Womens Involvement in Reform Movements: 1870-1920 - Article Example

Women’s Involvement in Reform Movements: 1870-1920 A working woman 40 years of age or younger in 2007 could not comprehend living in a society that limited her employment opportunities to those specified by the prevalent gender stereotype. This has not always been the case, however. This past generation of women is the only one in U.S. history to have the freedom to choose their own career path to the extent familiar today. When the country was young, women were considered possessions whose sole purpose was to serve their husbands – ‘and let the girls be handy’ were words that were not generally deemed offensive in previous eras as they would be today. Women were not able to vote until the twentieth century and were not viewed as potential equals in the workplace until the outbreak of World War II. Another 20 years passed before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 gave women a legal remedy to discrimination in the workplace. Since that time, the role of women in society has changed moving toward greater independence and autonomy. Much of this progress was the result of efforts that had been made in the mid- to late-1800s and early 1900s with such notable women as Catherine Beecher who brought education and ambition to the minds of women and Francis Willard who paved the way for women’s involvement in politics as well as through the efforts of countless women in forming new activist groups that were instrumental in bringing about abolition, food protection and labor legislation by the advent of World War I. Catherine Beecher was definitely a product of the True Womanhood cult which held that women’s proper place was in the home and therefore girls had little to no need for education outside of household duties. However, she worked within that ideology to help bring about change and provide a socially acceptable avenue of refuge for other young women like her who felt trapped and constrained within traditional boundaries but who did not wish to necessarily step into the realms of the ‘fallen women’. Despite a general reluctance to submit herself to the role of housewife and mother that was prevalent in her time, after her fiancé was lost at sea, Beecher struggled to find comfort in her religion, but emerged from the struggle unable to relinquish her sense of self and self-will (Sklar, 1973). As a result of the new philosophy she had worked out for herself, one centered around the ideas of sacrifice and social service, Beecher moved to Hartford, Connecticut and opened up new schools as well as a series of other educational and beneficial enterprises designed to benefit girls and provide women with additional options in life outside of marriage. Her philosophy, in keeping with the concepts of the day, was outlined in several tracts, books and lectures making her educational offerings less threatening to the men who constrained women and to the women who felt this constrained environment was only natural and right (Sklar, 1973). Considered a prime spokesman for the domestic ideology, Beecher took the model of womanhood that restricted women to roles within the home or school thanks to the strong moral qualities that were exceptionally theirs and gave this role a significant social importance. This provided women with a sense of self-respect and value as women and paved the way for the work of later female activists such as Francis Willard. Francis Willard was the president and one of the organizers of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (formed in 1874). She worked from within the traditional ideology of the woman as subservient to bring other women into a more public sphere. She did this by focusing on the responsibilities of women to protect their homes and families. According to Amy Slagell (2002), “Willard knew that by recruiting, organizing and energizing interested women to being their work of transforming the world as she believed they were called to do, women would come to a new awareness of their power so that not only would the outer world be transformed, but the women themselves as well” (23). She introduced her so-called Home Protection argument to the ladies of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union “as a wedge argument, a way to break through the walls of prejudice an ‘average woman’ would likely bear toward suffrage and women’s political work” (Slagell, 2002: 10). Although she often referred to the ‘no taxation without representation’ argument as it applied to her own personal feelings, she took a “shrewd” approach of “a series of tangential moves, in the course of which women … were gradually led to understand that they could not protect their homes and families from liquor or other vices, without a voice in public affairs” (Flexner, 1975: 187). Because she knew she was working with many women who had, prior to their involvement with the WCTU, subscribed wholly to the traditional roles of women, Willard’s approach “encouraged women to see themselves as serious participants in the political community” (Flexner, 1975: 187) in a less threatening manner, allowing them to evolve their ideas rather than defy them altogether. In addition, Willard played a large role in making the murky business of politics available to women without ‘dirtying their skirts’ by further emphasizing the virtues of the traditional woman and illustrating a picture in which women are necessary in the public sphere in order to clean up the mess that has been made by men. “Notably, while Willard used the ideal of domesticity to further her argument, she directly rejected another part of the True Womanhood ideal: submissiveness” (Slagell, 2002: 10). Instead, she helped strengthen women’s faith by helping them rediscover “scriptural passages that supported women’s activism and as they experienced a calling from God to work for temperance and for Home Protection” (Gifford, 1986: 111). As women and men held roles in different but complementary spheres, it was necessary for women to be involved in the public sphere if they were to provide the type of protection they were expected to provide. The 1890s were plagued by a series of widespread societal issues such as severe economic depression, bloody labor disputes and racist terrorism as federal armies pulled out of the south. This urbanizing, industrializing, conflict-filled context was the realm of the middle class New Woman and the new Working Class Girl, each of whom enjoyed a measure of individuality and autonomy that frightened many of their contemporaries.  The individuality and power of these independent women marked a cultural shift away from communal domesticity, undermining the Victorian culture with a new emphasis upon autonomy, pleasure, and consumption (Evans, 1989: 145). The increase in numbers of independent, educated, unmarried older women punctuated this period.  “Perhaps the most striking evidence of change among women was the emergence of the college-educated, frequently unmarried, and self-supporting new woman.  Nearly half of all college-educated women in the late nineteenth century never married.  Those who married did so later than most women and bore fewer children.  For a few years or for a lifetime these independent career women began to create a new life-style.  They moved into growing female professions such as teaching and nursing” (Evans, 1989: 145). In addition, women became very active in the total landscape of America’s immersion in consumerism and pleasure as they achieved access to more and more communal areas.  “Labor unions, womens clubs, and settlement houses all represented new public spaces for women, arenas in which they could experiment freely with new ideas and actions.  Between 1900 and World War I the old Victorian code which prescribed strict segregation of the sexes in separate spheres crumbled.  The women’s movement reached the apex of its political power, achieving new laws for pure food, protective legislation regulating wages and hours for working women and children, prison and court reforms” (Evans, 1989: 145). With the advent of the twentieth century, it became as natural to see a woman enjoying public spaces such as dance halls, amusement parks, theaters and movies as it was to see a man. The younger crowd brought sexuality out of its closet with the new century while the second and third generation college-educated women gained, for the first time in history, the ability intellectually, socially and economically, to seek a new lifestyle and ideology that did not reduce her individuality or infringe upon her personal rights. Looking at the various viewpoints and changes happening during these years, it is possible to imagine that Victorian America had little idea of how these events would change American culture. Having learned first-hand the invisible shackles that bound them in times of difficulty, such as the inability to hold jobs, own property or bring lawsuits, women were naturally inclined to be compassionate toward the victim and supporting of social change that was perceived to be the best solution to the problem. There was little time to consider the situation as it gained steam as the world was soon plunged into war, relying on men and women alike to support the war effort and heading irrevocably down the road to recognition of women’s liberty and participation in the culture of tomorrow. References Evans, Sara M. (1989). Born for Liberty: A History of Women in America. The Free Press. Flexner, Eleanor. (1975). Century of Struggle: The Women’s Rights Movement in the United States. Cambridge: Belknap Press. Gifford, Carolyn. (1986). “Home Protection: The WCTU’s Conversion to Woman Suffrage.” Gender, Ideology, and Action: Historical Perspectives on Women’s Public Lives. Janet Sharistanian (Ed.). Westport: Greenwood Press. Sklar, Katherine. (1973). Catherine Beecher: A Study in American Domesticity. London, England: Yale University Press. Slagell, Amy. (2002). “The Rhetorical Structure of Frances E. Willard’s Campaign for Woman Suffrage.” Rhetoric & Public Affairs. Vol. 4, N. 1. Read More

Although she often referred to the ‘no taxation without representation’ argument as it applied to her own personal feelings, she took a “shrewd” approach of “a series of tangential moves, in the course of which women … were gradually led to understand that they could not protect their homes and families from liquor or other vices, without a voice in public affairs” (Flexner, 1975: 187). Because she knew she was working with many women who had, prior to their involvement with the WCTU, subscribed wholly to the traditional roles of women, Willard’s approach “encouraged women to see themselves as serious participants in the political community” (Flexner, 1975: 187) in a less threatening manner, allowing them to evolve their ideas rather than defy them altogether.

In addition, Willard played a large role in making the murky business of politics available to women without ‘dirtying their skirts’ by further emphasizing the virtues of the traditional woman and illustrating a picture in which women are necessary in the public sphere in order to clean up the mess that has been made by men. “Notably, while Willard used the ideal of domesticity to further her argument, she directly rejected another part of the True Womanhood ideal: submissiveness” (Slagell, 2002: 10).

Instead, she helped strengthen women’s faith by helping them rediscover “scriptural passages that supported women’s activism and as they experienced a calling from God to work for temperance and for Home Protection” (Gifford, 1986: 111). As women and men held roles in different but complementary spheres, it was necessary for women to be involved in the public sphere if they were to provide the type of protection they were expected to provide. The 1890s were plagued by a series of widespread societal issues such as severe economic depression, bloody labor disputes and racist terrorism as federal armies pulled out of the south.

This urbanizing, industrializing, conflict-filled context was the realm of the middle class New Woman and the new Working Class Girl, each of whom enjoyed a measure of individuality and autonomy that frightened many of their contemporaries.  The individuality and power of these independent women marked a cultural shift away from communal domesticity, undermining the Victorian culture with a new emphasis upon autonomy, pleasure, and consumption (Evans, 1989: 145). The increase in numbers of independent, educated, unmarried older women punctuated this period.

  “Perhaps the most striking evidence of change among women was the emergence of the college-educated, frequently unmarried, and self-supporting new woman.  Nearly half of all college-educated women in the late nineteenth century never married.  Those who married did so later than most women and bore fewer children.  For a few years or for a lifetime these independent career women began to create a new life-style.  They moved into growing female professions such as teaching and nursing” (Evans, 1989: 145).

In addition, women became very active in the total landscape of America’s immersion in consumerism and pleasure as they achieved access to more and more communal areas.  “Labor unions, womens clubs, and settlement houses all represented new public spaces for women, arenas in which they could experiment freely with new ideas and actions.  Between 1900 and World War I the old Victorian code which prescribed strict segregation of the sexes in separate spheres crumbled.  The women’s movement reached the apex of its political power, achieving new laws for pure food, protective legislation regulating wages and hours for working women and children, prison and court reforms” (Evans, 1989: 145).

With the advent of the twentieth century, it became as natural to see a woman enjoying public spaces such as dance halls, amusement parks, theaters and movies as it was to see a man. The younger crowd brought sexuality out of its closet with the new century while the second and third generation college-educated women gained, for the first time in history, the ability intellectually, socially and economically, to seek a new lifestyle and ideology that did not reduce her individuality or infringe upon her personal rights.

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