American History Chapter 16-2

Women & Public Life

Women Get Involved• Education:– Late 1800s colleges accepted more women.– Most of these women were middle to upper class.– Still a struggle to get hired in certain professions.

• Employment:– Women began to be hired as bookkeepers, typists,

secretaries, clerks, artists, and journalists.– Many women with low education worked in the garment

industry.• Were paid less than men because it was believed they

had men in their lives supporting them.

1800s College Women

1897 University of WisconsinWomen’s Basketball Team

Women & Reform Movements

• Women worked to end child labor.– By 1912 most states prohibited fulltime child labor.

• Women worked for Prohibition:– Ban on making, selling, & distributing alcoholic beverages.– Believed alcohol led to crime, poverty, & domestic violence.– WCTU led by Frances Willard fought for temperance.– Carry Nation smashed up saloons in Ks.

Prohibition

• 18th Amendment: Ratified in 1919– Prohibited the manufacture, sale, & distribution of alcohol.

Women and Civil Rights

• African American women formed their own groups.– NACW: National Association of Colored Women

• Women’s suffrage movement:– Susan B. Anthony helped to start the NWSA.• 1872 Anthony was arrested for trying to vote.

Anti-Suffrage • Anti-suffrage beliefs:– Women did not have the education/experience to

be competent voters.– Most women did not want to vote.– Liquor industry did not want women voting. Why

not?– Church leaders didn’t want women voting. Why

not?