Women's Civil Rights in the USA 1865- 1992
- Created by: Eleanorarrowsmith
- Created on: 17-06-18 20:54
Women’s Civil Rights
The position of women in 1865
- More involved in public life after the war. Supporters of the abolition of slavery & temperance.
- Took part in church organisations, education and charities
- Some active in abolitionist campaigns
- Political activity still confined to men
- Most campaigners were white, middle class women
- However, Sojourner Truth and other African American women were famous abolitionist speakers
- Pressure for reform
- The prevailing concept was that women should remain AT HOME
- Didn’t want women to have the vote – if they did they could wield political power to vote on issues like slavery
Developments that aided women:
· Urbanisation
· New Technology
· Improved communications
· Better literacy and education for women
· Greater prosperity – (m/c white women could devote time to public causes instead of ‘survival’)
The Civil War
- Both Union and Confederacy relied on their home front to support the troops – running farms and plantations, working in factories.
- Women, especially in the South, suffered the economic devastation caused by the war
- Political rights were achieved for AAs – there was some hope this would be the same for women.
- However, most men did not support the equality or a greater political role for women. With industrialisation, more men were working in factories & workshops – increased the divide
- When women did work it was in lower- paid, casual employment or domestic service or in unskilled and poorly rewarded manufacturing jobs.
- In the South, if they worked in farms or sharecropping smallholdings they were expected to also do the domestic chores – they took the brunt of ‘total war’ (especially in the South)
- Limited use of contraception meant that women often had large families
- Despite this, there were many pioneering individuals such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott – prepared to organise and lead.
- Women’s rights and abolitionism were unlinked
- Old ways of life were challenged in the South, Industry drove the North
- Political rights for African Americans had changed – now why not women?
Between 1865 – 1919 there were movements to gain suffrage
The campaign for prohibition
In 1874 - Women’s Christian Temperance Union became a major national organisation.
800,000 members by 1920.
Prohibition was successful in getting up to whole states to ban alcohol. – The link between religion and political beliefs meant people were more passionate.
Women now had experience in mobilising support for a cause (lobbying, mass meetings)
Most charities continued work done in the CW – they influenced local government without being able to participate e.g. with pension legislation
The BREAK with ABOLITIONISM
- After abolitionism was ‘prioritised’ over Women’s rights in the 14th and 15th amendments. Mentioned race and color but not…
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