Ch 9 Section 2 Women in public life

Women in the work force • What kind of work was available to American women before the Civil War? • How did women’s pay compare with men’s pay in factories? • Why did women take white-collar jobs?

Women in the Work Force • Before the Civil War, women were expected to devote their time to the care of their homes and families • But, by the turn of the 20 th century only middle and upper-class women could afford this • Poor women had no choice but to go work outside the home

Farm Women • In the South and Midwest, women’s roles hadn’t changed so much • They had to cook, make clothes, launder as well as handle a host of other chores such as raising livestock • They often had to help plow and harvest the crops

Women in Industry • Better paying opportunities became available in towns, especially cities • Women had new options for finding jobs and men’s labor union often excluded them from joining • 1900, 1 out of 5 women held jobs, 25% worked in manufacturing

• The garment trade held about half of all women industrial workers • They held the least skilled positions and received only about half as much as men • Many of these women were single and assumed to be supporting only themselves, men were assumed to be supporting families

• Women also worked in offices, stores and classrooms • These jobs required a high school diploma • 1890, women high school grads outnumbered men • New business schools were preparing bookkeepers and stenographers as well as training typists

Women in Industry • What kinds of job opportunities prompted more women to complete high school?

Domestic Workers • Women without formal education or industrial skills did domestic work, such as cleaning for other families • Many AA women worked on farms or domestic workers and migrated by the thousands to big cities for jobs a cooks, laundresses, scrubwomen and maids • 1870, 70% of women were servants

Women Lead Reform • How did the opening of women’s colleges help create new opportunities for women? • Why were there women leaders in the movements to reform social welfare, public morals, and race relations? • How did Susan B. Anthony help the cause of women?

Women Lead Reform • Dangerous conditions, low wages and long hours led workers to push for reforms • After the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire their ranks grew • Middle and upper-class women entered the public sphere and started clubs that grew into reform groups that addressed issues such as temperance or child labor

Women in Higher Education • Many women who were active in public life attended women’s colleges • These colleges sought to grant women an excellent education • By the late 19 th century, marriage was no longer the only alternative • Women entered the workforce or sought higher education • Half of college educated women never married, retaining their own independence

Women in Higher Education • What social and economic effects did higher education have on women?

Women and Reform • Women weren’t allowed to vote or run for office • AA women founded the National Association of Colored Women (NACW), their mission was the “moral education of the race with which we are identified” • Women split over the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendment, which granted equal rights including the right to vote to AA men, but excluded women

• Susan B. Anthony, a leading proponent in woman suffrage, the right to vote • She and Cady Stanton founded the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA), which united with another group to become the National American Woman Suffrage Association or NAWSA • Women’s suffrage faced opposition • Liqueur industry feared that women would vote to support prohibition • Textile industry worried they would vote for restrictions on child labor • Men feared the changing role of women in society

A Three-part Strategy for Suffrage • 1. tried to convince state legislatures to grant women the right to vote • 2. women pursued court cases to test the Fourteenth Amendment, which declared states denying their male citizens the right to vote would lose congressional representation. Women were citizens too • (SC ruled women were citizens but citizenship didn’t automatically confer the right to vote) • 3. women pushed for a national constitutional amendment to grant women the vote

• Why did suffragist leaders employ a three-part strategy for gaining the right to vote?