The Progressive Era’s Impact on Rights, Politics, and Education

The events leading to the Progressive Era occurred during the Gilded Age. It was a period full of corruption and poverty, women worked for hours in terrible conditions, subjected to male authority. Women were encouraged by society to stay home to cook, clean, and care for their children all the while their male counterparts received all the rights and respect that women should have also received but did not. The introduction of The Progressive Era of 1890 to 1920 marked a turning point in the history of women in the United States, many women even started to participate in groups that held protests fighting for women’s rights which eventually led to them gaining the right to vote. The Progressive Era also opened up the opportunity for women to become more involved in politics and gain better education that would lead to greater opportunities for them like getting jobs.

During the Progressive Era, women became unified and created organizations demanding rights for women. One of these organizations was the National American Woman Suffrage Association. This organization was formed in 1890 from two rival organizations, the National Women Suffrage Association (NWSA) and the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA), leading this organization was Susan B. Anthony along with Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucy Stone. The NAWSA held many campaigns fighting for women’s rights, especially prioritizing the right women should have to vote. Another organization that helped in the battle for women’s rights was the National Women’s Party. In 1917 the National Women’s Party held many protests for women’s rights an example of this would be when members of the party went to picket the White House and many ended up being arrested. In response to this, members held another protest where they went on a hunger strike. Their efforts did not go unnoticed because they later won the right to vote in North Dakota, Nebraska, Indiana, Rhode Island, Ohio, Michigan, New York, and Arkansas. Two years later in 1919, the 19th Amendment that gave women the right to vote was ratified and officially passed by Congress in 1920. 

The Progressive Era marked a turning point for women in terms of politics. Not only did the Progressive Era result in women getting the right to vote but it also resulted in the first woman to be elected into Congress. In 1916 the first woman was elected to Congress’s House of Representatives, that woman was Jeannette Rankin, she was formally seated in 1917. This was a turning point for women in the history of women in the United States because, before the Progressive Era, it was frowned upon for women to work outside the home. Since the start of the Progressive Era in 1890 there have been growing numbers of women joining the workforce. An example of this would be how their employment rates increased from 2.6 million to 7.8 million from the beginning of the era up to 1910. Although most women were working in domestic servitude it was still a change from how things were before. 

Due to all the changes that were occurring for women in the Progressive era, their education became much stronger and many women were becoming literate. Literacy opened up the way for women to gain important jobs outside of the house to help support their families. Jane Addams was one of the most influential of the women involved in the Progressive Era she was a social worker and the cofounder of Hull House and even won the Nobel Peace Prize eleven years after the Progressive Era, she was the second woman to do so. Hull House first opened one year prior to the start of the Progressive Era in 1890 it provided many services to the community, some of them being education, an employment office, and daycare. This gave women and many others the opportunity to get an education and be able to leave their children there while they went out to look for work.

The Progressive Era brought many new opportunities for women and changed the history of women in the United States. Some ways this era changed the history of women were by allowing them to acquire the confidence to go and protest for their rights, asserting themselves in spaces like politics that are generally ruled by men, and getting an education to help them get jobs to support themselves and their families as well. The actions of the women during the Progressive Era made it so that future women could vote and work jobs to earn a living on their own without having to always depend on their male counterparts.

Destiny J. Lopez