1. Women in Public Life
As a result of social and economic change, many women entered public life as workers and reformers.

2. Women in the Work Force
Most working women during the late 19th century were poor women.
They had no choice but to work for wages outside the home.

3. Farm Women Mainly on the farms of the South and Midwest women had to:
Cook
Make Clothes
Wash the laundry
Raised the Livestock (Cattle,etc.)
Helped plow and plant the fields.
Harvested the crops.

4. Women in Industry
Better-paying jobs became available in towns and especially cities.
Men’s labor unions excluded women from membership.
By 1900 one out of five American women held jobs.
Twenty-five percent was in manufacturing.

5. The Garment Trade
Half of all women industrial workers worked in this trade.
Their job was the least skilled position and made only half of their male co-workers.
Many of the women who worked here were single and were assumed to be only supporting themselves.

6. New Jobs Available
Women needed a high school diploma in order to work the following jobs:
Offices
Stores
Classrooms
By 1890 Women High school graduates outnumbered men.

7. Business Schools
A new form of school called a Business School provided new skills for women:
Bookkeepers
Stenographers
Typists to operate new machines.

8. Domestic Workers
Women who had no formal education often cleaned for other families.
Many migrated to the cities and worked as:
Cooks,
Laundresses
Scrub Women
Maids

9. Women Lead Reform
Due to dangerous conditions, low wages, and long hours, many female workers pushed for reform.
Their numbers grew after the 146 workers, mainly young women died in a 1911 fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York.

15. Women in Higher Education
Women’s Colleges were formed.
Vassar College was the first in 1865.
Smith College ( Massachusetts) 1875
Wellesley College (Massachusetts) 1875
Columbia, Harvard and Brown refused to admit women but created separate colleges for them.

16. Vassar College

17. Smith College

18. Wellesley College

19. Late 19th Century Marriage was no longer a woman’s only alternative.
Many women entered the workforce.
Many women looked for higher education.
Many educated women began to use their skills for needed social reforms.

20. Women and Reform
Because women were not allowed to vote or run for office, they focused on improving conditions at work and home.
They targeted:
Workplace reform
Housing reform
Educational improvement
Food and Drug Laws.

21. National Association of Colored Women (NACW)
Was formed in 1896.
It was headed by Josephine Ruffin
They managed nurseries, reading rooms and kindergartens.

22. Susan B. Anthony
A leader in the push to have women gain the right to vote.
She and Elizabeth Cady Stanton founded the National Women Suffrage Association (NWSA).
They were feared by men and the liquor industry as well as the textile industry.

23. Three Part Strategy for Suffrage
First: They tried to convince state legislatures to grant women the right to vote.
Second: They tested the 14th amendment stating that they were citizens too Supreme court denied that citizens automatically had the right to vote.
Third: Women pushed for a national constitutional amendment to grant women the right to vote. It was introduced and shot down. This would continue for the next 41 years.