The Role Of Women During The Progressive Era

The progressive movement was a response to the social and economic problems caused by industrialization. Many progressives sought for social welfare programs and encouraged government activism. Woman played a vital role in progressivism, advocating social, economic, and political change, beginning with making change happen at the local level but eventually bringing progressive issues to national attention. The first glimpse of women involvement during the Progressive Era starts with the establishment of Hull House by Jane Addams in 1889. Emphasizing the need to bridge the gap in the relationship between the wealthy and the poor, Addams established Hull House which provided public baths, restaurants, and recreational sites for the betterment

of the urban poor. With this, the settlement house movement began in England, with Addams establishing five hundred houses like Hull House by 1910. “In the process, settlement house women created a new profession - social work” (563). The accomplishments achieved by Addams also inspired other progressive advocates to help those in need of welfare. Advocates such as Lillian Wald joined the progressive movement, recruiting several nurses to move to New York City’s Lower East Side in 1893, pioneering public health nursing. The efforts of Addams and Wald helped shape the Progressive Era by improving the living conditions of the urban poor and shedding light to the issue of large economic gaps between the wealthy and the lower class.

Alcohol also became another target for women progressives, pointing out that alcohol is connected to prostitution, wife and child abuse, unemployment, and political corruption. In an attempt at social reform, the Anti-Saloon League was established in 1895 that worked together with the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union to end the sale of liquor. “Progressives campaigned to enforce the Sunday closing of taverns. Stores, and other commercial establishments and pushed for state legislation to outlaw the sale of liquor” (563). Through these welfare programs and reform attempts, woman were able to show how they could improve society benefiting by slowing making their way to address issues on a larger scale. The willingness of progressive women leaders to improve the living conditions of the lower class as well as seeking social reform, with both aiming to improve society as a whole, is only one part of how women characterized the Progressive

Era.
As the progressive movement began to grow, the issues presented by the various advocates is brought to the attention of the working class, who hope to gain social rights with the support of middle class reformers.

With the creation of the Women’s Trade Union League (WTUL) in 1903, attempts to create a cross-class alliance became possible, bringing together women workers and middle class “allies” and allowing for the participation of more members to fight for issues of women regarding their workplace. The WTUL achieved success with the 1909 strike caused by woman employees of the Triangle Shirtwaist Company in New York City protesting low wages, dangerous working conditions, and the refusal of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) to recognize their union, the International Ladies’ Garment Workers Union. “In support, an estimated twenty thousand garment workers, most of them teenage girls and many of them Jewish and Italian immigrants stayed out on strike through the winter” (564). This shows how women of all ages and ethnicities, despite the existence of nativism, began to become involved in the progressive movement. By the end of the strike in 1910, many of the demands of the strikers, including the recognition of their union, were fulfilled. Although some form of success was achieved, the strike did little to improve the working conditions of women overall. Women advocates were faced with reality with the fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist factory in 1911. “The terrified

Triangle workers had little choice but to jump. Flames blocked one exit, and the other door had been locked to prevent workers from pilfering” (565). This event became a turning point for how women presented their issues, with WTUL leaders such as Rose Schneiderman realizing that strikes were no longer enough to enforce their concerns. This issue was driven to a national level, beginning with the lobbying for protective legislation, or laws that would limit work hours and improve working conditions. Florence Kelley was among the leaders that lead The National Consumers League, who advocated protective legislation. Florence Kelley achieved a major victory in 1908, convincing the U.S. Supreme Court that long hours did harm to women who had an important reproductive role, justifying their special treatment and resulting in the lifting of previous rulings of the ten hour work day. The accomplishments made by various women's advocates and reformers proved to give significant gains to women in the terms of their working hours and conditions while at the same time introducing a new concern in the minds of progressives, the lack of women's rights.
The promotion of women’s rights was very prominent during the Progressive Era, with woman seeking improvement in their social standing and political involvement. The birth control movement in 1915, started by Margaret Sanger, used contraception as a means of balancing social and political power relationships by lowering the number of working class citizens, which will in turn lead to higher wages and more flexibility for women. Sanger took direct action, opening the nation’s first birth control clinic in October 1916 and later being praised as a national figure. However, the use of artificial means to prevent pregnancy was not accepted by everyone. People such as New York City’s commissioner of vice Anthony Comstock promoted laws in the 1870s discouraging the sale of contraceptives and not allowing information on how to prevent pregnancy to be published. Overtime, birth control became linked to free speech and had taken up taking a more liberal cause, but women had achieved success but publicizing the birth control cause. The fight for women's rights peeks with the march demonstrators in Washington D.C. in 1913 who wanted suffrage the day before President Woodrow Wilson’s inauguration. “ The largest mass match to that date in the nation’s history took place as more than five thousand demonstrators took the streets in Washington to demand the vote for women” (585). Their efforts bore no fruit as Wilson ignored woman suffrage in his inaugural address. However, this failure did not stop activists like Alice Paul, who lobbied for a suffrage amendment and founded the militant National Woman’s Party in 1916, a party that became a major voice in the suffrage movement. The participation of devoted women advocates on social, economic, and political issues changed the course of the Progressive Era to include issue presented by women. Although many of their attempts at reform such as birth control and suffrage did not reach the intended goals, they did bring light to growing issues with their hopes of change eventually becoming reality.