical and crucial way. They became important in society as opposed to just the home. They were working at textile mills as seamstresses and weavers. They also were able to get jobs as secretaries and use their skills in a more business-like enviornment. -
The New Woman
New Woman refers to middle and upper-middle class women who were more in the public and experiencing greater opportunities for education and public involvement. Females began to go out on evenings with their husbands, and began cycling. Women were dressed more casual and wore less clothes. Although they still had to wear pants on the beach, it was much more relaxed than pervious time periods. The New Woman of the Gilded Age changed the norm for women, giving them more freedom. -
National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA)
Created in 1890 by the merger of the two major rival women’s rights organizations The National Women Suffrage Association, and the American Women Suffrage Association. NAWSA was initially headed by past executives of the two merged groups, including Elizabeth Cady Staton, Lucy Stone and Susan B. Anthony. The strategy of the organization was to get enough states to vote in favor of suffrage amendments to force Congress to approve a federal am -
National Women’s Party
Alice Paul was a well-educated Quaker woman working and studying in England in 1907 when she became interested in the issue of women’s suffrage. an American women's organization formed in 1916 as an outgrowth of the Congressional Union, which in turn was formed in 1913 by Alice Paul to fight for women’s suffrage, ignoring all other issues. It broke from the much larger NAWSA. The NWP prioritized the passage of the nineteenth amendment, ensuring women's suffrage. They did -
Women's Activity in Social Reform
Many women during this time had started to get involved in both social and progressive reform. Specifically they fought for issues like Prohibition (Women's Christian Temperance Movement), Labor Regulation (Florence Kelley), Black Rights (Ida B. Wells), as well as women's freedoms (Margaret Sanger) -
Flappers!
Flappers were typically young, single women living in US cities. They wre likely to be found in a lot of makeup, short dresses, a bob- haircut and some type of bejewled headress. They were normally found in speakeasies and dances smoking the night away and having fun. These women were also able to partcipate in more recreation activities due to their less restrictive clothing, and continued to expose themselves to birth control, divorce, and their right to vote. -
Women Confined to the Home
During the entirety of the 1930's, women were often shut into the role as wife and mother. American society continued to promote the idea of the perfect American family as one with a father (the breadwinner) and the housewife (who stays home to tend to the house and children)
Minimal relief was offered to women during the Great Depression. Many agencies exluded women or did not actively take part in helping them. -
Women's Activity in WW2
While men were off fighting for the war, women took jobs in factories, businesses, and even in the forces themselves. Agencies like WASP (air force), WAVES (navy), and WAC (army) recruited women to help with the war effort. Propaganda like Rosie the Riveter told women on the homefront that it was important for them to take part in supporting the war. This successfully instilled pride in many women and helped changed social contructs by showing America that women were useful outside of the home. -
The Feminine Mystique
Book written by Betty Friedan attacking "the problem that has no name." This problem was teh despair that came from trying to be the perfect wife and mother but having no life of their own for satisfaction. This kicked off the third women's right/feminist movement. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title VII
Prohibited discrimination based on race, religion or GENDER -
National Organiztion for Women (NOW)
Founded by Betty Friedan. organization formed to work for economic and legal rights of women; demanded equality in educational and job opportunies, wages, and political representation; creation of childcare facilities; wanted Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) enforce its legal mandate to end sex discrimination -
Equal Rights Amendment
"Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any Statre on account of sex." Proposed in 1972 and supported by Alice Paul, it was passed by Congress but never got approval from 75% of the state legislatures. -
Roe v. Wade
Supreme Court Case ruled that a women has the right to have an abortion because a women should have the right to do what she deems best for her own body. It should be a decision between and women and her doctor, not the women and the government.
