1.) Up until 1900, the trend in public assistance, exclusively poor relief, had been to eliminate outdoor relief in numerous cities. That had been the trend based on the advocacy of the societies, which suggested that public aid caused poor individuals to avoid work and remain in poverty. In this period, reformers began to see the need for more public assistance. Poverty was seen as being something caused by broader systemic factors rather than idleness or the mother of all causes, intemperance. Now, most of society began to see these things as symptoms of poverty as opposed to causes. Due to this shift in thinking, ideas and understandings had to be altered about these beliefs. This was a necessary precursor to the development of policies. …show more content…
This movement was purely a state level program and focused on white, deserving women. Workers, primarily males, were getting killed in the factories that they worked in. When a tragedy like this occurred, widows were provided an economic basis to keep the families together. The older solution to these situations would have been to take the children away, but the shift focused on family preservation. Social reformers were advocating at the state level for programs that would provide public assistance for women with dependent children. It was believed that such assistance would prevent the break up of families and help reserve home life. The Mother’s Pension Movement was focused on white, deserving mothers such as those who had been widowed, and in some cases, disserted. Those who had children out of wedlock were continuously excluded from the program. Society viewed these individuals as women who took part in sinful actions; therefore they were seen as undeserving of any assistance due to one of the biggest taboo violations during that time. In this case, the government would decide that the child should not live in a household with immoral values and remove the child from the home without hesitation. Some individuals in the social work profession opposed the idea of this movement and clung to the 19th century views of social welfare. Those who favored the idea believed that the changes in the economic system and family required greater provision of public aid. This represented a shift towards a qualified acceptance of providing assistance to women who reared children at
There was a growing sense that the poor did not deserve assistance and so in 1834 the ‘Poor Law Amendment Act’ was introduced. This was designed to make conditions more severe and to even further force self-improvement amongst the poor. ‘The central objective…was to withdraw poor relief from men judged ‘able-bodied’ in Poor Law terminology’. (Thane: 1978: 29) Alternatives such as the work-house were introduced. The notion that you should only ask for help if you desperately needed it as a last resource loomed. The Charity Organisation Society was ‘a body w...
From the humble beginning of Social Work there have been many people who have tirelessly worked, fought, and dedicated their life advocating for the people in our world who are disadvantaged. Furthermore, many of these people have been women who not only were strong enough to fight for the rights of others, but also had to fight the forces whom thought that women where in some way second hand citizens themselves. These women were brave and determined enough to break out of the box that society placed them in, and stand up for the social injustices that they seen taking place, and try to make a difference. Of the many women from the early days of Social Work none fought harder for social reform than Grace Abbott. Grace Abbott spent her life fighting to enact legislation for the betterment of society as a whole. This work would eventually earn her the nickname “the mother of America’s forty-three million children.”
In fact, many believed the poor were just worthless idlers who were not even trying to better there own situations, but instead were taking the high roads away from taxes and worries (Document 11). There were many observed instances in which those in poverty, when given the opputinity to better their lives, chose to stay poor and recieve handouts. One such cause comes from William Turner, and English Physican for Lord Earl of Somerset when he recounts how poor folks often begged on the Earl's door but when Turner offered to help health wise, they chose to stay sick and beg (Document 6). Similar to modern day abusers of the American Wellfare system, officals became very angry with idlers who did nothing but feed off the wealth of the working class in the form of alms. They even believed that idlers should be expelled from their communites as they only bring economics down (Document 5). Many also thought that in order received any aid at all a person must be working. Reforms such as the Workhouse Test Act in 1723, though this occured later than the period of discussion, were a result of these opinions. This act, among others, required that people work a set amount of hours before they could receive any aid. Even the famous Cardinal Richelieu of France believed that the idlers were “good-for-nothings” who were restricting those who actually needed help from getting it while they were being lazy and greedy (Document 8). This opinion of certain poor indivudals being lazy and abusing resources remains amoung those in power even today in
This movement which was inspired by the ideologies of courageous women and fueled by their enthusiasm and sacrifice is often unacknowledged by most historians in the chronicles of American History. Today the movement is often misunderstood as a passive, white upper class, naive cause. But a deeper study would reveal that the women’s suffrage movement was the one that brought together the best and brightest women in America, which not only changed the lives of half the citizens of United States but also changed the social attitudes of millions of Americans.
The womens abolitionists movement was essentially the birth of the American women’s rights movement that lasted from 1858-1920 (Leonhardt 2.A). Womens abolitionism during the time of the civil war was a movement intended to prohibit and end slavery in the states; done by trying to educate the public on the immorality of slavery. These women that joined forces with male protesters helped condemn slavery, calling for an end to the “peculiar institution” (Leonhardt 2.A). It was through women's’ involvement, organization and preparation that some women were able to become some-what respected leaders in the women’s movement.
Before the 1890s, females had no other options but to live with their parents before marriage and with their husband after marriage. They couldn’t work and if they did their wage was way lower than men. Today many women chose their own lifestyle and have more freedom. They can chose if they want to get married and have kids or not. Coontz said “what 's new is not that women make half their families living but that for the first time they have substantial control over their own income, along with the social freedom to remain single or to leave an unsatisfactory marriage” (98). When women couldn’t work, they had no options but to stay with their husband for financial support. Working is a new way of freedom because they can choose to stay or leave their husband and make their own decisions. It’s not like women couldn’t work before, they could but they didn’t have too much social freedom like to get divorce or not have children. Their voice wasn’t as important as men. Most of the time men had to decide everything in the family and had control over the family. Coontz believe that today women have more control over their own life and they can choose however they want to live their life. Kuttner also agree that “most Americans, after all, believe women should not be consigned to the nursery and the kitchen” (122). Women used to be the mother who
The reform movements in the 19th century significantly represented many conflicts, which inevitably lead into the Civil War. Many people thought it was time to stand up for recognition and to transform America’s economy. This was certainly among ordinary Americans who felt the deep sense of commitment into highlighting their concerns out to the open public. The religious zeal founded in these people emanated from the Second Great Awakening. This wave greatly influenced minorities, such as slaves and women to break from their enslaving chains and emancipate themselves into suitable circumstances. However, as these issues began to arise, slavery received the most attention. By this means that reforms, such as women’s rights, were eclipsed and women once again waited another long years to receive their rights. As looking back at history, women were the last “species” to receive the same rights as men. Let alone the lifestyle created purposely for women, like the cult of domesticity, that showed home as a women’s sphere. Yet women referred home as a glide cage. Despite that men continued to look at women as helpless species, many respective women, during the antebellum period, showed the society just what a woman could do as to speaking their invaluable truths, hosting meetings, and participating in numerous protests that signified a woman’s capability. Meaning by this is women got involved into other movements not concerning them at all, for their evangical spirit drove them into working for the human goodness.
It was not until after abolitionist groups formed and began fighting slavery that women began to realize they had no rights themselves and began their own fight; therefore, the women’s rights movements of the nineteenth century emerged out of abolition activism. Without the sense of gendered ethical power that abolition provided women, any sort of activism either would never have occurred, or would have simply died out. The women’s rights movement was a way for women to seek remedy of industrialization; frustration over lack of power that lead to the call for women’s rights. Without the radical activists for abolition, like the Grimké sisters advocating for equality, a standard would never have been set and no real progress would have ever been made.
The morality of social welfare systems, or the morality of crafting laws to aid American citizens in poverty, is a subject that (like myriad ethical issues) is hotly debated to say the least. For example, some opponents of social welfare institutions maintain the view that such programs "increase the reward or reduce the penalties" of poverty; thereby ostensibly making an impoverished state appealing even to people who might initially have been motivated to earn a living by conventional means. In other words, welfare programs (according to opponents) encourage otherwise productive individuals to embrace laziness, for basic human needs would be met by such institutions, eliminating the need to work at all. Those opposed to social welfare plans have also been known to claim that an "unfair burden is placed upon workers who must pay for the system." When one considers the above opposing views, it would then stand to reason that proponents of social welfare programs might maintain that it is the moral responsibility of working citizens to provide assistance and funding for programs such as Aid to Families with Dependent Children, the Food Stamp program, or the like. This supposition is confirmed upon examination of the notion that, when basic human needs such as "food, housing, and medical care" are not met, one is consequently rendered unable to uphold any level of social freedom. Given the above information, one can safely deduce that modern supporters of social welfare organizations are under the impression that such programs provide the impoverished masses with the means by which to obtain the level of general well-being vital to acquiring work in the first place.
This movement had great leaders who were willing to deal with the ridicule and the disrespect that came along with being a woman. At that time they were fighting for what they thought to be true and realistic. Some of the great women who were willing to deal with those things were Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, Jane Hunt, Mary McClintock, and Martha C. Wright. These women gave this movement, its spark by conduction the first ever women 's right’s convention. This convention was held in a church in Seneca Falls in 1848. At this convection they expressed their problems with how they were treated, as being less than a man. These women offered solutions to the problem by drafting the Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions. They cleverly based the document after the Declaration of Independence. The opening line of their document was “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal” (Shi & Mayer 361). In this declaration they discuss the history of how women have been treated and how men have denied them rights, which go against everything they believe in. This convention was the spark that really
During the Great War and the huge amount of men that were deployed created the need to employ women in hospitals, factories, and offices. When the war ended the women would return home or do more traditional jobs such as teaching or shop work. “Also in the 1920s the number of women working raised by fifty percent.” They usually didn’t work if they were married because they were still sticking to the role of being stay at home moms while the husband worked and took care of the family financially. But among the single women there was a huge increase in employment. “Women were still not getting payed near as equally as men and were expected to quit their jobs if they married or pregnant.” Although women were still not getting payed as equally it was still a huge change for the women's
...vement almost completely focused on the right to vote. The suffrage movement grew among women and many joined in the fight. This early movement was almost exclusively led by white women; non-white women would have never been given the chance to make their case. Many times the white women in this early movement were heard because people thought that it would balance out the freedoms of the non-whites to have more educated white women voters. This showed that freedom once again became an issue of race. The poor, non-white or female members of society were left with the question of whether they had true liberty and freedom, or whether they were being led to believe that they were undeserving. This movement as well as most of the others showed a want for freedoms for some groups, but revealed that to most, freedom and liberty were still very limited to race and status.
One key issue that is declining the development of the United States is poverty. Although it has been a major factor for the last 150 years it is still bothering our economy. The federal government’s role in fighting poverty did not begin until the Great Depression of the 1930’s, after Black Tuesday and the market crash. President Franklin Roosevelt introduced a program to bring the United States back on its feet.
Distant, detached, and ignorant of society's degenerate condition, the developing society feared reality's ugliness. Believing that decadence encouraged decadence and that one's birth influenced one's character, society sought welfare reform, establishing centralized institutions for public assistance. Once established, the Poor Law separated families, put the poor to work in occupations that no one wanted, creating an environment that was less appealing for public assistance, and more appealing for employment. Believing that it had made today better than yesterday, society went about its business, ignoring the reality of starvation, illness, and death. The conditions after the Poor Law forced people to avoid public assistance, leaving them the only...
The feminist movement helped earn women the right to vote, but even then, it wasn’t enough to get accepted into the workforce. They were given the strength to fight the journey for equality and social justice. There has been known to be three waves of feminism, each wave fighting for a different issue concerning women’s rights. Laws protecting sexual assault and alimony would be enacted, and women were now allowed custody of their children in divorce cases.