Progressivism Dbq

The Progressive Era was a time of huge advances and reform by the federal government and reformers that led the way to where America is today. The battle for women’s rights had been going on for many years but seriously picked up wind during this time period and finally reached some long sought after goals. With industry booming, labor conditions were in desperate need of change and caught the eye of both reformers and the federal government. Even though much time had passed since the Civil War, race relations were still strained and many African-Americans joined the crusade for equal rights and made it a major issue of the time. During the Progressive Era, reformers made many advances in women’s rights, labor conditions, race relations, and big business and trusts but faced challenging limitations on the way to their goals, and therefore turned to the federal government, who although effective in many reforms also failed in certain areas.
From the time period of 1900-1920, woman’s rights gained popularity with women, who fought and had some success but were only truly successful in their struggle due to the federal government’s efforts. At this time, there were countless women’s organization in existence that embraced the reform movement and led efforts for change. The National Council of Jewish Women, the National Congress of Mothers, and the Women’s Trade Union League are just a few among many. In fact, there were over one million members in the General Federation of Women’s Clubs in 1912. With these numbers, women could have joined together and gotten the right to vote, however they faced many challenges. Perhaps the largest disadvantage they met was disunity. Until the National American Women Suffrage Association was formed, there was no single group devoted to getting voting rights for women. Different groups had different methods and reasons that sometimes contradicted each other. Also, in many cases, African American women were excluded from these groups