William Xia

Women's Right Between 1900 and 1930

The beginning of the 20th century was the period when the term feminism
has come into the use in Progressive America (Foner 2014). This is a significant
period of history because during these very years all the following generations of
women became able to enjoy the right to express their demand for a greater liberty,
free sexual expressions and reproductive choice (Foner 2014).
The emergence of feminism in the United States was caused by numerous
factors. To begin with, one of the most important newly appeared liberties for females
was an opportunity to earn money by means of having a job. As a matter of fact, it
was a great opportunity for a woman to become something more than a housekeeper
for a husband and children. Although black women still could not work nowhere else
but in the household as well as immigrant women could be employed only at some
particular factories, native-born white females enjoyed the wide range of professions
they became able to to occupy. Such emancipation was expected to give individuals a
sense of freedom and independence regardless of the gender. Furthermore, it released
the woman from the position of a servant and money beggar. As Charlotte Perkins
Gilman noted in her article, when women stand free as an economic agent, they will
get much better fulfillment of their duties as wives and mothers and contribute to the
vast improvement in heathland happiness of the human race (Foner 2014). The
Progressive Era was also marked by the rise of personal freedom, both for males and
females. With the emergence of Freuds writings about the sexuality and irrational
motives of human behavior, the issues of intimate people`s lives were now freely

discussed in public. This was really crucial for the feminist movement as they fought
for free sexual expression and reproductive choice as well.
In 1920, after more than 70 years of struggle, American women got
one of the most important rights of every citizen the right to vote. After 19 th
Amendment was adopted, reformers aimed to unite female voters to bring reforms
into American politics, improving society and put the end to gender discrimination.
The right to work was followed by the demand of the right to vote. The struggle for a
women suffrage began in the 19th century with the reform efforts of some prominent
female suffrage leaders, such as Jeanette Rankin and Elizabeth Cady Stanton (The
Women's Rights Movement n.d). Later on, the movement kept growing and
eventually by the beginning of the 20th century the states one by one granted women
with the rights to participate in the elections. By the year 1920, the Tennessee state
became the last one to approve female suffrage (The Women's Rights Movement n.d).
All in all, full female voting rights were established on the national level which was
an unbelievably important achievement that changed the role of woman in the society
and served as a ruling force for the further political changes.
From the very beginning, male politicians aggressively promoted womens
vote, womens rights to be represented on juries and public offices. The legislation of
womens and infants health care clinics were passed through Congress, as well as
constitutional amendment that was supported by many womens groups prohibit of
child labor.
However, the process of becoming the members of the society with the same
benefits as males did was one of the biggest tests for the female rights movement. In
the times of Progressive Era in the history of the United States was marked not only
by the positive social, cultural and political changes, but also by the enormous

negative one which strongly affected of every sphere of peoples lives. It was the
beginning of World War I. During the times of war the political enthusiasm of the
citizens tended to decrease, which basically did not give the women a chance to use
their newly achieved right and to express their will on the elections.
Although the feminist movement started as something innovative, radical and
politically motivated, after 1920s it began to slowly fade away. Several factors could
be named as a cause of that. First, since the efforts of most female movement channels
were aimed at fulfilling Civil War needs, and after it was finished Women Rights
Movement faced an actual need to start from the very beginning once again. Next, the
massive arousal of the race question displaced the gender issue. Furthermore, as
Shulamith Firestone mentions in her article, the Abolitionists, who had been glad to
accept the alliance with women all along, suddenly decided that now it was the
Negro's hour(Firestone n.d.). Soon after obtaining the right to vote, the National
American Women's Suffrage Association has changed the name. From now on it was
called the League of Women Voters, but it had no effect on their politics. Many female
activists got involved into the campaign for Prohibition, but the Prohibition proved to
be just another distraction from radical feminist organizations. Then, politicians tried
to indulge the wives` and mothers` needs for them not to be attracted into supporting
feminist programs. In addition, the war was another cause for the government to
introduce such policies birth rate had declined significantly. Feminist movements
were pressed in the periods between wars, but equal-rights female lobbyists were not
fully satisfied by that. They believed that pursuit of social reforms was an additional
encouragement for females to stay in domesticity. What is more, objectively, in the
period between wars very few women were ready to take part in the equal-rights
organizations.

It is worth to discuss why early momentum of feminist social movement

quickly dissipated. One of the major issues that brought division among feminists
movements during the 1920s was a proposed of the Equal Rights Amendment to the
Constitution which made discrimination based on gender illegal. Among main reasons
that brought doubts into interests of professional women against working class
women was that many of working class woman had fears that with the adoption of the
amendment, "protective legislation" would be prohibited. That protective legislation
specified maximum hours and minimum wages for female workers. In the case of
adoption of that law, many female workers would be benefited.
During 1920s, women's movement has also faced with a strong external
opposition. During the Red Scare that followed World War I, the U.S. government
issued the "Spider Web" chart, in which they specified feminist groups as foreign
radicalism. Another reason for fading of the feminist movement was the reality that
many of their major goals were unachieved during 1920s. Their ideological struggle
with Catholic Church and opposition from the majority of Southern states was trying
to fight the proposed amendment to Constitution that prohibited the use of child work.
While the Supreme Court banned a minimum wage law for female workers, Congress
failed with finding necessary funding to the system of health care clinics (Wells).
Among other reasons of why movement for female rights begin to fade during
1920-1930s was that they did not demanded opportunities in their workplace.
According to the statistics, 8 million females were already engaged into American
labor market in 1920. Moreover, more than half of which were foreign-born or black
people. Among largest occupation spheres was domestic service that was followed by
such low-paying jobs as clerks, secretaries, typists (History, Art & Achieves). The
American Federation of Labor (AFL) stayed openly hostile to females because they

did not wanted females challenging men's jobs. Female specialists and professionals
that were worked as the teachers and nursery is made a little progress, as well
(History, Art & Achieves). They constantly get less pay than in compare with their
male counterparts.
To conclude with, during the 1920s, the organized women's movement
weakened in its influence. One of the reasons was the change in the new consumer
ideology, and the rise of the new consumer culture which replaced Progressive era
occupations like suffragists and housekeep. New realities make them look oldfashioned. Advertisers worked to create the image of the feminism that existed before
World War I, arguing that the new economic realities were filled with too much
liberation and opportunities for consumption. If political feminism during 1920-1930s
faded, alternate feminist movement that appeared after World War 1 and demanded
for personal freedom survived in the broad consumer marketplace and brought more
liberation for the younger women. Female liberation represented as a lifestyle, the
stuff of advertising and mass entertainment.

Works Cited
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<https://www.uic.edu/orgs/cwluherstory/CWLUArchive/womensrights.html>
Foner, Eric. Give Me Liberty!: An American History. Seagull 4th ed. New York: W.
W. Norton, 2014. Print.
The Women's Rights Movement, 18481920 | US House of Representatives: History,
Art & Archives. The Women's Rights Movement, 1848-1920. Web. 19 Oct.
2015. <http://history.house.gov/Exhibitions-and-Publications/WIC/HistoricalEssays/No-Lady/Womens-Rights/>.
History, Art & Achieves The Womens Rights Movement, 18481920. Retrieved
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23,

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Publications/WIC/Historical-Essays/No-Lady/Womens-Rights/
Wells S. (2006) Feminisms issues falter so long as women dont vote. Providence
Business Group. Retrieved October 23, 2015 from http://pbn.com/Feminismsissues-falter-so-long-as-women-dont-vote,21614?