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.