A: Research Question
What impact did Nellie Bly have as a muckraker and feminist in the progressive era? In order to determine the impact Nellie Bly had as a muckraker, the publicity she received from the press is going to be examined. In addition, her accomplishments in reforming mental asylums as a journalist and her strides towards feminism are going to be examined. First hand accounts of the conditions in mental asylums at the time, from Nellie Bly and other reformers, are going to be examined. State laws and funding regarding mental asylums and the treatment of the mentally ill are going to be examined in order to assess the effectiveness of her muckraking. The breadth of her fame is going to be examined, through biographies and first hand accounts of her story, in order to assess her impact around the world and on the way the people of the time viewed women professionals.
B: Summary of Evidence
Originally born Elizabeth Jane Cochrane, Bly has made many significant strides in the world of women journalism. She was born in 1864, and was a female muckraker during the Progressive era. (Christensen 1) After landing a job with the newspaper The Pittsburgh Dispatch in 1885 she decided to pack up and move to New York. She received a job at the New York World newspaper. Her first assignment from the newspaper was to feign mental illness in order to be committed to the Women’s Lunatic Asylum on Blackwell’s Island. (Garraty 78) The Blackwell’s Lunatic Asylum was known for mistreating its patients. In 1840, the insane in the United States numbered 17,456 out of the total population of 17,069,453 people. The country’s fourteen hospitals for the mentally ill had a capacity of less than twenty-five hundred beds. (Herrmann 9) In search o...
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Kroeger, Brooke. Nellie Bly: Daredevil, Reporter, Feminist. New York: Times, 1994. Print.
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During the 1960’s, America’s solution to the growing population of mentally ill citizens was to relocate these individuals into mental state institutions. While the thought of isolating mentally ill patients from the rest of society in order to focus on their treatment and rehabilitation sounded like a smart idea, the outcome only left patients more traumatized. These mental hospitals and state institutions were largely filled with corrupt, unknowledgeable, and abusive staff members in an unregulated environment. The story of Lucy Winer, a woman who personally endured these horrors during her time at Long Island’s Kings Park State Hospital, explores the terrific legacy of the mental state hospital system. Ultimately, Lucy’s documentary, Kings
Volume III: P-Z. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1971. Print. The. James, Edward, Janet James, and Paul Boyer. Notable American Women, 1607-1950.
one of the few jobs open to women. She started her 'voyage' at age fifteen by
Lillian Wald: A Biography is the gripping and inspiring story of an American who left her mark on the history of the United States. Wald dedicated herself to bettering the lives of those around her. She was the founder of The Henry Street Settlement along with the Visiting Nurse Service of New York. She worked with politics around the world and tried to bring healthcare and reform to people around the world. Using the lessons she learned in her childhood she worked closely with people from all backgrounds to fight for “universal brotherhood”. Wald was a progressive reformer, a social worker, a nurse, a teacher, and an author. Notably Lillian Wald, unlike many of the other women involved in the progressive movement such as Jane Adams, never received the same acknowledgement in the academic world.
The Golding Sisters lobbied for women’s rights to equal pay and employment. Annie Mackenzie (1855-1934) and Isabella Therese (1864-1940) began their careers teaching in both public and catholic schools (Kingston, 2013). Annie worked with infants and girls and later shifted to teaching at the Asylum for Destitute Children (Kingston, 2013). She was also a member on the State Children Relief Board. Belle left teaching early to pursue a career as the first female government inspector in 1900 (Lemon, 2008). With their sister Kate Dwyer (1861-1949), Labour leader and school teacher, the sister’s began the Womanhood Suffrage League in 1893 and the Woman’s Progressive Foundation in 1901 which aimed to combat the inability for women to work in certain industries and sit on juries (The Sunday Morning Herald, 1933). Belle’s research skills assisted in preparing the sister’s persuasive speeches and statements (Fawkner & Kelly, 1995). In 1921 Kate became a female Justice of Peace (Gallego, 2013). Kate also wrote extensively about politics, industries and women’s questions.
Dorothea Lynde Dix was quoted as saying, “In a world where there is so much to be done, I felt strongly impressed that there must be something for me to do.” Dix began at the age of 39, and spent the next 20 years as a social reformer for the treatment of the mentally ill. When asked to teach a Sunday School class at a women’s correctional facility, Dix was appalled at the conditions, as well as the fact that many of the women weren’t criminals, but were instead mentally ill. This is where her crusade began. Her work had immediate results throughout the country, and the changes are still being felt even today.
Known as an American philanthropist and reformer, Dorothea Dix transformed living conditions in prisons and established institutions for the mentally insane in 20 states, as well as Canada (“DIX”). Through her crusade for fair treatment of the mentally insane, Dorothea Dix exemplifies the ideals of her time – to protect the rights of all human beings, no matter their age, race, or mental capacity.
Kathryn Jacob’s begins with background on Lizzie Borden; how she was favored by her father as the youngest daughter, how she “had evidently given up hope of marriage, but she led a more active life, centered around good works,” and how “she taught Sunday school class of Chinese children, (and) was active in the Ladies Fruit and Flower Mission, the Women’s Christian Temperance Movement, and the Good Samaritan Charity Hospital” (p.53).The Women’s Christian Temperance Movement (WCTU) was a popular social movement that focused on a “do everything policy” to fix the problems of the community, including problems deeper than just alcohol (Brady Class Lecture,2014). The WCTU was seen as a positive movement for women to maintain their woma...
After the success of antislavery movement in the early nineteenth century, activist women in the United States took another step toward claiming themselves a voice in politics. They were known as the suffragists. It took those women a lot of efforts and some decades to seek for the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment. In her essay “The Next Generation of Suffragists: Harriot Stanton Blatch and Grassroots Politics,” Ellen Carol Dubois notes some hardships American suffragists faced in order to achieve the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment. Along with that essay, the film Iron-Jawed Angels somehow helps to paint a vivid image of the obstacles in the fight for women’s suffrage. In the essay “Gender at Work: The Sexual Division of Labor during World War II,” Ruth Milkman highlights the segregation between men and women at works during wartime some decades after the success of women suffrage movement. Similarly, women in the Glamour Girls of 1943 were segregated by men that they could only do the jobs temporarily and would not able to go back to work once the war over. In other words, many American women did help to claim themselves a voice by voting and giving hands in World War II but they were not fully great enough to change the public eyes about women.
Moran, Mickey. “1930s, America- Feminist Void?” Loyno. Department of History, 1988. Web. 11 May. 2014.
The contrast between how She sees herself and how the rest of the world sees Her can create extreme emotional strain; add on the fact that She hails from the early 1900s and it becomes evident that, though her mental construct is not necessarily prepared to understand the full breach against Her, She is still capable of some iota of realization. The discrimination encountered by a female during this time period is great and unceasing.
To begin with, there are many events in United States history that have shaped our general understanding of women’s involvement in economics, politics, the debates of gender and sexuality, and so forth. Women for many centuries have not been seen as a significant part of history, however under thorough analyzation of certain events, there are many women and woman-based events responsible for the progressiveness we experience in our daily lives as men, women, children, and individuals altogether. Many of these events aid people today to reflect on the treatment of current individuals today and to raise awareness to significant issues that were not resolved or acknowledged in the past.
MacLean, Nancy. A. The American Women's Movement, 1945-2000. A Brief History with Documents. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin, a.k.a.
Schneider, Dorothy. American Women in the Progressive Era 1900-1920. New York: Facts on File, 1993.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the author of the short story The Yellow Wall-Paper, wrote a story with a focus on mental illness; while doing so she began a feminist revolution in the late 19th century. The narrator, Jane, is attempting to break free from society’s patriarchal ideals and begins to carve a path for women of the future. While the narrator of the story may not have fully escaped, her efforts mark an act of martyrdom for women’s rights and freedom during this era.