The Feminist Movement: The Progressive Movement

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The Women’s Movement: During the same period the Progressive challenge also extended to women. Like blacks, women were faced with the same dilemma: how do we achieve equality? Before 1910 those who took pert in the quest for women's rights referred to themselves as the woman's movement. This movement generally characterized middle-class women who wanted to escape the home by participating in social organizations, achieving a college education, or by getting a job. These social organizations, or Women's Clubs, gave women, who had no opportunity to serve in public office, a chance to affect legislation. Rather than pushing for substantial legislation, such as trust-busting, these clubs organized their efforts around domestic social issues.…show more content…
Feminists were bold, outspoken, and more conscious of their female identity. Feminism focused particularly on economic and sexual independence for women. Economically, they believed that women should enter the modern age by seeking employment, in essence leaving their domestic responsibilities to paid employees. Sexually, they strongly advocated the use of birth control. This movement was led by Margaret Sanger. Sanger visited immigrant neighborhoods in New York's East Side, distributing leaflets about contraception, in the hopes of preventing unwanted pregnancies. Her birth control crusade won the support of many middle-class women, who believed contraception would limit the size of their own families, as well as controlling the immigrant population. She did have opponents, however. Some believed that birth control movement posed a threat to the family and to morality. In 1914 Sanger was arrested for sending obscene material (contraceptive information) by mail, and she fled the country for a year. In 1921 she formed the American Birth Control League, a group which enlisted doctors and social workers to push judges to allow the distribution of birth control information. Although in these efforts she was unsuccessful, she did force the issue into the mainstream…show more content…
Outrage reached new heights when Upton Sinclair published The Jungle in 1906. Sinclair, a socialist whose prime objective was to improve working conditions in the meat industry, provided shocking accounts of the conditions inside the plants. Roosevelt read the novel and immediately ordered an inspection. Upon finding that Sinclair's descriptions were correct, he pushed for the passage of the Meat Inspection Act, which provided for government inspection of meat packing plants. Pure Food and Drug Act (1906): passed in response to abuses in the medicine industry. Various companies had touted tonics and pills that had a cure all quality. Many of these tonics were mostly alcohol, or they contained a narcotic base. The act did not ban these products; however, it did require the use of labels listing the
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