Women's Rights During The Progressive Era

For years, men and women have shared the same rights that every American citizen can expect to have. By being a citizen, one would expect that one’s government would grant those rights to every legal citizen. However, it has only been about ninety six years since men and women have stood on equal grounds. The fight for equal rights did not start until the late 1890’s as the beginnings of the Progressive Movement emerged. Many leaders rose up so that their voices could be heard across the nation. One of these leaders that campaigned was a social reformer by the name of Jane Addams. Jane Adams took a stand for societal reforms through the creation of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, the establishment of the Hull House, and campaigning against
They were manual laborers that tended to homes and worked the fields until the arrival of industrialization. Following the industrial revolution, children moved from urban areas to the cities to fill in the workforce that was needed to maintain the machinery in factories. These new environments held many hazards for small children. Many factories forced children to work in subpar conditions for meager wages. Factories were often dirty and children had to spend many hours working within them. “A child with a factory job might work 12 to 18 hours a day, six days a week, to earn a dollar” (The Social Welfare History Project). For many businesses, child were an easily exploitable group of workers. Not only could they be made to work for much longer shifts, they could also be paid far less than an adult working on the same job. Not only were they working nearly seventy two to one hundred and eight hours a week for a mere dollar, but about 1.5 million children were between the ages of ten to fifteen according to The Social Welfare History Project. These 1.5 million children accounted for nearly 20% of that particular age