4. • 19th Century: Women demand for higher education and the right to
join the professions (i.e. medicine and the law).
• 1900: Women can qualify as lawyers and doctors.
• 1917: Jeanette Rankin becomes the first woman to be elected to
Congress.
• 1920: 19th Amendment passed; gives women the right to vote in
federal elections.
• HOWEVER: African-Americans (men or women) were unaffected by this.
• 1924: First woman to be elected governor of a state (Wyoming).
• 1926: First woman to be elected mayor of a city (Seattle).
5. • Women had already been given the vote in Wyoming, Utah, Washington
Territory, Colorado and Idaho during the 19th Century, but there was no
federal suffrage.
• In 1918, more states gave women the vote: North Dakota, Ohio, Indiana.
• During WW1, women took over men’s jobs.
• President Wilson supported female suffrage.
• The 14th Amendment (1860s) gave all men regardless of race, creed or
religion the right to vote.
• This meant that immigrant men had the right to vote, while women born in the US
did not.
• HOWEVER: In the Southern States, the authorities used literacy tests and grandfather
clauses to prevent African-American men from voting after the 14th Amendment.
6. • The vote would mean that women could potentially have influence
over the passing of federal policies and laws:
• Thus, they could more effectively lobby for Prohibition and other moral
measures
• They could campaign for employment equality
• They could gain improved education and healthcare
7. • Alice Paul used aggressive tactics inspired by the WSPU (picketing,
hunger striking, maximum publicity and disruption).
• Southerners feared that, if women were to be enfranchised, it would
lead to African-Americans gaining more rights.
• Women did not vote as a bloc, rather following the voting patterns of
their male relatives.
• The alcohol industry feared that women would enforce Prohibition.
• The textile industry didn’t want women to be able to improve their
pay and working conditions.
8. • People still saw the position of women as being in the home (a view
that was also held by many women).
• Politics were considered too dishonest for women.
• Those that wanted political power for women were divided over how
it should be used:
• Some wanted to lobby for social reform, while others wanted political reform.
• Some women joined a branch of the KKK to campaign against reform.
• ‘Flappers’ were rare; most modern women were more concerned
with what they were not than what they were.
9. • African-American women were very unlikely to vote; they wanted to
be more conservative in order to avoid controversy.
• Women, as a whole, were less likely to vote than men.
11. • Women were seen as more liberated by the rebellious spirit of
Prohibition; during this time, female consumption of alcohol
increased and there was less chaperoning of unmarried couples as
they frequented speakeasies.
• More women entered jobs than ever before; 3.5 million women
worked in domestic jobs.
• The Shepphard-Towner Act was passed in 1921 to provide federal
funding for healthcare for pregnant women.
• HOWEVER: This was one of the first things to be cut when the government
needed money in 1929 to deal with the Depression.
12. • There was an expansion of education opportunities for African-
Americans.
• The number of married women in work rose from 22.8%-28.8%.
• The availability of easy credit and labour-saving devices led to a
greater acceptance of women going out to work.
14. • Medical schools only allowed 5% of students to be women
(accessibility to professions was limited).
• By 1930, there were only 150 female dentists and 100 accountants.
• The workplace, while gaining in number, was still overwhelmingly
male.
• Discrimination in the workplace continued, as did the view that
women only worked until they got married.
• In the South, there was hostility towards women who wanted to vote
(particularly African-American women).
15. • Opportunities in society for women were limited.
• Women who were poor had to focus on survival.
• There was limited success in social reform (e.g. the Shepphard-
Towner Act).
• Women faced hostility from unionists (the only female unions existed
for white women only).
• Women were expected to give up their jobs to men during the
Depression.
• Married women who worked during this time were accused of only working
to earn money to spend on themselves.
16. • There remained resistant attitudes among politicians.
• Most women worked in menial and low-paid jobs in the service sector.
• The number of women in college dropped by 5%.
• There was no equal pay for equal jobs.
• Mostly, the changes in women’s lives were due to them now being seen as
consumers, thus turning them into the victims of advertising.
• During the 1920s, the annual income of the cosmetics industry rose from
$17,000,000 to $200,000,000.
• Even after enfranchisement, there were only two female members of the
House of Representatives (out of 435).
17. • The feminist movement was split over philosophical issues (political
vs social reform).
• Many women were uninterested in politics.
• There was disunity between women, namely between the ‘flappers’
who wanted to do whatever they wished and the women who were
happy to be housewives.
• Feminists believed that the Shepphard-Towner Act reinforced
women’s role as mothers and got rid of the need for birth control.
• Legislation to ban night shifts was attacked by feminists over fears
that women who couldn’t work such shifts would be dismissed.
