Women and US Social Reform

From hatchet-wielding temperance crusaders with their cries of "Smash, ladies, smash!" to agitating anarchists calling for revolution, women were at the forefront of social reform during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Rapid growth and dramatic changes in the American social landscape prompted reforms that both women and men continue to enjoy today: child labor laws, the eight-hour work day, and advances in women's health.

This course examines the role of women in the most significant reform movements of the time period 1820-1920, and the social, political, and economic contexts in which these movements took place. Denied the most fundamental rights of citizenship, most notably the right to vote, women found other ways to enter and alter the public sphere. Students explore how women's involvement in movements such as abolition, temperance, labor reform, pacifism, and women's rights redefined the role of women in society and reshaped America's political and social reality. Students also consider how women's experiences differed based on race and class and how reform is not a simple category but assumes different meanings in relation to an individual's role in society. As students analyze primary documents and evaluate secondary sources, they examine the work of women such as Lucretia Moss, Sojourner Truth, Ida B. Wells, and Emma Goldman.

SAR. 05.1: "Nothing says true womanhood like a dead chicken." -- Kia Valkonen