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Ch. 8 - Women in the Progressive
Era, 1890-1920
History 37
Summer, 2014
Questions to consider:
• Who were the Progressive Era reformers and
what were their goals?
• Why were Progressive reformers
predominantly women?
• Why was the women’s suffrage movement
finally successful in 1920?
• What were the limitations of the Progressive
Era? What are its legacies?
Social Darwinism
• Social theory advanced by
sociologist Herbert Spencer
(pictured) in the 1870s-1880s
• “Survival of the Fittest” – in
the struggle for resources,
humans who are better
equipped physically and
psychologically will succeed.
• In other words: there is a
genetic component to success
– Why might this ideology be
problematic?
The Progressive
Era, 1890 - 1917
• Goals: Progressive reformers
hoped to bring about social
and political change. Also
concerned with social control
and modernization.
• Male reformers vs. female
reformers
• Areas of reform:
– Political corruption/public
“housekeeping”
– Labor issues (including child
labor)
– women’s suffrage
– Public health (includes
“Americanization” and
modernization)
– Birth control
Areas of activism/reform: Labor
• With the exception of the IWW (Wobblies),
most labor unions excluded women wage
earners from union membership.
• Women’s Trade Union League (WTUL) formed
to address the needs of working-class wage
workers (exploitation, sexual harassment,
issues of working mothers, etc.)
• Muller v. Oregon (1908) establishes a
precedent for sex discrimination in labor laws.
Areas of activism/reform:
Labor (cont.)
• Unions like the
WTUL helped
organize and
support strikes (ex.
NYC shirtwaist
industry in 19091910).
• The Triangle
Shirtwaist fire in
1911 (pictured)
highlights the
continuing need for
labor activism
Areas of activism/reform: Public
Health
• Hygiene, sanitation, cleanliness – anxiety
about disease (especially foreign diseases
from “dirty immigrants”) helps spur the
movement for improvements in local and
national public health/water issues.
• Food safety standards: no regulations exist
before the Progressive Era!
– Pure Food and Drug Act, 1906
The Birth Control
Movement (Margaret
Sanger, circa 1914)
• Social and political activist;
regarded as the founder of
modern birth control
movement
– Founded first BC clinic in
1916; the inception of
Planned Parenthood in 1921
• Published multiple columns
and pamphlets on basic sex
education (in violation of
federal law)
• Controversy and legacy
Eugenics, 1880s – 1960s
• The “science” of human genetic betterment
• Talent, intelligence, success, etc. are all
genetic traits
• American eugenics influenced much of the
racial policies of Nazi Germany, 1930s-1945
• Positive vs. Negative Eugenics
– Improving the gene pool  forced/coerced
sterilizations
Legacies of the Progressive Era
• The Sixteenth, Seventeenth, Eighteenth, and
Nineteenth Amendments to the Constitution
(ratified in 1913, 1913, 1918, and 1920,
respectively)
• Increased power of the federal government
• The social sciences as academic disciplines
(economics, history, political science,
sociology, etc.)