Women’s Roles
Republican Motherhood (1700-1800s)
The idea that a woman’s greatest duty is to raise patriotic American citizens; elevated women to a newly
prestigious role as the special keepers of the nation's conscience. Women are educated so that they can educate
good citizens of the republic.
Cult of Domesticity or “Cult of True Womanhood” (1820)
The idea that women are chief homemakers and caregivers; they have moral and
temperamental qualities best suited for the domestic sphere of life.
Women should be educated in the domestic arts (their sphere) start to see women’s universities Oberlin and
Mount Holeyoke accepting women the 1830 – 1840.
Second Great Awakening (1830s-1840s)
Feminized religion: it was women's' job to "bring their families back to God.” encouraged social reforms:
prison reform, temperance, women's movement, and crusade to abolish slavery.
Antebellum Reformers
Suffrage:
Other:
Dorthea Dix – Mental health institutions
Sarah Ingraham – anti-prostitution
Mother Ann Lee – Shaker
Abolition:
Women’s Education:
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Catherine Beecher
Grimke Sisters
Lucretia Mott
Grimke Sisters
Sojourner Truth
Sojourner Truth
Mary Lyon
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Carrie Chapman Catt
Susan B. Anthony
Seneca Falls Convention 1848
The first modern women's right convention; Elizabeth Cady Stanton read the Declaration of Sentiment, the "grand basis for
attaining the civil, social, political, and religious rights of women."
American Equal Rights Association 1866
An organization formed by women's rights and black rights activists; combining their efforts to achieve gender AND racial
equality. Tensions between proponents of the dissimilar goals caused the AERA to split apart in 1869. The brief existence and
ultimate failure of the AERA is significant, as it marks the separation of the women's and black rights movements after their
successful collaboration in abolitionism before and during the Civil War.
National Women’s Suffrage Association
(NWSA) 1869
American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA)
1869
Organization founded by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth
Cady Stanton in N.Y.C.; created in response to a split in
the American Equal Rights Association over the 15th
Amendment. Anthony and Stanton opposed ratification of
the 15th Amendment unless it included the vote for
women. NWSA worked to secure women's suffrage
through a federal constitutional amendment.
Organization founded by Lucy Stone and Henry Blackwell;
created in response to a split in the American Equal Rights
Association over the 15th Amendment. Stone and Blackwell
were staunch abolitionists and strongly supported the 15th
Amendment; believing the amendment would be in danger of
failing to pass in Congress if it included the vote for women.
AWSA worked to secure women’s suffrage through state-bystate campaign.
National American Woman Suffrage Associate (NAWSA) 1890
An organization formed by the unification of NWSA and AWSA. The NAWSA pushed for a constitutional amendment guaranteeing
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women's voting rights, and was instrumental in winning the ratification of the 19 Amendment in 1920. Susan B. Anthony was
president of NAWSA from 1890 to 1900, at which time she stepped down in favor of Carrie Chapman Catt. Catt was president of
NAWSA from 1900 to 1904 and again from 1915 onward. Anna Howard Shaw was president of NAWSA from 1904 to 1915. After
success in 1920, the NAWSA was reformed as the League of Women Voters, which continues the legacy.
Congressional Union 1913 (Renamed the National Women’s Party in 1917)
A radical women’s suffrage organization led by Alice Paul and Lucy Burns. Paul’s militant tactics and desire to achieve suffrage
through a congressional amendment, rather than a state-by-state campaign, caused a rift in NAWSA. THE CU staged a suffrage
parade on March 3, 1913, the day before Wilson's inauguration. In addition, the CU (later the NWP) picketed for women's rights in
front of the White House for many years. Although tolerated at first, after the U.S. entered W.W.I, they were arrested by police for
obstructing traffic. Many of the NWP's members, upon arrest, went on hunger strikes. The resulting scandal and its negative impact
on the country's international reputation at a time when Wilson was trying to build a reputation for himself and the nation as an
international leader in human rights may have contributed to Wilson's decision to publicly call for Congress to pass the 19th amendment
Equal Rights Amendment (1923)
After the ratification of the 19th amendment, the NWP turned its attention to eliminating other forms of gender discrimination, by
advocating passage of the Equal Rights Amendment, which Paul drafted in 1923. The NWP spoke for middle class women, and its
agenda was generally opposed by working class women and by the labor unions that represented working class men who feared lowwage women workers would lower the overall pay scale and demean the role of the male breadwinner.
Flappers 1920s
Carefree young women with short, "bobbed" hair, heavy makeup, and short skirts. The flapper symbolized the new "liberated"
woman of the 1920s. However, critics believed the new styles and shocking behavior of flappers were a sign of changing morals.
Margaret Sanger -- Planned Parenthood (American Birth Control League) 1921
Sanger founded Planned Parenthood believing that women should have the power and freedom to control their own fertility.
Coupled with the emergence of flappers, this made critics question the morals of society. Sanger also advocate eugenics.
Rosie the Riveter (1941-1945)
Symbol of American women who went to work in factories during W.W.II. Changed the image of women from weak and poised to
strong and able to perform the factory war production tasks.
Cult of Domesticity/ Conformity 1950s
The cult of domesticity arose again in the 1950s when television began to present shows (Ozzie and Harriet, Donna Reed, Leave
it to Beaver) that depicted fictional families where the mother would stay at home with the children while the man went to work.
The Cult of Domesticity shaped an idealized myth of the family and paved the way for the nuclear family. Also led to declining
numbers of teachers and nurses and rising mass consumer industry inventing and marketing home appliances.
Second Wave Feminism (Also called the Feminist Movement or Women’s Liberation) 1960s-1990s
The second-wave feminism began in response to the reemergence of the cult of domesticity in the 1950s. The movement
encompassed a wide range of issues: sexuality, family, the workplace, reproductive rights, de facto inequalities, and official legal
inequalities.
Betty Friedan
Gloria Steinman
Valerie Solanas
Known as the mother of the Feminist
Movement in the 1960s. Wrote The
Feminine Mystique, which oobjected to the
mainstream media image of women, stating
that placing women at home limited their
possibilities, and wasted talent and potential;
believing these images did not reflect
happiness and was rather degrading for
women. She later co-founds the National
Organization for Women (NOW) in 1966.
Editor of the radical feminist
magazine Ms. Advocated women
to not shave and burn their bras.
Also wanted no fault divorces.
Wrote The SCUM Manifesto, a
radical feminist manifesto, in
1967. She argued that men
have ruined the world and that
women should overthrow
society and eliminate the male
sex.
Goals of the Women’s
Movement
Phyllis Schlafly
An outspoken opponent of the ERA
during the 1970s . She organized the
"STOP ERA" campaign (Stop Taking Our
Privileges). She argued that the ERA
would take away gender specific
privileges currently enjoyed by women,
including "dependent wife" benefits under
Social Security and the exemption from
Selective Service registration. She was
successful in her campaign.
Effects of the Women’s Movement
1960 - The pill is available
Full equality for women, including
equality of opportunity in education and
employment
End of sex discrimination
Improved healthcare
1963 – The Equal Pay Act establishes equality of pay for men and women performing equal work
(does not include domestics, agricultural workers, executives, administrators or professionals).
1964 - Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 bars employment discrimination on account of sex, race,
etc. by private employers, employment agencies, and unions.
1965 - Griswold v. Connecticut strikes down the only remaining state law banning the use of
contraceptives by married couples.
Establishment of childcare centers
Equal partnership between men and
women in the home
1966 - The "Woman Question" is raised for the first time at a Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)
conference; women’s lib part of the Free Speech Movement.
1967 – Johnson extends the affirmative action policy to cover discrimination based on sex.
Equality for other oppressed groups
1967 - Senator Eugene McCarthy introduces the Equal Rights Amendment in the US Senate
1969 - California adopts a "no fault" divorce law which allows couples to divorce by mutual consent
1972 - Eisenstaedt v. Baird rules that the right to privacy includes the right to use contraceptives even
if unmarried
1972 - Title IX of the Education Amendments ended sex discrimination in high schools and colleges
1972 - Roe v. Wade Supreme Court rules that laws prohibiting abortion are unconstitutional.
1974 - The Equal Credit Opportunity Act prohibits discrimination in consumer credit practices on the
basis of sex, race, marital status, religion, national origin, age, or receipt of public assistance.
1974 - Corning Glass Works v. Brennan found that employers cannot justify paying women lower
wages because that is what they traditionally received under the "going market rate."
1975 - United States armed forces opens its military academies to women
1978 - The Pregnancy Discrimination Act bans employment discrimination against pregnant women,
stating a woman cannot be fired or denied a job or a promotion because she is or may become
pregnant, nor can she be forced to take a pregnancy leave if she is willing and able to work
1982 - The ERA fails to be ratified, with only three more states needed to ratify it
The mainstream feminist movement lost popular support with the emergence of more radical women’s liberation groups.