Blog #10

1.African American women approached the issues of reform and suffrage by forming their own suffrage movement groups in their own communities. White female suffragists, although overcoming class conflict, still would not allow for African American women to join their cause. The Jim Crow laws made it harder for African American women to organize their own reform movement, however, ultimately those laws would become fuel for their fire and push them to success. African American women were competing not only for voting rights but also for natural rights that many of the White women already had.

2.The suffrage movement and the feminist movement were different in quite a few ways. First off the idea of feminism is a lot more vague and general than that of suffrage. It may be so because feminism deals more with a woman’s private life than her public function. The suffrage movement is a strictly political business since it deals with a woman’s right to vote, whereas the feminist movement is more of a social and cultural issue which borders on taboo. This is because it challenged old ideals and traditions and tried to swing the evolution of culture into a different direction.

3.“Talks on Feminism Stirs Great Crowd” offers a variety of definitions for the term feminism. One definition given is that, “…feminism is an educational ideal.”(461) Another view offered by Max Eastman was that, “Feminism is the name for the newly discovered and highly surprising fact that it is just as important for a woman to be happy as a man.”(461) George Creel said, “Feminism is simply part of the great world fight for freedom and justice and equality, and might better be called humanism.”

4.Women’s economic independence plays an important role in feminist thought. When a woman has economic independence it basically means she has gained more freedom. Freedom from a marriage and in turn the man who supported her, freedom to do as she pleases with her own money, freedom to be with whoever she deems fit. Overall economic independence in general is not only freedom but a higher quality of life, because a person can finally do whatever it is they want to do without answering to a higher power.

5.Since I am a man, a rather open-minded and reasonable one might I add, I feel that my view on feminism might be ultimately skewed to fit what I understand about women since they are in fact rather complicated creatures in my eyes. First off, I feel that the concept of feminism may have changed from the time period in which it was conceived up until the present. To me feminism is an ideal which strives to rid people of gender bias, to show that women are equal to men in all aspects, and that people need to learn, understand, and keep a strong sense of justice and morals.

Blog #9

1.Women shared some experiences of immigration with men and had some of their own unique experiences as well. Many women fled to the U.S. to escape arranged marriages, others came to the U.S. to get married. However, in general everybody left their homeland behind due to “poverty, limited opportunity, and rigid class structures.”(353) Everyone wanted to experience the supposed land where anyone can become rich, although jobs were plentiful in the U.S. accumulating wealth was not an easy task. A lot of women were also attracted by the growing independence of women in the U.S. which allowed them more freedoms than their homeland.

2.Women that got involved with the industrial protest, populist movement, and the settlement house movement did so for different reasons but to achieve one similar goal. All women were just trying to achieve equality and better life for themselves and everyone else. The women involved in the industrial protest fought for better working conditions and higher wages. Non elite white and black female farmers from the South were involved in the populist movement, due to the massive debt crisis in the South. Women involved with the settlement house movement were usually in the upper-class and they helped immigrants settle in to their new found life.

Blog #8

George Blog#8

1.Some of the most significant developments in women’s wage labor in the late 19^th century were industrialization and the admission of women into labor unions. Industrialization paved the way for large openings in factory jobs and a steady decline in agricultural and domestic work. Women were much more inclined to take jobs in a factory than do what they’ve been doing for years. Women were also now in the labor unions for their industrial jobs. Women were later encouraged to form their own organizations for all working class women so they could speak on behalf of the female wage laborers.

2.The images on page 345 show a before and after view of 3 Native American girls. In the first picture the girls sat on the floor covered in blankets and had their hair braided. In the second picture they are shown sitting on chairs in traditional American working class garb. One thing that does not change in these pictures is their sad faces. These pictures work perfectly at explaining the feelings of Native American women during the era of western consolidation. You can see in their faces the reluctance to change their ways and take on a new way of life, moreover someone else’s way of life.

1. Bessie Van Vorst meets a variety of women at the factory. The first woman she describes meeting is the head forewoman. She is older than the rest of the workers there and has evidently been drained by her daily tasks at the factory, however offers much wisdom and truth to Van Vorst about working at a factory. The next woman she meets is a pretty, young girl who has been working at the factory for five months and only works to make money to spend on herself.

2.Van Vorst believed that the women at factories thought they didn’t have large enough numbers to make a threatening enough stand to the factory owners against their working conditions. This is why they passively accepted their fate and danced along to the tune played by the factory owners. They believed they were expendable and if they tried to stand up for themselves they would only lose their jobs.