ANC - Document Analysis - The Changing Status of Women Lesson

Document Analysis - The Changing Status of Women

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The Progressive Era saw many changes in the status of women and the victory of the women's movement on major issues that they had been pushing for since the mid 19th Century. The Seneca Falls Convention of 1848 and the Declaration that it produced boldly called for suffrage (the right to vote) for women. This was a radical statement for the time. Many women also joined the temperance movement to ban and restrict alcohol.

These movements gained steam throughout the Progressive Movement. Many men, and women as well, did not support these measures at first. The idea that women were not to take a leadership role and were the "weaker" sex was strongly rooted in society. But women continued to push for change. Many women worked hard in the industrial revolution and more women were gaining access to educational opportunities. Gradually, public opinion shifted and in 1919 the 18th Amendment was passed that banned alcohol. One year later the 19th Amendment was ratified and gave women the right to vote. Two key goals of the women's movement, spanning seven decades of activism, had been achieved. While prohibition would be repealed, women's suffrage was here to stay. Women continued to push for equality in numerous areas, including more access to the workplace in the coming decades.

Examine these 5 documents and then answer the questions that follow. You can also download a pdf copy of the documents here. Links to an external site.

Document 1: Suffragists protest Woodrow Wilson’s opposition to women’s suffrage (1916)

Document 2: from the Anti--Suffrage Association of Massachusetts Housewives! You do not need a ballot to clean out your sink spout. A handful of potash and some boiling water is quicker and cheaper....Control of the temper makes a happier home than control of elections....Good cooking lessens alcoholic craving quicker than a vote on local option.

Document 3: Carrie Chapman Catt, advocate for women’s suffrage “This government is menaced with great danger....That danger lies in the votes possessed by the males in the slums of the cities, and the ignorant foreign vote which was sought to be brought up by each party, to make political success....There is but one way to avert the danger----cut off the vote of the slums and give to woman, who is bound to suffer all, and more than man can, of the evils his legislation has brought upon the nation, the power of protecting herself that man has secured for himself----the ballot.”

Document 4: two quotes from Susan B. Anthony, a leading advocate of women’s rights and suffrage “Suffrage is the pivotal right.” “I have encountered riotous mobs and have been hung in effigy, but my motto is: Men’s rights are nothing more. Women’s rights are nothing less.”

Document 5: The 19th Amendment (ratified in 1920) to the U.S. Constitution The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation

Questions

  1. How does Document 1 show the strategy and growing influence of the movement for voting rights for women?
  2. Document 2 references another movement in addition to the push for suffrage that was widely supported by women. What was it?
  3. Carrie Chapman Catt and some other suffragettes argued that women needed to be able to vote to offset the votes of what group?
  4. In what ways did Susan B. Anthony experience opposition to the push for women's suffrage? Why does she feel women should be able to vote?
  5. What action led to the success of the women's suffrage movement on a national scale?

Answer the questions on your own paper or word processing document.

 

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