Women's Suffrage Dbq Essay

The Progressive Area was a period of time when working Americans were working in poor conditions, unhealthy living situations, and under a corrupt government. Women earning the right to vote was a monumental development in inflating democracy. Women doubled the amount of voters and people apart of the democracy. Many women worked very hard to contribute to suffrage, their right to vote. In 1848, the first women’s rights convention was held in Seneca Falls, New York. Two women’s suffrage groups combined together to create the NAWSA, or the National American Woman Suffrage Association, in 1890. The NAWSA’s first president was Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and then two years later, Susan B. Anthony became president. She once stated, “The preamble

And we formed it, not to give the blessings of liberty, but to secure them; not to the half of ourselves and half of our posterity, but to the whole people women as well as men.” (Document 5). Anthony even once tried to vote, however was arrested, and found guilty. She was fined a large amount, but refused to pay the bill. In 1846, only four states, all western states, allowed women to vote. In between the years of 1896 and 1910, seven more Western states permitted full suffrage for women, but it wasn’t until 14 years after Anthony’s death, women gained national suffrage. President Wilson urged the passing of the Nineteenth Amendment, and in 1918, all women in America were given the right to vote. In 1920, the Nineteenth Amendment was ratified by the states and made into a law. A woman by the name

Socials reformers wished to help and support immigrants, the unemployed, the poor, and workers. To help the poor and workers, minimum wage laws were encouraged, as were limits on working hours. Settlement houses were communal centers that offered work and education facilities to immigrants and the poor. Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr founded the Hull House. Citizen classes, free health clinics, nursery, and a kindergarten were all accessible to the poor, immigrants, and unemployed. Located in Chicago, many immigrants unfamiliar with America, parents who were unable to support their children, and those living on the streets came to the Hull House for all the support it delivered. Upton Sinclair wrote in his book, The Jungle, “rats, bread, and meant would go into the hoppers together. This is no fairy story and no joke… There were things that went into the sausage in comparison with which a poisoned rat was a tidbit.” (Document 6). After reading The Jungle, President Roosevelt signed the Meat Inspection Act, which allowed meat factories to be checked in on and approved upon by the government. President Roosevelt also signed the Pure Food and Drug Act in 1906. This forbid the sale of contaminated medicines and food. Roosevelt also was strongly passionate about the preservation of the environment. He created the U.S. Forest Service, and conserved 194 million acres of unrestricted