The Progressive Era Essay

The movement began to be mobilize their power, they formed militant organizations including the Equality League, Congressional Union and the Women’s Party (Keyssar 2000, p. 203). Properly funded and more militant enabled them to gain recognition and apply political pressure to leader throughout the states (Keyssar 2000, p. 203). The movement then took a turn for bold protest actions in 1917, organizing picket lines, hunger strikes and even suspended congressional lobbying (Keyssar 2000, p. 215). All goes to show the level aggression the movement has taken to pressure political leaders. Deploying their broad repertoire of tactics made the protest more effective, the aggression tactics saw success as they began to win support in multiple states (Keyssar 2000, p. 217).

In the 1920’s you had women who were considered the “new women”, or the “ modern women”. “The “new women”, included flappers, embraced new fashion, embraced freedom, and challenged the old ways of the modern women.”(Mckay, Nellie). The “modern women”, believed that partying , smoking, and disobeying your husband was horrifying, and unacceptable. Women were impacted by the Harlem Renaissance, because they were produced with the idea of mass advertising. With mass advertising women were able to be the voices on radios, the faces on magazines, and the author of books.

During the Progressive Era, women began reforms to address social, political, and economic issues within society. Some addressed the issues with education, healthcare, and political corruption. Others worked to raise wages and improve work conditions. Among these (women) is Carrie Chapman Catt, a leader of the women’s suffrage movement. Beginning her career as a national women’s rights activist in 1890, she was asked to address Congress about the proposed suffrage amendment shortly after two years.

Which led to Alice to learn how to generate publicity. The knowledge Alice gained from being an activist was through arrests, force feedings, imprisonments, and hunger strikes. Alice’s motivation came from the way that we was raised and taught that women were equal to men and whiling growing up she learned how women are truly treated differently from women. The suffragist’s were jailed due to picketing outside the White House. The

Susan B. Anthony a famous women activist once said “The day may be approaching when the whole world with recognize women as the equal of men. “ The changing role of women was a result of the work they did during the war. In 1920, all women were given the right to vote. Divorce was made easier and they doubled due to women not willing to deal with their bad husbands. Women stopped doing what men wanted them do and started doing what they wanted, getting more rights and their own voices.

The American Revolution was a political upheaval that brought many changes to America by greatly altering the popular understanding of women’s partisan status and creating a widespread debate over the meaning of women’s rights. White women had large, essential roles in America’s victory in the American Revolution creating new opportunities for women to participate in politics and support different parties. Women were able to take advantage of these opportunities until a conservative backlash developed by 1830 that stopped any political advancement of women. In Rosemarie Zagarri’s book, Revolutionary Backlash, the author talks about the many things that played a part in causing a backlash against women in the early republic starting when women’s

Progressivism Progressivism began in the end of the 19th century and continued in the twentieth century as a series of local movements with many different efforts to improve the society. During the Progressive Era, many women joined volunteer organizations to work for reform. Efforts began at the local level but expanded to the state and national level. Women implemented programs and lobbied for legislation to address social, political, and economic problems so as to improve the lives of many. The status of women changed in the Progressive Era.

In America’s history, child labor was fiercely criticized. Many activists of child labor laws and women’s suffrage strived to introduce their own viewpoints to the country. Florence Kelley was a reformer who successfully changed the mindset of many Americans through her powerful and persuading arguments. Florence Kelley’s carefully crafted rhetoric strategies such as pathos, repetition, and sarcasm generates an effective and thought provoking tone that was in favor of women’s suffrage and child labor laws. Florence Kelley uses pathos continuously throughout her speech.

In addition, the recall allowed voters to get rid of public officials from elected positions by having them run in another election before their time was up if enough voters wanted it. Direct election was another great thing in politics during the Progressive Era because it made way for the 17th amendment so it helped Americans have a say in politics. Eventually women had their own reform too; the National American Suffrage Association formed by Elizabeth C. Stanton and Susan B. Anthony one of the leaders of women suffrage. Both women were able to pave the way for the 19th Amendment giving women to right to vote in

Within the late 19th century, child labor in America was at an all time high. During this time, many suffragettes took to the cause along with fighting vehemently for women’s rights. One of these inspirational women was Florence Kelley. On July 22nd, 1905 at the National American Woman Suffrage Association’s convention, Kelley delivered a strong speech regarding child labor and how the people should stand against it. In this speech, Florence Kelley uses a plethora of rhetorical strategies; including informal language and repetition, to convince the listener of her argument; the people need to stand up and stop child labor.