Why Is The Ku Klux Klan Important To The Role Of Women?

Within the United States, social movements frequently turn their attention to issues of race, class, gender, and identity. The Ku Klux Klan habitually concentrated on these matters, and relied on them to propel their movement forward. Additionally, these concerns shaped their goals, strategies, tactics, and ideology. Women’s new found political freedom, middle and lower class Americans, and anti-Semitism are just a portion of the ways KKK members used race, class and gender to promote their strategies and tactics.
In Kathleen Blee’s article, the participation of women in the KKK reveals that gender specific tactics played an essential role in their success. The concept of “Pure Womanhood,” gave women the sense that the Klan sought to protect their family, and in doing so they were able to reach a new demographic. Considering that the organization’s prime strategy was recruiting new members, women became a valuable tool as wives achieved success when recruiting their husbands. Female suffrage gave the Klan the leverage to proclaim women as equal to men in their cause. As a result, their philosophy garnered the attention of women nationally, which in turn translated to more members.
Many members of the Klan were not upper class citizens and due to the violent nature of the organization, it drew men of the middle and lower class, establishing its ideology. Encompassing concerns that appealed to men of this group provided the organization with a large number of men to