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Anne Hutchinson
Co-founder, along with Roger Willliams, of Providence Plantations Rhode Island, Hutchinson was an antinomian, someone who believed that only God's law needed to be followed and not man's. Considered a threat to the Massachusetts Bay Colony, advocating ideas of "heresy," she was thrown out of the colony due to her dissenting religious ideas. -
Women's Temperance Reform Movement
An antebellum reform movement, temperance promoted less drinking of alcohol. The movement was lead by a great amount of women, and they were generally successful in reducing alcohol consumption. -
Harriet Tubman
One of the most famous Underground Railroad workers, an informal, constantly changing network of escape routes for slaves to the North, Tubman was a remarkable woman for her courage and strength, helping about 300 slaves escape to freedom. -
Oberlin College
Oberlin College in Ohio became the first college to admit women. -
Grimke Sisters
Angelina and Sarah Grimke were the daughters of southern slavehoders who became female spokeswomen for black rights and the anti-slavery movement. -
Cult of Domesticity
A movement that urged women to remain in their home environment and not pursue outside work. It claimed that a women's place was in the home as a mother. It enforced republican motherhood, piety, purity, domesticity, and submissiveness. -
Women's Rights Movement
Led by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabth Cady Stanton, the women's rights movement fought for more rights and liberties for American women. -
Sewing Machines and Women
Sewing machines were patented by Elias Howe in 1846, however, Isaac Singer's Singer Sewing Machine Company became the largest manufacturer of dewing machines. This ground-breaking invention offered relief of countless hours and tedium of han sewing for women. At this point in history, women were seen as masters of domesticity, belonging in the home doing tasks such as sewing. -
Seneca Falls Convention
It issued the Women's Declaration of Independence known as the "Declaration of Sentiments." It basically created a gender neutral Declaration of Independence and made women equal participants in the American experience. -
Sojourner Truth
A freed slave from New York, Truth gave passionate speeches on black and women's rights. One of her most famous women's rights speeches was called "Ain't I a Woman?" -
Dorothea Dix
A woman who devoted much of her life to reforming prisons and insane asylums in America. -
Young Women's Christian Association
The YWCA, the female version of the well-known YMCA, was an association that provided housing and a nursery for young women and their children during the countries attempt to battle the nation's poverty and provide relief. The intent also enforced moral improvement, initiating curfews and not allowing drinking. -
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Author of the bestselling book Uncle Tom's Cabin, Stowe published it as a response to the Fugitive Slave Law. The story humanized slaves in a way Americans had never seen before, demonstrating the evils of slavery. Banned in the South, but second bestselling book in America, it played a significant part in continuing the separation of the nation. -
School Voting Rights
Nebraska permitted woman the right to vote in school elections. -
Women's Suffrage advocates
NLU founder invited Women's sufferage advocates Susan D. Anothony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton to the 1868 NLU convention. -
Voting Rights
The Wyoming territory became the first place in America to give woman suffrage. This right was established by the assitance of woman's rights advocates Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. -
"The American Woman's Home"
Catharine Beecher's advice book expressed the typical Victorian World View on the importance of proper manners, of particurally women, at this time. This Victorian view, present since the 1830s but still just as influential towards the end of the century, rested on the ideas that human nature was pliant, that the social value of work must be enforced, and finally, that manners and interest in the arts and literature define a truly respectable upper-class American. -
Working class single women
By 1870, 13% of all women worked outside the home, the majority as cooks, maids, cleaning ladies, and laundresses. Young, working class, single women often viewed working in a factory as an opportunity. However, in the last quater of the 19th century, women started abonding domestic employment and taking jobs in the textile, food-processing, and garment industries. -
Voting Rights
Women were enfranchised in the Utah territory. This was also reaffirmed when Utah achieved statehood shortly after. -
Women Immigration and Migration
The growing industrialization of cities in the United States in the late 19th century resulted in demand for thousands of new workers. Companies promised good wages and job variety. Young farmers, escpecially single women, were drawn from the countryside and migrated to urban living. Single immigrants, particurally Irish women, also immigrated rapidly to America in this time and sent their earnings back to their familys. -
Woman's Christian Temperance Union
The WCTU was founded by Frances Willard, a woman strongly in favor of the expansion of social and political roles for women. A supporter of temperance, the union's most famous quote was, "lips that touch liquor shall not touch ours." It eventually became the nations first mass organization of women. -
School Voting Rights
Colorado permitted women the right to vote in school elections. -
The Cult of Domesticity
The cult of domesticity, the middle-class' expectation of the women's role within the home, had been present since the 1840s. The view labeled a home as "the woman's sphere" and their "natural field of labor." However, during the 1880s and the 1890s, the new obligation of fostering an artisitic atmosphere was added to women's traditional role. For the majority of the middle class, most of whom followed this idea, homes became statements of cultural aspirations. -
Upper and Working Class Women's Liesure
During the time period known as the "GIlded Age," both men and women, both wealthy and poor, found ways and places to relax. For wealthy women, their havens were generally department stores and conert halls, both relatively new, popular attractions. The working class women retreated to social clubs, dance halls, amusement parks, and took interest in vaudeville shows. The different forms are liesure is one prominent example of the separation of social classes at this time. -
The New Woman
During the Gilded Age, the development of a new type of woman, independent, and self-sufficient, took America by storm. The ideal woman was represented by "the Gibson Girl" and this image inluenced women began to push the traditional standard for their gender. Women's fashion became more risque and the invention of the bike was a craze. Higher education for women began to become accepted and their participation in politics increased. Ideas about marriage shifted. Women were transforming. -
"A Century of Dishonor"
A famous book written by Helen Hunt Jackson in an effort to rally the public in unity to oppose the government's broken treaties with the Native Americans. It made a point of all Indian and American encounters demonstrating our faults and errors against them and the "dark stain" our history with the Indian's holds. -
New York Charity Organization
During America's search to find ways to fight poverty, Josephine Shaw Lowell founded the COS, a more "scientific approach" to assist the poor. The strong willed American woman led the division of New York City into districts and sent people to councel families on how to live their lives to the fullest. -
Women's National Indian Rights Association
One of many humanitarian groups founded in responce to the Indian Wars and the United State's government's violations of Indian treaties. Founders Mary Bonney and Amelia Stone Quinton advocated assimilation and chrsitinization of Indians. -
Women and the Knights of Labor
Terrace Powerly welcomed women into the Knights of Labor. By 1886 women organizers such as Mary Harris Jones had recruited thousands of workers. Though this was extremely radical, women made up an estimated 10 percent. -
Jane Addam's "Hull House"
During the 1880s , settlement houses began to sprout up around the country. A settlement house, an institution in a city providing educational, recreational, and other social services to recent immigrants, in which the middle-class lived amongst the poor, was a new insitution. Jane Addam's Hull House isnChicago was one of the most well known. The Hull House had high sanitation regulations and encouraged politicians to enforce regulations as well. -
Women's Higher Education
During the late 19th century, more colleges began to enroll increasing numbers of women. Columbia, Brown, and Harvard admitted women to the affiliated insitutions Barnard (1889), Pembroke (1891), and Radcliffe (1894). Between 1880 and 1890, colleges admitting women increased from 30 to 71 percent. By the end of the 19th century, women made up more than 1/3 of the total collegiate population. -
General Federation of Women's Clubs
The expanding women's clubs allowed middle and upper-class woman a place of leisure. The GFWC was involved is social-welfare projects, public library expansions, and tenant reforms. The organization had 495 affiliates and a hundred thousand members. -
"Girl Homesteaders"
Unintended consequences of railroad companies attracting inhabitants farther west through mass land sales for low costs were "girl homesteaders", or single women assuming land. In Wyoming, 18 percent of the applicants for land were women. -
NAWSA
In 1900, Carrie Chapman Catt succeeded Susan B. Anothony as president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association. -
The Mann Act of 1910
Made the transportation of women across state lines for "immoral purposes" illegal. Basically, it attempted to stop prostitution. This was a big goal of the WCTU (Women's Christian Tempurance Union). -
The Triangle Shirtwaste Factory Fire
In the Triangle Shirtwaist factory of 1911, 141 young people, mostly women, died. -
Women's Party
Alive Paul founded the Women's Party to enact a women's suffrage amendment. -
Divorce rate
Women liberating themselves from unhealthy relationships becomes more common with the divorce rates cliimbing from 1 in 12 in 1900 to 1 in 9 by 1916. -
Women's Suffrage Referendem
A huge victory for women suffragettes when New York voters approved a Women's Suffrage Referendem. -
Recorded women in white collared jobs
The amount of women in white-collared jobs surged from 949,000 in 1900 to 3.4 million in 1920. Women ith a college education, although still small, more than tripled in this twenty-year period. -
Skirt lengths, hair length, and the all around new woman.
All throughout the 1920s women were liberated in more ways than just the right to vote. Skirt lengths crept up, hair was chopped to a bob, sex was talked about more freely, and the stereotype flapper came to be. -
Birth Control League
Margaret Sanger founded the organization, opened up the first birth control clinic in Brooklyn, and started multiple journals including the women rebel and birth control review. -
The Sheppard-Towner act
Funded rural prenatal and baby-care centers staffed by public health nurses. -
Women and the Depression
Through much of the depression era, the female jobless rate stood at more than 20%. Women faced the harsh criticism of working, being accused of stealing jobs from unemployed men. They were also often forced to deal with wage discrimination. However, some view the crises as having accelerated the long-term movement of getting women into the workplace. -
Women and Hollywood
While many films continued to demonstrate women's traditional role, others began to lose the stereotype. Joan Bennett in "The Wedding Present" (1936) played a strong willed, professional woman. Carol Lombard in "My Man Godfrey" (1936) played a comedian. Mae West in "I'm No Angel" even poked fun and mocked stereotypes, playing a sexual, independent female. -
Women in the workplace
By 1930, some 2 million women were working in corporate offices. -
Women in college
Female high-school graduates going on to college edged upward, reaching 12 percent by 1930. -
Frances Perkins
Secretary of Labor, Frances Perkins ,under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, becomes the first female cabinet member in American history. -
Frances Perkins Elected
In 1933 Roosevelt appointed Perkins as Secretary of the Department of Labor, a position she held for twelve years, longer than any other Secretary of Labor. She became the first woman to hold a cabinet position in the United States and thus, became the first woman to enter the presidential line of succession. -
First Lady Eleanor
Eleanor began writing a syndicated newspaper column, "My Day." -
Democratic Women and Molly Dewson
The democratic party, particularly under FDR, was greatly supported by women. Molly Dewson, head of the Democratic party's women's division supported FDR, and his New Deal, greatly. While Dewson did advocate more women in federal policy-level postions, she promoted the best interests of both genders. Through her efforts, the the 1936 Democratic platform committee had a 50-50 gender balance. -
General Motors sit-down strike
A women's auxilary organized by wives, sisters, daughters, and fellow strikers fed the strikers, set up a speakers bureau, and marched through downtown Flint. -
Dorothea Lange
Dorothea Lange, employed by the New Deal's Farm Security Administration, was a Great Depression photographer. Her documentations revealed the true effects of the depression and the New Deal and eventually became icons of the era. -
Anna "Grandma" Moses
79 year old female artist Anna Moses' work became quite famous and was featured at New York's Museum of Modern Art in 1939. -
Women wage workers
Before the war, most females wage earners had been young and single. In contrast, 75 percent of new women workers were married, 60 percent over were over thirty five and 33 percent had children under the age of fourteen. -
Rosie the Riveter
Memoralized in a song, "rosie the Riveter" symbolized the women war workers who assumed jobs in heavy industry to take up the slack for the absent 15 million men in the armed services. -
Rosie the Riveter Examples
On the Pacific Coast, over one-third of workers in ship and aircrafter building were workers -
Gender Discrimination
Only 65% of what men made in similar fields-They were only there as a temporary substitute until men came back -The nation believed it is mother’s primary duty to children and home not leave “eight hour orphan”-Employment of women would cause family to disintegrate -
Attempting to break Gender Roles
Women were now seen donning pants, with hair in bandana's. They were rebelling against the societal emphises on "femininity" and "masculinity". In 1942, women were really urged into the workforce for war production by the government. This completely reversed a decade of efforts to exclude women. -
"What's become of Rosie the Riveter?"
After the end of World War 2, women began to return to more traditional jobs and roles. They were urged to fulfill duties within the home and the "rosie the riveter" of the World War 2 era slowly diminished. -
Baby Boom
The end of the war started what was known as the "baby boom." Caused by many factors, such as men returning from a long, hard-fought war, marriages at younger ages, economic prosperity, and popular culture, fertility rates were at the highest in history and a mass amount of children were being born. In 1957, a baby was born every 7 seconds. -
"Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care"
This book, by Dr. Benjamin Spock, was one the the most famous of the 1950s, outsold only by the Bible. 1950s women depended on this book to raise their children well. It urged women not to work outside the home but rather to focus their energy on their duties in the household. The book taught women the CORRECT way to raise their children and go about motherhood. -
Domesticity
The 1950s saw a return of the traditional women's role within the home. The 1950s, the age of the stereotypical housewife, glorified marriage and parenthood through popular culture. Women were not encouraged to pursue higher education or work outside the home, but rather were seem as the most useful running the household and taking care of the children. -
Women and higher education
Women were not encouraged to pursue higher education. While there was a higher percentage of women graduating from high school than men, more men attended college than women. Almost 2/3 of women failed to complete their college degree in this era. -
Women in the workforce
Despite persuasion of women to return to domesticity, and though many did, increasing numbers of women entered the work force in the 1950s. By 1952, 2 million more women worked outside the home than during the war and by 1960, 1/3 of the labor force was made up of women. -
"Togetherness" and the "Ideal Couple"
Men and women began to marry younger and centered their lives around their home and kids. Many families migrated to the suburbs to raise their families. One out of three women were married by the age of 19. This contributed to the "baby boom" of the 1950s. -
Rosa Parks
FIghting for civil rights for African Americans, and rebelling against the segregation of blacks within the bus system, she refused to give up her seat for a white man to sit and was arrested, -
Birth Control Pill
"The Pill" gave women the power to control their bodies more than ever before. It gave women a greater freedom to be sexually active without the risk of pregnancy. -
JFK and women
While Kennedy expressed ideas of New Liberalism during his short presidency, few liberal ideas were actually acted upon. Regarding women, JFK appointed fewer women to high-level positions than presidents before him and was the first presdient since Hoover not to have a woman in the cabinet. -
Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring"
Female author Rachel Carson published the book "Silent Spring" about the dangers and effects of pesticides on the environment. It was one of the contributing factors to many laws and acts later passed by the government to improve environmental conditions. -
Betty Friedan's "The Feminine Mystique"
Written in 1963, Friedan's book expored society's view of women that they should seek fulfillment soley as wives and mothers. It questioned the Cult of Domesticity and made women ask themselves the question "is this all?". Her message really hit home with many middle class women -
Presidential Commission on the Status of Women
Documented occupational inequities suffered by women that were very similar to those suffered by minorities. Some of these things were less pay for equal work and less chance of moving into professional careers. The commission successfully urged the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to prohibit gender based discrimination in employment as well as racial. -
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)
Created by the 1964 civil rights act, the EEOC enforced the ban on job discrimination by race, religion, national origin, or sex. -
Griswold v. Connecticut
A landmark case that greatly effected women across the nation and gave them more privacy and control over their bodies, this Supreme Court case overturned state bans on contraceptive methods. -
National Organization for Women (NOW)
Created by Betty Friedan, Bella Azbug, and Aileen Hernandez, NOW was a civil rights group for women, which sought liberal change through the political system. They lobbied for equal opportunity, filed lawsuits against gender based discrimination, and voiced opinion against sexism. -
Founding of NOW
The National Organization for Women is the largest organization of feminist activists in the United States. NOW's goal has been "to take action" to bring about equality for all women. Both the actions NOW takes and its position on the issues are principled, uncompromising and often ahead of their time. -
"Consciousness-raising"
Technique adopted by women as a recruitment device and a means of transforming women's perception of themselves and society. It allowed women to relate to other women by hearing stories and realized that they're not alone in their feelings. It opened many eyes and minds of women. -
Sexual Revolution
Recreational Sex was promoted more than ever before with products such as "the pill". Women's periodicals encouraged women to engage in recreational sex. -
Women's Strike for Equality
The largest women's rights demonstration ever, it was commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of woman suffrage, and brought out thousands of women all over the country to parade for the right to equal employment and safe and legal abortions. -
The National Women's political causcus
This promoted the feminest agenda to great lengths. By 1972, many states had liberalized their abortion laws and outlawed gender discrimmination. -
Equal Rights Amendment of 1972
Congress passed and equal rights amendment barring discrimmination based on sex. When 28 states quickly ratified it, ultimate adoption seemed assured. -
Roe vs. Wade
In the landmark case Roe vs. Wade, the SUpreme Court proclaimed women's constitutional right to abortion by a 7 to 2 vote. The decision gave women broad abortion rights in the first trimester of pregnancy, in consulation of a physician, while granting states more regulatory authority as the pregnancy progressed. -
Elaine Noble
An avowed lesbain wona seat in the massechusetts legisature. -
Cut-off of funding for abortions
In 1976, congress was not providing medicaid funding for abortions, this included the poor. Most femisits adopted the pro-choice stance saying that women shouldbe able to control how the want to use their bodies, not the government. -
The Second Stage
A book written by Betty Friedan urged women to add family protection to their agenda. Additionally, the women's movenment splintered in the late 1970s due to Leaders, like betty friendan, who opposed lesbians. -
Women in the workplace late 1990's
the proportion of women working outside the home in 1992 rose to 60 percent from 35 percent in 1965. by 1990 the legal and medical profession was nearly 20 percent women, while growing ranks of female medical and law students promised even more dramatic change in the future.
