Jane Addams wanted to make a difference. She graduated from college in 1881 filled with ambition but still lacking a cause. Addams found her calling seven years later when she visited Toynbee Hall in London. Seeing the social work at this urban settlement house helped transform Addams’ vague desire to do good into a concrete plan to create a “social settlement.” When she returned to America, Addams rented a run-down mansion in Chicago that had belonged to a man named Charles Hull. She soon transformed Hull House into America’s first urban settlement house.
The settlement house movement quickly became part of a widespread spirit of reform known as Progressivism. Like Addams, the Progressives were idealists who optimistically believed that informed citizens could create a just society that would confront the plight of the urban poor, regulate corporations, protect the environment, address consumer issues, and elect honest leaders.
When the Progressive Era began in 1890, the prevailing belief in the cult of domesticity restricted women to their homes. During the Progressive Era (1890 – 1920) a generation of middle-class “New Women” extended their role from guardians of the home into becoming activists who fought to improve their communities.
The Settlement House Movement
Led by Jane Addams, Hull House quickly became a community center for the nearby low-income, immigrant population. At its peak in 1911-1912, Hull House expanded from a single mansion into a complex of 13 buildings that covered a full city block, The facility provided 10,000 people a week with day care nurseries, English lessons, and practical courses on cooking, dressmaking, and personal hygiene. Hull House even had a gymnasium, library, and art gallery.
Hull House provided a model and inspiration for other middle-class women. During the Progressive Era, women founded over 400 settlement houses in cities across America. The settlement houses often moved from ameliorating the living conditions of immigrant families to lobbying local governments to pass reform legislation. Settlement houses thus gave a new generation of women organizational and leadership skills that transcended their traditional roles as mothers and wives.
The Temperance Movement
Progressive women played a leading role in the temperance movement to outlaw the sale of alcoholic beverages. The Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) boasted 150,000 dues-paying members making it one of the largest organizations of women in the world. Under the dynamic leadership of Francis Williard, the WCTU convinced many women they had a moral duty to eliminate alcohol and thus strengthen the stability of American families. As the crusade against alcohol gathered momentum, more and more states banned saloons. In 1918, Congress passed the Eighteenth Amendment outlawing the manufacture, sale, and transportation of intoxicating liquors.
The Suffrage Movement
When the Progressive Era began the law denied criminals, lunatics, idiots, and women the right to vote. Beginning with the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848 a determined group of women fought a long and at times frustrating battle for female suffrage.
The Progressive movement sharpened the nation’s social conscience and motivated a new generation of suffragists. Led by Carrie Chapman Cott and Alice Paul, women organized rallies, signed petitions, and demonstrated in public marches. Their campaign of mounting pressure proved to be irresistible. On June 4, 1919, Congress passed the Nineteenth Amendment stating that no citizen could be denied the right to vote, “on account of sex.” The amendment constituted the largest single extension of democratic voting rights in American history.
The Nineteenth Amendment marked women’s most important single victory during the Progressive Era. It also marked the end of the Progressive Era. During the 1920s public attention turned from social activism to a new “normalcy” defined by a focus on leisure mass entertainment, and material consumption.
So why should you remember women’s role in Progressive Era reform? It is important to remember that grass-roots activism by middle-class women played an important role in combating social injustice. Knowledge of the settlement house movement, temperance movement, and suffrage movement will provide examples for the short-answer questions (SEQs) that focus on Progressive Era reforms.