17. The New Woman
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Summary
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Coming soon!
Draw your own conclusions
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What were women's priorities after suffrage?
In this inquiry, students examine primary material from women in the 1920s. Zitkala Sa stepped up to advocate for their citizenship, Alice Paul proposed the Era... the fight goes on, but was there consensus? 
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What made the twenties roaring for women?
Suffrage, the postwar period, and economic boom led to new opportunities for women. Women did not sit idle. They went after discriminatory legislation and worked to remedy other issues.
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What arguments did Native women use to fight for suffrage and citizenship?
The 19th Amendment passed, but Native Americans were not considered citizens. Native women had long held positions of power and reverence in their communities. It was time the United States recognized them. In this inquiry, students explore the arguments Native women used to fight for suffrage and citizenship.
What arguments did Chinese women use to fight for suffrage and citizenship?
The 19th Amendment passed, but many Chinese Americans were unable to vote due to the impact of the Chinese Exclusion Act. White suffragists capitalized on progressive reforms happening in China and brought Chinese immigrants into the fold to teach them about women's status in China. In this inquiry, students explore the arguments Chinese women made to fight for suffrage and citizenship.
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Who Was The Real Lady Lindy?
Who was the true Lady Lindy? In this inquiry students will be able to examine primary sources by women, to decide for themselves who the true Lady Lindy was: Amelia Earhart or Anne Morrow Lindberg.
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Lesson Plans from Other Organizations
- The National Women's History Museum has lesson plans on women's history.
- The Guilder Lehrman Institute for American History has lesson plans on women's history.
- The NY Historical Society has articles and classroom activities for teaching women's history.
- Unladylike 2020, in partnership with PBS, has primary sources to explore with students and outstanding videos on women from the Progressive era.
- The Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media has produced recommendations for teaching women's history with primary sources and provided a collection of sources for world history. Check them out!
- The Stanford History Education Group has a number of lesson plans about women in US History.
Period Specific Lesson Plans from Other Organizations
- National History Day: Ida B. Wells (1862-1931) was born to slave parents in Holly Springs, Mississippi, on July 16, 1862, two months before President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. As a young girl, Wells watched her parents work as political activists during Reconstruction. In 1878, tragedy struck as Wells lost both of her parents and a younger brother in a yellow fever epidemic. To support her younger siblings, Wells became a teacher, eventually moving to Memphis, Tennessee. In 1884, Wells found herself in the middle of a heated lawsuit. After purchasing a first-class train ticket, Wells was ordered to move to a segregated car. She refused to give up her seat and was forcibly removed from the train. Wells filed suit against the railroad and won. This victory was short lived, however, as the Tennessee Supreme Court overturned the lower court ruling in 1887. In 1892, Wells became editor and co-owner of The Memphis Free Speech and Headlight. Here, she used her skills as a journalist to champion the causes for African American and women’s rights. Among her most known works were those on behalf of anti-lynching legislation. Until her death in 1931, Ida B. Wells dedicated her life to what she referred to as a “crusade for justice.”
- Unladylike: In this video from Unladylike2020, learn how Rose Schneiderman, an immigrant whose family settled in the tenements of New York City’s Lower East Side, became one of the most important labor leaders in American history. A socialist and feminist, she fought to end dangerous working conditions for garment workers, and worked to help New York State grant women the right to vote in 1917. Utilizing video, discussion questions, vocabulary, and teaching tips, students learn about Schneiderman’s role in creating a better life for workers in the United States. Sensitive: This resource contains material that may be sensitive for some students. Teachers should exercise discretion in evaluating whether this resource is suitable for their class.
- Unladylike: Tye Leung Schulze became the first Chinese American woman to work for the federal government and the first Chinese American woman to vote in a U.S. election, in 1912. Learn how this inspiring woman resisted domestic servitude and an arranged child marriage to provide translation services and solace to Asian immigrant victims of human trafficking in San Francisco in this video short from Unladylike2020. Sensitive: This resource contains material that may be sensitive for some students. Teachers should exercise discretion in evaluating whether this resource is suitable for their class.
- Unladylike: Learn about Mary Church Terrell, daughter of former slaves and one of the first African American women to earn both a Bachelor and a Master’s degree, who became a national leader for civil rights and women’s suffrage, in this video from Unladylike2020. Terrell was one of the earliest anti-lynching advocates and joined the suffrage movement, focusing her life’s work on racial uplift—the belief that blacks would end racial discrimination and advance themselves through education, work, and community activism. She helped found the National Association of Colored Women (NACW) and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Support materials include discussion questions and teaching tips for research projects. Primary source analysis activities emphasize how the content connects to racial justice issues that continue today, including a close reading of the Emmett Till Antilynching Bill of 2020. Sensitive: This resource contains material that may be sensitive for some students. Teachers should exercise discretion in evaluating whether this resource is suitable for their class.
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- Docs Teach: In this activity, students will explore the struggle for universal suffrage long after both men and women constitutionally had the right to vote. Following a progressive timeline, primary sources highlight voting problems which arose for minority groups throughout the 20th century. Students will answer questions as they work through the documents to reflect on if and when universal suffrage was ultimately achieved.
- Unladylike: Learn about the trailblazing, gender non-conforming performer Gladys Bentley with this digital short from Unladylike2020. Gladys Bentley fled her homophobic Trinidadian immigrant family in Philadelphia, PA at age 16 to join New York's Harlem Renaissance jazz scene as a cross-dressing performer. In a time when homosexuality was widely considered sinful and deviant, Bentley wore men's clothing -- a tuxedo and top hat -- and became famous for her lesbian-themed lyrics covering popular tunes of the day, and for openly flirting with women in the audience. In the 1950s, succumbing to pressure from the black church and McCarthy Era harassment of the LGBTQ community, Bentley said of her gender identity, "I am a woman again!" Constantly reinventing herself, Bentley challenged norms and pushed boundaries. Support materials include discussion questions, vocabulary, a research project on queer identity during the Harlem Rennaissance, and a close reading of Bentley's famous essay, "I am a Woman Again".
- Unladylike: Learn about Charlotta Spears Bass, a crusading newspaper editor and politician who was one of the first African American women to own and operate a newspaper in the United States, in In this video from the Unladylike2020 series. She published the California Eagle in Los Angeles from 1912 until 1951, at a time when newsrooms were male-dominated and few white journalists focused on issues of importance to African Americans. In the paper’s pages, she addressed racism, police brutality, and restrictive housing policies. Later in her career, Bass entered politics and was the first African American woman to run for Vice President of the United States in 1952. Support materials include discussion questions, primary source analysis, research project ideas, and the New York Times Magazine “1619 Project” created by Nikole Hannah-Jones.
- Unladylike: Sonora Webster Carver became one of the most famous horse divers in the world, diving 40 feet on horseback into a tank of water. Webster was blinded after one of her performances in 1931, but continued to dive horses for another 11 years. Learn how this inspiring woman persevered, undaunted by her blindness, in this video from Unladylike2020. Support materials include discussion questions, vocabulary, research extension tips, and an argument-based essay prompt.
- Unladylike: In 1916, Margaret Chung became the first American-born Chinese female doctor. Throughout her career, Chung persevered against discrimination based on her race, gender, and presumed sexuality. Learn about Chung’s inspiring career in medicine and her contributions to the U.S. war effort during WWII in this video from Unladylike2020. Support materials include discussion questions, vocabulary, a “Real Heroes” comic book analysis, and research extension tips.
- Unladylike: Explore how Bessie Coleman became the first female black pilot and the first African American to hold an international license to fly in this digital short from Unladylike2020. Using video, discussion questions, vocabulary, and a classroom activity, students learn how Coleman achieved her dream of flying during the era of Jim Crow—a time when it seemed impossible—and laid the groundwork for future African American pilots. Sensitive: This resource contains material that may be sensitive for some students. Teachers should exercise discretion in evaluating whether this resource is suitable for their class.
- Unladylike: Learn about record-breaking swimmer Gertrude Ederle who rocketed to international stardom in 1926 at the age of 20, as the first woman to swim across the English Channel in this video from the Unladylike2020 series. Considered one of the toughest endurance tests in the world, Ederle battled 21 miles of frigid water and treacherous tides between France and England to emerge on the other side of the channel. She beat the fastest man's existing record by two hours -- the first time in sports history that a woman had completed an event in a faster time than a man. Dubbed “Queen of the Waves” and “America’s Best Girl,” Ederle's accomplishment helped to demonstrate that women could be great athletes and challenged conventional wisdom about women as the so-called "weaker sex." Support materials include discussion questions, tips for research projects on female athletes, and primary source analysis. Sensitive: This resource contains material that may be sensitive for some students. Teachers should exercise discretion in evaluating whether this resource is suitable for their class.
- Unladylike: Learn about artist Meta Warrick Fuller--forerunner to the Harlem Renaissance--in this digital short from Unladylike2020. Using teaching tips, discussion questions and vocabulary, students examine the life, impact and historical era in which Warrick Fuller lived.
- Unladylike: Sissieretta Jones was heralded as one of the greatest singers of her generation and a pioneer in the operatic tradition at a time when access to most classical concert halls in the U.S. were closed to Black performers and patrons. Learn more about this trailblazing classical performer in this video from Unladylike2020. Support materials include discussion questions, vocabulary, research extension tips, and a newspaper analysis activity. Sensitive: This resource contains material that may be sensitive for some students. Teachers should exercise discretion in evaluating whether this resource is suitable for their class.
- Unladylike: Learn about Jovita Idar, a teacher, journalist, nurse, and civil rights activist who grew up in Texas and endeavored to expose segregation, lynching, and other injustices endured by Mexican Americans in the early 20th century, in this video from Unladylike2020. At a time when signs announcing “No Negroes, Mexicans, or Dogs Allowed” were common in the Southwest, she helped to tackle racism, the need for bilingual education in schools, women’s rights, and protecting the lives and property of Mexican Americans. She used journalism as a form of activism to both mobilize and educate the public. She also formed and led one of the first organizations to support the rights of Mexican American women. Support materials include discussion questions, primary source analysis, and ideas for research projects. Sensitive: This resource contains material that may be sensitive for some students. Teachers should exercise discretion in evaluating whether this resource is suitable for their class.
- Unladylike: In this digital short from Unladylike2020, students learn about Lois Weber, the first woman director of a feature film, and her impact on silent film and early Hollywood. Utilizing video, discussion questions, vocabulary and an in-class activity, students explore the life and legacy of Lois Weber and her role in the fight for women’s suffrage. Sensitive: This resource contains material that may be sensitive for some students. Teachers should exercise discretion in evaluating whether this resource is suitable for their class.
- Unladylike: Learn about actress Anna May Wong—the first Chinese American Hollywood movie star, producer and one of the most influential style icons of her time, in this resource from Unladylike2020. Throughout Wong’s career, she encountered racism and stereotyping in the roles she was offered, but in the end she found a way to flourish as an actor on her own terms starring in 60 films. Using video, discussion questions, vocabulary, teaching tips, and an in-class activity, students learn about Wong’s place in Hollywood history and how she was impacted by important events in American history, like the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and anti-miscegenation laws. For additional information on the Chinese Exclusion Act, see the Chinese Exclusion Act (1882) and resource materials on PBS LearningMedia.
- Unladylike: Learn about Zitkála-Šá, also known as Gertrude Simmons Bonnin, a Yankton Sioux author, composer, and indigenous rights activist in this video from the Unladylike2020 series. Taken from her community at age 8 to attend a boarding school as part of the assimilationist policy of the U.S. government to educate Native American youth under the motto: "Kill the Indian to save the man," she used her education to advocate for American Indian rights. She trained as a violinist at the New England Conservatory of Music, and in 1913 wrote the libretto for what is considered the first Native American opera, The Sun Dance Opera. As an author, she published in prestigious national magazines such as Harper’s and The Atlantic, writing about American Indian struggles to retain tribal identities amid pressures to assimilate into European American culture. She joined the Society of American Indians, edited its publication American Indian Magazine, and in 1926 co-founded the National Council of American Indians to lobby for voting rights, sovereignty rights, and the preservation of Native American heritage and ways of life. Support materials include discussion questions, research project ideas, and primary source analysis.
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Bibliography
Collins, Gail, America's Women: Four Hundred Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates, and Heroines. New York, William Morrow, 2003.
DuBois, Ellen Carol, 1947-. Through Women's Eyes : an American History with Documents. Boston :Bedford/St. Martin's, 2005.Indians Editors. “NATIVE AMERICAN WOMEN.” Indians. N.D. http://indians.org/articles/Native-american-women.html.
Ware, Susan. American Women’s History: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015.
DuBois, Ellen Carol, 1947-. Through Women's Eyes : an American History with Documents. Boston :Bedford/St. Martin's, 2005.Indians Editors. “NATIVE AMERICAN WOMEN.” Indians. N.D. http://indians.org/articles/Native-american-women.html.
Ware, Susan. American Women’s History: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015.
Primary AUTHOR: |
Dr. Barbara Tischler
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Primary ReviewerS: |
Dr. Deanna Beachley
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Consulting TeamKelsie Brook Eckert, Project Director
Coordinator of Social Studies Education at Plymouth State University Dr. Barbara Tischler, Consultant Professor of History Hunter College and Columbia University Dr. Alicia Gutierrez-Romine, Consultant Assistant Professor of History at La Sierra University Jacqui Nelson, Consultant Teaching Lecturer of Military History at Plymouth State University Dr. Deanna Beachley Professor of History and Women's Studies at College of Southern Nevada |
EditorsReviewersColonial
Dr. Margaret Huettl Hannah Dutton Dr. John Krueckeberg 19th Century Dr. Rebecca Noel Michelle Stonis, MA Annabelle L. Blevins Pifer, MA Cony Marquez, PhD Candidate 20th Century Dr. Tanya Roth Dr. Jessica Frazier Mary Bezbatchenko, MA |
Remedial Herstory Editors. "17. THE NEW WOMAN." The Remedial Herstory Project. November 20, 2022. www.remedialherstory.com.
Elsie Hill: Shall Women Be Equal Before the Law?
Elise Hill: Shall Women Be Equal Before the Law?
Yes! The removal of all forms of the subjection of women is the purpose to which the National Woman’s Party is dedicated… The laws of various States at present hold her in that class. They deny her a control of her children equal to the father’s; they deny her, if married, the right to her own earnings; they punish her for offenses for which men go unpunished; they exclude her from public office and from public institutions to the support of which her taxes contribute. These laws are not the creation of this age, but the fact that they are still tolerated on our statute books and that in some States their removal is vigorously resisted shows the hold of old traditions-upon us. Since the passage of the Suffrage Amendment the incongruity of these laws, dating back many centuries, has become more than ever marked.
In many States the earnings of minor children belong entirely to the father, and the father alone is entitled to damages in the case of injuries to a child. In Florida the father recovers money damages even for the mental pain and suffering of the mother, occasioned by the wrongful death of her child…The double standard of morals is written into the laws of many States. …[I]n Maryland white woman who has a child by Negro Mulatto may be sentenced to the penitentiary for a number of years, but a white man under the existing Maryland law can have a child by a Negro woman and receive no punishment. This type of discrimination enters also into the divorce laws of more than one State. In Texas a husband is entitled to a divorce for a single act of infidelity on the part of his wife, but a wife is denied a divorce on this ground, and is granted one if her husband is living a state of infidelity and addition has abandoned her.
State education is still not open to women on equal terms. The State University of Florida is closed to women. The State University of Virginia accepts men at the age of 16, while refusing entrance to women until 20 and maintaining a different standard of requirements for each.
There are also laws which discriminate against women as citizens. For instance, there are States which do not permit women to serve on juries, and in least one, Massachusetts, a ruling has been made since the passage of the Suffrage Amendment to the effect that a woman cannot sit in legislature…
The National Woman’s Party believes that it is a vital social need to do away with these discriminations against women and is devoting its energies to that end.
Hill, Elsie. "Shall Women Be Equal Before the Law? The removal of all forms of the subjection of women is the purpose to which the National Woman's Party is dedicated." The Nation. April 22, 1922. https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/shall-women-be-equal-law/.
Yes! The removal of all forms of the subjection of women is the purpose to which the National Woman’s Party is dedicated… The laws of various States at present hold her in that class. They deny her a control of her children equal to the father’s; they deny her, if married, the right to her own earnings; they punish her for offenses for which men go unpunished; they exclude her from public office and from public institutions to the support of which her taxes contribute. These laws are not the creation of this age, but the fact that they are still tolerated on our statute books and that in some States their removal is vigorously resisted shows the hold of old traditions-upon us. Since the passage of the Suffrage Amendment the incongruity of these laws, dating back many centuries, has become more than ever marked.
In many States the earnings of minor children belong entirely to the father, and the father alone is entitled to damages in the case of injuries to a child. In Florida the father recovers money damages even for the mental pain and suffering of the mother, occasioned by the wrongful death of her child…The double standard of morals is written into the laws of many States. …[I]n Maryland white woman who has a child by Negro Mulatto may be sentenced to the penitentiary for a number of years, but a white man under the existing Maryland law can have a child by a Negro woman and receive no punishment. This type of discrimination enters also into the divorce laws of more than one State. In Texas a husband is entitled to a divorce for a single act of infidelity on the part of his wife, but a wife is denied a divorce on this ground, and is granted one if her husband is living a state of infidelity and addition has abandoned her.
State education is still not open to women on equal terms. The State University of Florida is closed to women. The State University of Virginia accepts men at the age of 16, while refusing entrance to women until 20 and maintaining a different standard of requirements for each.
There are also laws which discriminate against women as citizens. For instance, there are States which do not permit women to serve on juries, and in least one, Massachusetts, a ruling has been made since the passage of the Suffrage Amendment to the effect that a woman cannot sit in legislature…
The National Woman’s Party believes that it is a vital social need to do away with these discriminations against women and is devoting its energies to that end.
Hill, Elsie. "Shall Women Be Equal Before the Law? The removal of all forms of the subjection of women is the purpose to which the National Woman's Party is dedicated." The Nation. April 22, 1922. https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/shall-women-be-equal-law/.
Crystal Eastman: Now we can begin
Crystal Eastman: Now We Can Begin
This speech delivered by Crystal Eastman, co-author of the Equal Rights Amendment, is considered one of the top 100 most influential speeches in American History. It was delivered in 1920, just after the ratification of the 19th Amendment guaranteeing women's suffrage.
Most women will agree that August 23, the day when the Tennessee legislature finally enacted the Federal suffrage amendment, is a day to begin with, not a day to end with. Men are saying perhaps “Thank God, this everlasting woman’s fight is over!” But women, if I know them, are saying, “Now at last we can begin.” In fighting for the right to vote most women have tried to be either non-committal or thoroughly respectable on every other subject. Now they can say what they are really after; and what they are after, in common with all the rest of the struggling world, is freedom.
Freedom is a large word
…
What, then, is “the matter with women”? What is the problem of women’s freedom? It seems to me to be this: how to arrange the world so that women can be human beings, with a chance to exercise their infinitely varied gifts in infinitely varied ways, instead of being destined by the accident of their sex to one field of activity—housework and child-raising. And second, if and when they choose housework and child-raising, to have that occupation recognized by the world as work, requiring a definite economic reward and not merely entitling the performer to be dependent on some man.
This is not the whole of feminism, of course, but it is enough to begin with. “Oh, don’t begin with economics,” my friends often protest, “Woman does not live by bread alone. What she needs first of all is a free soul.” And I can agree that women will never be great until they achieve a certain emotional freedom, a strong healthy egotism, and some un-personal sources of joy — that in this inner sense we cannot make woman free by changing her economic status. What we can do, however, is to create conditions of outward freedom in which a free woman’s soul can be born and grow. It is these outward conditions with which an organized feminist movement must concern itself.
Freedom of choice in occupation and individual economic independence for women: How shall we approach this next feminist objective? First, by breaking down all remaining barriers, actual as well as legal, which make it difficult for women to enter or succeed in the various professions, to go into and get on in business, to learn trades and practice them, to join trades unions. Chief among these remaining barriers is inequality in pay…
Second, we must institute a revolution in the early training and education of both boys and girls. It must be womanly as well as manly to earn your own living, to stand on your own feet. And it must be manly as well as womanly to know how to cook and sew and clean and take care of yourself in the ordinary exigencies of life. I need not add that the second part of this revolution will be more passionately resisted than the first…
Cooperative schemes and electrical devices will simplify the business of homemaking, but they will not get rid of it entirely… The immediate feminist program must include voluntary motherhood. Freedom of any kind for women is hardly worth considering unless it is assumed that they will know how to control the size of their families. “Birth control” is just as elementary an essential in our propaganda as “equal pay.” Women are to have children when they want them, that’s the first thing…
But is there any way of insuring a woman’s economic independence while child-raising is her chosen occupation? Or must she sink into that dependent state from which, as we all know, it is so hard to rise again? That brings us to the fourth feature of our program — motherhood endowment. It seems that the only way we can keep mothers free, at least in a capitalist society, is by the establishment of a principle that the occupation of raising children is peculiarly and directly a service to society, and that the mother upon whom the necessity and privilege of performing this service naturally falls is entitled to an adequate economic reward from the political government. It is idle to talk of real economic independence for women unless this principle is accepted. But with a generous endowment of motherhood provided by legislation, with all laws against voluntary motherhood and education in its methods repealed, with the feminist ideal of education accepted in home and school, and with all special barriers removed in every field of human activity, there is no reason why woman should not become almost a human thing.
It will be time enough then to consider whether she has a soul.
Crystal Eastman, “Now We Can Begin,” Liberator (December 1920).
This speech delivered by Crystal Eastman, co-author of the Equal Rights Amendment, is considered one of the top 100 most influential speeches in American History. It was delivered in 1920, just after the ratification of the 19th Amendment guaranteeing women's suffrage.
Most women will agree that August 23, the day when the Tennessee legislature finally enacted the Federal suffrage amendment, is a day to begin with, not a day to end with. Men are saying perhaps “Thank God, this everlasting woman’s fight is over!” But women, if I know them, are saying, “Now at last we can begin.” In fighting for the right to vote most women have tried to be either non-committal or thoroughly respectable on every other subject. Now they can say what they are really after; and what they are after, in common with all the rest of the struggling world, is freedom.
Freedom is a large word
…
What, then, is “the matter with women”? What is the problem of women’s freedom? It seems to me to be this: how to arrange the world so that women can be human beings, with a chance to exercise their infinitely varied gifts in infinitely varied ways, instead of being destined by the accident of their sex to one field of activity—housework and child-raising. And second, if and when they choose housework and child-raising, to have that occupation recognized by the world as work, requiring a definite economic reward and not merely entitling the performer to be dependent on some man.
This is not the whole of feminism, of course, but it is enough to begin with. “Oh, don’t begin with economics,” my friends often protest, “Woman does not live by bread alone. What she needs first of all is a free soul.” And I can agree that women will never be great until they achieve a certain emotional freedom, a strong healthy egotism, and some un-personal sources of joy — that in this inner sense we cannot make woman free by changing her economic status. What we can do, however, is to create conditions of outward freedom in which a free woman’s soul can be born and grow. It is these outward conditions with which an organized feminist movement must concern itself.
Freedom of choice in occupation and individual economic independence for women: How shall we approach this next feminist objective? First, by breaking down all remaining barriers, actual as well as legal, which make it difficult for women to enter or succeed in the various professions, to go into and get on in business, to learn trades and practice them, to join trades unions. Chief among these remaining barriers is inequality in pay…
Second, we must institute a revolution in the early training and education of both boys and girls. It must be womanly as well as manly to earn your own living, to stand on your own feet. And it must be manly as well as womanly to know how to cook and sew and clean and take care of yourself in the ordinary exigencies of life. I need not add that the second part of this revolution will be more passionately resisted than the first…
Cooperative schemes and electrical devices will simplify the business of homemaking, but they will not get rid of it entirely… The immediate feminist program must include voluntary motherhood. Freedom of any kind for women is hardly worth considering unless it is assumed that they will know how to control the size of their families. “Birth control” is just as elementary an essential in our propaganda as “equal pay.” Women are to have children when they want them, that’s the first thing…
But is there any way of insuring a woman’s economic independence while child-raising is her chosen occupation? Or must she sink into that dependent state from which, as we all know, it is so hard to rise again? That brings us to the fourth feature of our program — motherhood endowment. It seems that the only way we can keep mothers free, at least in a capitalist society, is by the establishment of a principle that the occupation of raising children is peculiarly and directly a service to society, and that the mother upon whom the necessity and privilege of performing this service naturally falls is entitled to an adequate economic reward from the political government. It is idle to talk of real economic independence for women unless this principle is accepted. But with a generous endowment of motherhood provided by legislation, with all laws against voluntary motherhood and education in its methods repealed, with the feminist ideal of education accepted in home and school, and with all special barriers removed in every field of human activity, there is no reason why woman should not become almost a human thing.
It will be time enough then to consider whether she has a soul.
Crystal Eastman, “Now We Can Begin,” Liberator (December 1920).
Florence Kelley: Shall Women Be Equal Before the Law?
Florence Kelley: Shall Women Be Equal Before the Law?
Florence Kelley dedicated her life to social reform. She worked to end many social problems, including labor and racial discrimination.
"The removal of all forms of the subjection of women is the purpose
to which the National Woman’s Party is dedicated."
A few years ago, the Woman’s Party counted disfranchisement the form of subjection which must first be removed. Today millions of American women, educated and uneducated, are kept from the polls in bold defiance of the Suffrage Amendment. Every form of subjection suffered by their white sisters they also suffer. Deprivation of the vote is theirs alone among native women. Because of this discrimination all other forms of subjection weigh a hundred-fold more heavily upon them. In the family, in the effort to rent or to buy homes, as wage-earners, before the courts, in getting education for their children, in every relation of life, their burden is greater because they are victims of political inequality. How literally are colored readers to understand the words quoted above?
Kelley, Florence. Women Be Equal Before the Law? The removal of all forms of the subjection of women is the purpose to which the National Woman's Party is dedicated. The Nation. April 22, 1922. https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/shall-women-be-equal-law/.
Florence Kelley dedicated her life to social reform. She worked to end many social problems, including labor and racial discrimination.
"The removal of all forms of the subjection of women is the purpose
to which the National Woman’s Party is dedicated."
A few years ago, the Woman’s Party counted disfranchisement the form of subjection which must first be removed. Today millions of American women, educated and uneducated, are kept from the polls in bold defiance of the Suffrage Amendment. Every form of subjection suffered by their white sisters they also suffer. Deprivation of the vote is theirs alone among native women. Because of this discrimination all other forms of subjection weigh a hundred-fold more heavily upon them. In the family, in the effort to rent or to buy homes, as wage-earners, before the courts, in getting education for their children, in every relation of life, their burden is greater because they are victims of political inequality. How literally are colored readers to understand the words quoted above?
Kelley, Florence. Women Be Equal Before the Law? The removal of all forms of the subjection of women is the purpose to which the National Woman's Party is dedicated. The Nation. April 22, 1922. https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/shall-women-be-equal-law/.
Carrie Chapman Catt and Ethel Smith: Toward Equal Rights for Men and Women
Carrie Chapman Catt and Ethel Smith: Toward Equal Rights for Men and Women
Not all women supported the Equal Rights Amendment. Some women, including Carrie Chapman Catt and Ethel M. Smith claimed that “absolute equality” between men and women would strip protections for women. They proposed removing, modifying, or addressing unequal laws one at a time, rather than by a single amendment.
There are innumerable laws that differentiate between men and women, and some are found in every state… the most important [are] in three groups…:
I. Laws that Differentiate between Men and Women
Citizenship
Suffrage
Eligibility to public office
Eligibility to jury service
Admission to public employment (teaching, civil service)
Marriage
Divorce
Property rights of married women
Support of family
Domicile
Guardianship of children
Inheritance from children
Earnings of children
Sex offenses
Illegitimate parentage
Maternal and infant hygiene
Mothers’ aid
Prohibited occupations
Public health regulations
Regulation of terms and conditions of employment…
II. Laws that Differentiate without Adverse Discrimination
Maternal and infant hygiene
Mothers’ aid
Regulation of employment conditions for women…
Sex offenses…
III. Laws that Differentiate on Subjects Where Equality Is Not Yet Adequately Defined
Married women's property rights (some only)
Married women's contract rights (some only)
Age of majority
Marriage age
Divorce (some causes)
Support
Sex offenses (some only)
Health (some only)
…For reasons partly judicial and partly economic and political, it has been possible to have laws regulating hours of women's labor, or fixing minimum wage standards for women, only by making a difference in the contract rights of men and women. Therefore, the question of legal equality here seemed unimportant as compared with the need for the equalizing economic effect of the laws.
The net result of this examination, then, is to re-emphasize the dangers of generalization and call for a clear definition of terms. The laws of the forty-eight states differ, they have been amended in different ways in the different states, and the remaining needs are so uneven as to have, in concrete terms, no common denominator at all.
Smith, Ethel Marion, Carrie Chapman Catt, and National American Woman Suffrage Association Collection. Toward Equal Rights for Men and Women. Washington D.C.: Published by the Committee of the Legal Status of Women, National League of Women Voters, 1929. (pp 19-21) PDF https://www.loc.gov/item/29012783/.
Not all women supported the Equal Rights Amendment. Some women, including Carrie Chapman Catt and Ethel M. Smith claimed that “absolute equality” between men and women would strip protections for women. They proposed removing, modifying, or addressing unequal laws one at a time, rather than by a single amendment.
There are innumerable laws that differentiate between men and women, and some are found in every state… the most important [are] in three groups…:
I. Laws that Differentiate between Men and Women
Citizenship
Suffrage
Eligibility to public office
Eligibility to jury service
Admission to public employment (teaching, civil service)
Marriage
Divorce
Property rights of married women
Support of family
Domicile
Guardianship of children
Inheritance from children
Earnings of children
Sex offenses
Illegitimate parentage
Maternal and infant hygiene
Mothers’ aid
Prohibited occupations
Public health regulations
Regulation of terms and conditions of employment…
II. Laws that Differentiate without Adverse Discrimination
Maternal and infant hygiene
Mothers’ aid
Regulation of employment conditions for women…
Sex offenses…
III. Laws that Differentiate on Subjects Where Equality Is Not Yet Adequately Defined
Married women's property rights (some only)
Married women's contract rights (some only)
Age of majority
Marriage age
Divorce (some causes)
Support
Sex offenses (some only)
Health (some only)
…For reasons partly judicial and partly economic and political, it has been possible to have laws regulating hours of women's labor, or fixing minimum wage standards for women, only by making a difference in the contract rights of men and women. Therefore, the question of legal equality here seemed unimportant as compared with the need for the equalizing economic effect of the laws.
The net result of this examination, then, is to re-emphasize the dangers of generalization and call for a clear definition of terms. The laws of the forty-eight states differ, they have been amended in different ways in the different states, and the remaining needs are so uneven as to have, in concrete terms, no common denominator at all.
Smith, Ethel Marion, Carrie Chapman Catt, and National American Woman Suffrage Association Collection. Toward Equal Rights for Men and Women. Washington D.C.: Published by the Committee of the Legal Status of Women, National League of Women Voters, 1929. (pp 19-21) PDF https://www.loc.gov/item/29012783/.
