Answer the below questions regarding the discussion topic.
In the early decades of the 20th century, a great shift occurred in women’s roles, as more women took to the public sphere to advocate for change. The Progressive era reform movements relied on an increase in college-educated “New Women” and a growth in the number of women in the labor force. Many of these reform movements centered on improving the lives of women — as laborers, citizens, consumers, and members of the family. But many also relied on a politics of exclusion, as white middle and upper-class reformers sometimes advocated for their rights at the expense of others. By 1920, the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment granting suffrage signaled a new era for women. The suffrage movement benefitted greatly from Progressive era reform movements pushing for inclusion in the male-dominated public and political sphere.
Choose the following Progressive era reform movements to focus on:
• “Public housekeeping” reform
• African American women’s clubs and societies
How did the groups above unite or divide women in pursuit of their agenda and vision of American womanhood?
