Discussion Topic
The relationship between Progressivism and women's rights
Summary:
Progressivism and women's rights were closely linked as the Progressive Era (1890s-1920s) saw significant advocacy for social reforms, including women's suffrage. Progressives supported women's rights to address social inequalities and improve public welfare, leading to milestones like the 19th Amendment, which granted women the right to vote in 1920.
What were the effects of Progressivism on women?
The most important impact of the Progressive Era on women was that they gained the right to vote during that era. Women gained the right to vote in 1920, just at the end of the Progressive Era. Progressives wanted women to have the right to vote because they believed that women would tend to vote for the sorts of reforms that Progressives advocated.
Another impact on women was that the Progressive Era saw the first government regulations that were meant to protect working women. For example, there were laws passed that set maximum hours that women could work. Though we would see such laws as patronizing and sexist today (because they were based on the assumption that women were too weak to work longer hours), the laws did affect women.
Finally, the Progressive movement did have an impact on many poorer and immigrant women. This impact came about through the...
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settlement house movement. This aspect of Progressivism was instrumental in helping poorer women improve the quality of life enjoyed by themselves and their families.
References
Overall, the main effect of Progressivism was to establish that government could play a role in reforming society. Many reforms proposed by nineteenth and early twentieth century Progressives were implemented in the early twentieth century. Many of these reforms were political, ranging from the establishment of the council-manager form of municipal government at the local level to the Seventeenth Amendment, which mandated the direct election of senators, and, it could be argued, the Nineteenth Amendment, which established women's suffrage. Others, however, were intended to address social issues, including the Eighteenth Amendment, the capstone of the temperance movement, and numerous initiatives aimed at addressing urban poverty. Still other reforms established an increased role for the government in regulating business and the economy, including child labor legislation, food safety regulations, the establishment of the Federal Reserve, and antitrust actions by the federal government. Of course, this is only a brief summary of the effects of the progressive movement on the role of government. It had many other legacies, including public education initiatives, civil rights organizations, and the establishment of labor unions. But perhaps its most important contribution was the idea that institutional solutions could be found to difficult social and economic problems.
References