DISCUSSION TOPIC: WOMEN IN THE PROGRESSIVE ERA

The Primary Question

• How did the societal discussion about the division between the "public" and "private" spheres of life and about appropriate gender roles influence the reform activities of women during the Progressive Era?

Secondary Question

• In a society in which it is often assumed that women have achieved full equality and it is sometimes deemed that activist females speak in too strident a voice, a look to the past should remind one both of how recently women have gained the most basic of rights and also of the truth of the old adage that "power concedes nothing without a demand."  Comment.

The Primary Website

•   Reforming Their World -- Women In The Progressive Era:  Browse extensively in this impressive overview of women's reform movements in turn-of-the-century American society.  Then complement that with an exploration of the push for the female franchise using some of the resources listed below.

Women's Suffrage

•   Votes For Women -- The Struggle Women's Suffrage, Selected Images From The Collections Of The Library Of Congress:

• Votes For Women -- Selections From The National American Woman Suffrage Association Collection, 1848-1921, Library Of Congress, American Memory:

• Motherhood, Social Service And Political Reform -- Political Culture And Imagery Of American Woman Suffrage:

• One Hundred Years Toward Suffrage -- An Overview:

•   Rights For Women -- The Suffrage Movement And Its Leaders:

•   Women Of Protest -- Photographs From The Records Of The National Woman's Party, Library Of Congress:

• Women's Rights Movement In The U.S. -- Timeline Of Key Events In The American Women's Rights Movement, 1848-1920: