Class And Gender In The Gilded Age And The Progressive Era

Women in the nineteenth century lived in a time characterized by gender inequality. At the beginning of the century, women could not vote, could not be sued, were extremely limited over personal property after marriage, and were expected to remain obedient to their husbands and fathers.( women’s suffrage movement 1) In most situations, the men would have to go to work and bring home the money, and the women would have no choice but to stay home, clean the

The emerging inequitable class systems and antagonisms of the nineteen twenties saw the traditional order and moral values challenged, as well as the creation of great wealth for few and poverty for many. The Great Gatsby, written by Francis Scott Fitzgerald, explores the causes and effects of the unbalanced class structures. Fitzgerald outlines the idea that the desire to accumulate wealth and status is a common ambition amongst the lower classes; when that desire is reached, the traditional upper class is challenged by the emerging newly wealthy, which finally leads to destructive consequences. By creating rigid class structures, traditional upper class, new wealth, and the poor in The Great Gatsby, it is

This pre-Gilded Age framing of the appropriate use of property exists outside the modern capitalist/socialist or libertarian/statist binarism (and, indeed, outside the traditional laissez-faire conceptual paradigm altogether). Indeed, the Lincoln-era Republican Party “succeeded in part because it was able to revitalize older republican ideals of autonomy and ethical citizenship by linking them with appeals to the property rights of free men and to biblical injunctions against injustice.” In such a framing, there need be no opposition between free exchange, on the one hand, and a broad social—if not legal-institutional—consensus stressing a more Weberian view of community responsibility, on the other hand. In keeping with this more traditionalist vision of the general good, Christian economist Richard T. Ely, who criticized the economic theology of the Gilded Age, argued for the view that “[p]rivate property is established and maintained for social purposes” and

Women, like black slaves, were treated unequally from the male before the nineteenth century. The role of the women played the part of their description, physically and emotionally weak, which during this time period all women did was took care of their household and husband, and followed their orders. Women were classified as the “weaker sex” or below the standards of men in the early part of the century. Soon after the decades unfolded, women gradually surfaced to breathe the air of freedom and self determination, when they were given specific freedoms such as the opportunity for an education, their voting rights, ownership of property, and being employed.

Discuss Politics in the Gilded Age. Include major political events and issues, and the roles of the “bloody shirt,” corruption, patronage, and reform movements.

The Gilded Age and the Progressive Era were times of great change for women in the United States, and women entered into a new standard of living. As times progressed and new advances were made in both society and technology, people had to learn how to adapt to those changes while still being an asset and following societal rules. The purpose of this paper is to acknowledge the reformations and changes brought to people and society by women during the Gilded Age and the Progressive Era. Regardless of where women may have moved to and lived during these times of expansion and industry, women were determined to not revert back to the roles they had been put in for so long. The purpose of these changes and new roles was to advance society and make everyone equal, but not every woman accepted the changes given to them or received the same kind of treatment due to various differences. Ultimately, the reformations made by women during this time would shape future movements fighting for the same cause.

Though traditional history books paint the workers in the United States as all male, the women were very much a part of the labor force. However, the way in which labor affected gender roles very much differed. In some examples, work broke down gender roles. In the rice fields, both male and female African slaves were forced to work side by side. This is interesting because in rice-producing countries of Africa, women were the sole producers of rice. On the other hand, the British had seen agriculture as a man’s work, and women typically only worked in the fields during

Women’s history in the United States has always been represented as a struggle for rights. Wealth and status were tied to either their fathers or husbands. In the early 1900s, women were afforded the traditional roles of society. The majority of women worked in the home. If they were of the 18% young or poor women, they also worked in factories as laborers, manufacturing items for the booming industrial revolution (U.S. Department of Labor, 1980). During this time period the workplace was not in compliance with current safety standards. There was no minimum wage yet, work conditions were horrible and they worked long hours, “In 1900, the average workweek in manufacturing was 53 hours,” (Fisk, 2003). Women took “pink

Throughout the end of the 19th century and into the 20th century, the United States saw a huge growth both socially and economically. The Gilded Age and the Progressive Era was a time when we saw great industrialization as well the construction of new railroads across the country. However, during the years of 1870-1900, known as the Gilded Era, this period was seen as a time filled with great corruption and uncontrolled politics and capitalism. Well-known author Mark Twain referred to these years of as the “Gilded Age” to reference how on the surface everything looked as though it was perfect or glittering, however beneath it all was corruption. (Mintz, S) Even though this era was known to have a great deal of corruption and scandals, it can also be seen that it was a time for development. A lot was changing and people were transforming from small town producers to urbanized workers. It is also to be considered as a time of economic and political reform. The last few decades of the 19th century will prove to be rough and challenging as people struggle to adapt to the new changes. As the turn of the century came, America entered into a new time known as the Progressive Era. During the early years of the 20th century Americans began to see political, social and economic reforms. There would be stricter laws on child labor, factory regulations were being improved, schools and playgrounds were being built and the corrupted politics were being replaced with more efficient

The Progressives were a group of reformers such as writers, politicians, and Social welfare advocate, etc. living mainly in cities during the early 20th century and working to change legislative issues, financial aspects, and good society. They accepted that change could originate from inside of man, and along these lines, dismisses the believe of Social Darwinism and regular determination. They were in charge of the section of many laws, including restriction, the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, and the Interstate Commerce Act. During this era, “People work to make themselves and the society a safer and a better place to live. The Progressive worked to make big business regulate more responsible and clean up corrupted businesses, city, improving a better working conditions etc.”(Discussion 9). New comers to the movement strived to adjust to new conditions at one hand while attempting to keep up their particular society and dialect framework with the other making a perplexing circumstance.

The Gilded Age was characterized by rapid industrialization, reconstruction, ruthless pursuit of profit, government, corruption, and vulgarity (Cashman 1). After the Civil War, America was beginning to regroup as a nation. There were many other changes developing in the country. Industrialization was taking over the formerly agricultural country. The nation’s government was also in great conflict (Foner 20). Many changes occurred during the Gilded Age. These changes affected farmers, labor, business, and politics.

A successful economy is perhaps the most key ingredient leading to a successful nation. An economy is a delicate balance of many different conflicting and coexisting elements. Naturally, an economy’s success can often be measured by the amount of wealth it contains, not to mention the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of its distribution of the wealth. Effective distribution of wealth is no easy feat. Wealthy and poor people will always need to coexist- this is an inescapable truth. The government’s job in many cases becomes that of a referee. Naturally, perfect peace and harmony between two totally different classes would be a utopia, and probably will never be completely achieved. A government must, therefore,

Interesting points Kinnedy, during the Gilded Age, single women were also dominating the female work force in garment work and trade. The Gilded Age is considered to be the 2nd industrial revolution by many historians. As you mentioned Kinnedy, women salaries were much less than men, even if they were not hired for the job which they qualified for. Much of the wealth and inequality went towards big corporations, monopolies and men. With that in mind, does the Laissez-faire giving the federal and state governments less regulation, be a factor to why women were paid less in the workforce? Government also could not interfere with any business or even the market, in order for society to benefit and it could run on a more natural level. Having

Manliness & Civilization: A Cultural History of Gender and Race in the United States is an intensive analysis of how assumptions about race, gender, and the perfection of civilization shaped thought and behavior in the US between 1890 and 1915. For its author, Gail Bederman, despite race and gender are two different categories, society have connected them so that they should be understood together. Both categories are connected in relevant to civilization as the social perfection idealized by Darwinism had designated white men as the most superior. During the particular period where this book is focused, male dominance has been prevalent long before this period. This book will investigate this turn of the century connection between manhood and race; and argue that as white middle-class men

In the late nineteenth century, America was a country in its prime of industrialization and immigration influx. Known as the Gilded Age, this period defined the United States as the bustling powerhouse it is today, but at the cost of many social and political injustices that lay underneath the guise of the “American dream”. Among the urbanization and booming industry, there was national and racial discrimination, gender inequality, child exploitation and labor,