1. The Victorians Meet the Modern

2. Family Life in Victorian America
Victorian domesticity called for clearly defined gender roles
The Gilded Age challenged traditional notions of a woman’s place in society
Modernity challenged traditional values: freedom to choose
The average family got smaller over time
Nursing
Comstock law

3. Education during the Victorian Age
High school education became more important
Girls attended high school in large numbers
High school attendance increased with compulsory laws
Co-educational high school

4. College Education in Victorian America
College attendance was about 2%
Liberal arts degrees became more prominent
Pioneered at Harvard
Booker T. Washington
Up from Slavery
Tuskegee Institute
Accomodationist

5. Women in Higher Education
Enrolled in Land-Grant colleges
Single-sex schools (Northeast and South)
Co-ed (Mid-west and West)
Increased demand for teacher- training schools
Colleges begin to offer competitive sports for women
Vassar
Vassar women’s baseball team: 1876

6. The Rise of Sports Definition of masculinity
Economic success
Sports become a way of displaying masculinity
YMCA built gymnasiums across America.
YWCA followed later
Professional baseball—1876
Segregated leagues emerged as well
Outdoor activity became popular

7. Environmentalism before the Progressive Era
Environment should be conquered
Transcendentalists
City Beautiful Movement
Public control of wilderness becomes a Progressive goal

8. Teddy Roosevelt and Environmentalism
Roosevelt’s personal values embraced the wilderness and manly savagery
Advocated the “strenuous life”
Culturally: outdoor living became faddish in the 1890s, i.e., the Boy Scouts, camping
TR will establish himself as a wise use conservationist
1897 McKinley sets aside 21 million acres for National Parks
Roosevelt expands both the park system and national forests

9. Women in the Public Sphere
More women began to claim a role beyond the household
Reform efforts
Political action
Women took a larger role in home economics—consumerism
Department stores catered to women
Tea rooms
Areas for children

10. Morality to Feminism Women’s Clubs
Originated in New England
Focused on:
Cultural literacy
Reform
Woman suffrage
Social Housekeeping
Clubs broadened women’s sphere
Black women created their own clubs

11. Temperance Movement
WCTU became the largest women’s organization to that time
176,000 members
Chapters in every state
Frances Willard
Also a suffragist
Encouraged women to cross racial lines
Suffrage movement unifies as the NAWSA
Frances Willard