Rheta Childe Dorr - Research Paper Example

?Rheta Childe Dorr The Progressive Era was a time in the United s between approximately 1890 and 1920. During this time period social activism was on the rise. Within that movement, women’s suffrage was being promoted as well changing the way women lived and the way politics were run as the female vote became a factor. Women were starting to find their voice and break traditional boundaries. Rheta Childe Dorr was a journalist who lived from 1868 to 1948 in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. She is best known for her work in women’s suffrage as she personally experienced the difficulty in being accepted in the professional world simply because of her gender. Typically considered a Muckracker, Dorr was part of a list of journalists who “gave good taste and talent to the mass-circulation magazines and, in return, they received a generous stipend for their endeavours.”1 Muckracker was the term given to writers or journalists who investigate and report the truth on social issues. This could be any topic from crime, to corruption amongst political leaders, or any other relevant social issue. These writers were gaining prevalence during the Progressive Era. Dorr was not satisfied with the typical female role of being a homemaker and believed women had the ability to go out into the world and be productive. She had dreams of being a professional journalist and had little interest in remaining home. Her works were established during the Progressive Era where women were beginning to rebel against the status quo of women being homemakers and raising children, and never being given the opportunity to work outside of the home. Rheta Childe Dorr was widely read and publicized the following statement read by many, “Home is not contained within the four walls of an individual home. Home is the community. The city full of people is the Family. The public school is the real Nursery. And badly do the Home and the family need their mother.”2 Dorr’s writing was reflective of the typical muckracker style in that she addressed reform issues in the workplace that were published. For example, Rheta Childe Dorr chose “Women and Children First” as the title for her 4 May 1912 Woman’s Journal article on the exploitative nature of a Brooklyn sweatshop. The piece concluded, “The law of the sea: women and children first. The law of the land—that’s different.”3 However, she is most notes for her books based on her eyewitness reports as a war correspondent making over nine trips to Europe. Her works include, What Eight Million Women Want (1910); Inside the Russian Revolution_ (1917); A Soldier's Mother in France (1918); the autobiography, A Woman of Fifty (1924); and the Life of Susan B. Anthony: The Woman Who Changed the Mind of a Nation (1928). Dorr went beyond fighting for women’s rights in the workplace; she also sought to find equality in the political arena as well. In an extremely critical 1910 argument against sexual biases of the law she wrote her book, What Eight Million Women Want. In this book, Dorr described the political reality of custody law and argued that both men and women should have equal standing in custody of the children. Dorr did not believe women were the only ones who could care for the children in defense of joint custody that would allow women to work. She reported that the year before, a bill to equalize guardianship and argued that if wives "had the guardianship of their children, would anything prevent them from taking the children and leaving home? What would become of the sanctity of the home, with its lawful head shorn of his paternal legitimacy. Such contentions stymied legislative reform.”4 In the introduction of this same book, she reiterates this point stating “They are no longer wholly dependent, economically, intellectually, and spiritually, on a ruling class of men.”5 Dorr argues that child rearing is not a reason for women to stay at home as men also could take responsibility for the raising of the children. What Dorr saw was the inevitable role women would have in the economy and workforce. When Dorr was a young girl growing up, this rebellious tendency had already begun forming. Born in 1866, she grew up with her parents in Nebraska, and it was not uncommon for her to disobey her parents. “At age twelve (1878) she sneaked out of the house to attend a women's rights rally led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. Her parents found out when the newspaper printed the names of those who had joined the National Woman Suffrage Association. She began working at the age of fifteen, over the objections of her parents, so that she could become independent and prove her industry.”6 Not only were her rebellious tendencies apparent, so was her natural inclination to writing. In 1890 Rheta Childe took a trip to New York City to study at the Art Student’s League and it was there she decided she wanted to become a writer. Though it was never stated, she likely started to develop her desire to do so professionally and avoid being a typical housewife. Shortly after arriving in New York she fell in love and married John Pixley Dorr who was 20 years her senior. “She was swept away by his good looks and love of books. They lived in Seattle for two years, where their son Julian was born.” Rheta wrote articles for the New York newspapers, which her husband found to be an unacceptable activity.”7 She chose writing over her husband. Though they parted under amicable terms, it would seem the issue was not her lack of interest in having a family, but more of an issue with her husband being uncomfortable with her feminist activities. She wrote for the newspaper during this time but was much more interested in reformation and decided to leave the newspaper in 1906 and made her first trip to Russia and saw first- hand the works of the suffrage movement in Europe. She returned to the United States to continue her writing. In spite of her writing abilities, it was not an easy road for Dorr and she was surprised at the negative treatment she received in New York City. She was clearly surprised that being a woman would stunt her career. “Editors would not put her on the staff simply because she was a woman, and when she complained that the rates they paid for freelance articles could not support a family, they said they could find other women to work for those rates.”8 Whatever the reason for this shock, her battling nature was an asset for her and her career as she continued to look for opportunities. “She finally got a break by persuading Theodore Roosevelt to be photographed (something he hated) and was rewarded with an ill-paying job on the New York Evening Post, which she left within a year. Her first overseas assignment (1906) was to cover the coronation of a new king in Norway, and on the way back she attended the International Woman Suffrage Alliance meeting in Copenhagen, where she met prominent British suffragists.”9 If these accomplishments alone did not demonstrate her perseverance and talent, her meeting with the suffragists would certainly be a pivotal moment in making her mark. This memory would stay with her even though financially she was not very successful at this point and actually returned to New York with no money and again was looking for any writing opportunity she could find. She began her series in Hampton Magazine that was the basis for her first book written in 1910, “What 8 Million Women Want.” From 1913 to 1914 she then became the editor of the “Suffragist” for the militant National Women’s Party.10 Her creativity and innovation was a strong asset for her though it often did not help her with moving her career forward. For example, around 1907, “She proposed to the editor of Everybody's that she go underground as a worker and write about her experiences. She spent a year working in a laundry, a department store, on an assembly line, and as a seamstress but was often too exhausted to do more than make notes about her experiences. A cowriter named William Hard was assigned to help her, but Dorr resisted giving her notes over to him.”11 Here again she was shocked at this treatment and hired a lawyer that prevented it from being published with his name but she was not given any credit either. While this demonstrated her dedication, as she did not give up, it also demonstrates how social reform was necessary. She then took her ideas Benjamin Hampton still hoping to get her ideas published. “He forced her to rewrite the piece, but then offered to print anything else that was as good as "The Women's Invasion." At that point, Dorr poured out the long history of that magazine series to him. Hampton agreed to help her write the stories she had so passionately wanted to tell.”12 This provided her opportunity to write about the working conditions for women and children. She continued with Hampton, she was able to find some success and in 1910 published “What Eight Million Women Want” with the assistance of Hampton’s Magazine. This recounted suffrage clubs and consumer leagues that were emerging across Europe and the United States. However, her writings also focused ethical issues such as poor working conditions such as a 1911 factory fire that trapped many workers on upper levels because there were not adequate escape routes and the company had unsafely locked the door during working hours trapping them. Over 145 workers, mostly women, died in the blaze.13 Rheta Childe Dorr is most commonly associate with the suffrage movement but her ethical writings should not be overlooked. Many of her writings were directed at women asking them to become involved these social reforms because it was their ethical and moral obligation to get involved. As an example, she told readers they must insist upon a support system to help the courts deal with juvenile delinquency. "You have established the theory of a court, but you have failed to provide the machinery through which the theory can work."14 Though she did not receive the recognition she was due during her lifetime, there is no doubt she was influential in the woman’s movement and helped break barriers that would open doors for women who followed in the field of journalism after her. References Brown, Richard C. “The Muckrakers: Honest Craftsmen.” The History Teacher 2, no. 2 (Jan. 1969): 51-56. JStor. Dorr, Rheta Childe. A Woman of Fifty. New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1924 Dorr, Rheta Childe. (2010) What 8 Million Women Want. Boston: Small, Maynard and Co. Encyclopedia of World Biography, s.v. “Rheta Child Dorr,” http://www.notablebiographies.com/ (accessed April 27, 2011). Gottlieb, Agnes Hooper. “The Reform Years at Hampton's: The Magazine Journalism of Rheta Childe Dorr, 1909-1912.” The Electronic Journal of Communication 4 (1994). Grossberg, M. Governing the Hearth: Law and the Family in 19th Century America (Studies in legal history). 1St Edition ed. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1985. Unger, Nancy C. Fighting Bob La Follette: The Righteous Reformer. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2000. Vaughn, Stephen L. Encyclopedia of American Journalism. New York: Routledge, 2008. http://books.google.com/books?id=Wo8IY5oMpX4C&dq=A+WOMAN+OF+FIFTY+Dorr,+Rheta+Childe&source=gbs_navlinks_s (accessed April 27, 2011). Read More