Important reforms and changes in American's History - Essay Example

It was at this time that President Theodore Roosevelt commented that every man, despite his position, had the responsibility of promoting reforms. The progressive movement was established to tackle all the problems that plagued Americans. The aim was to improve the working conditions in industries such as wages, safety and hours of working. Moral issues were also addressed such as prostitution and alcohol abuse which the 18th century American society attributed to domestic violence (Ingui 79).

The progressives’ ideas were to have better management systems in businesses, cities and political entities. Nonetheless, the progressives were not as aggressive when it came to addressing the civil rights of the minorities in America, such as Native Americans and slave trade. There were many reforms that occurred during the progressive era. These were reforms such as good working conditions, women’s suffrage, right to own land for the minority, prohibition and child labor among others. However, some of the most important reforms that took place during the Progressive era included child labor, nationalization of banks, consumer protection laws, the 18th and 19th amendment which led to women’s suffrage and prohibition.

During the progressive era, being a worker was not easy. Though the progressives did all they could to solicit for good working conditions, they only obtained mixed results. In the early 18th and 19th century, male workers were paid pitiful amounts as their wages, while women did laundry and other duties that earned extra income to make ends meet. Women were lowly paid despite working for longer hours than men (Moon 26). Child laborers were common. It was not surprising to get boys as young as 10 years working in coal mines and girls as young as 12 years looking after children and other odd jobs that their parents would tell them to do.

This changed to some extent when the