Women's Suffrage Dbq Essay

The Progressive Area was a period of time when working Americans were working in poor conditions, unhealthy living situations, and under a corrupt government.

Women earning the right to vote was a monumental development in inflating democracy. Women doubled the amount of voters and people apart of the democracy. Many women worked very hard to contribute to suffrage, their right to vote. In 1848, the first women’s rights convention was held in Seneca Falls, New York. Two women’s suffrage groups combined together to create the NAWSA, or the National American Woman Suffrage Association, in 1890. The NAWSA’s first president was Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and then two years later, Susan B. Anthony became president. She once stated, “The preamble

of the Federal Constitution says: ‘We, the people of the United States….’ It was we, the people; not we, the white male citizens; nor yet we, the male citizens; but we, the whole people who formed the union.

And we formed it, not to give the blessings of liberty, but to secure them; not to the half of ourselves and half of our posterity, but to the whole people women as well as men.” (Document 5). Anthony even once tried to vote, however was arrested, and found guilty. She was fined a large amount, but refused to pay the bill. In 1846, only four states, all western states, allowed women to vote. In between the years of 1896 and 1910, seven more Western states permitted full suffrage for women, but it wasn’t until 14 years after Anthony’s death, women gained national suffrage. President Wilson urged the passing of the Nineteenth Amendment, and in 1918, all women in America were given the right to vote. In 1920, the Nineteenth Amendment was ratified by the states and made into a law. A woman by the name

of Charlotte Woodard attended the first women’s rights convention as a teenager, and voted in the presidential election for the first time as a 91-year-old-woman.
Another chain of events during the Progressive Era that allowed democracy to expand was political reforms. Wisconsin became the first state, in 1903, to have a direct primary, which allowed voters to elect applicants for office. Oregon then pressed for direct primaries and additional democratic improvements, counting initiative, referendum, and recall. The initiative reform stated voters may directly propose laws. The referendum stated voters can approve proposed laws. The recall stated elected officials can be voted out of office. Before the initiative reform, only members of state legislature could introduce bills, before referendum only legislators could pass laws, and previous to recall, only courts or legislature could remove corrupt officials (Document 2). The addition of these democratic reforms, and the direct primary, allowed voters to have more say in who they wanted in positions of power and who they wanted to represent them, which increased the number of people interested in being a part of the democracy.
Social reform was an additional type of reform that took place throughout the Progressive Era.

Socials reformers wished to help and support immigrants, the unemployed, the poor, and workers. To help the poor and workers, minimum wage laws were encouraged, as were limits on working hours. Settlement houses were communal centers that offered work and education facilities to immigrants and the poor. Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr founded the Hull House. Citizen classes, free health clinics, nursery, and a kindergarten were all accessible to the poor, immigrants, and unemployed. Located in Chicago, many immigrants unfamiliar with America, parents who were unable to support their children, and those living on the streets came to the Hull House for all the support it delivered. Upton Sinclair wrote in his book, The Jungle, “rats, bread, and meant would go into the hoppers together. This is no fairy story and no joke… There were things that went into the sausage in comparison with which a poisoned rat was a tidbit.” (Document 6). After reading The Jungle, President Roosevelt signed the Meat Inspection Act, which allowed meat factories to be checked in on and approved upon by the government. President Roosevelt also signed the Pure Food and Drug Act in 1906. This forbid the sale of contaminated medicines and food. Roosevelt also was strongly passionate about the preservation of the environment. He created the U.S. Forest Service, and conserved 194 million acres of unrestricted

lands. The Newlands Reclamation Act of 1902 encouraged conservation by allowing the building of dams and irrigation systems using money from the sale of public lands (Document 4).