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Driving Forces Behind The Progressive Movement

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I believe the driving forces behind the progressive movement were women of the era. Women such as Jane Addams, Margaret Sanger, and Alice Stone Blackwell devoted their lives to reforming the world and creating change in the political sphere. The beginnings of the progressive movement in the United States had its start in the early 1800’s, but didn’t really start gaining ground until the late 19th century when a new middle class tired of the excesses of the Gilded Age. This era brought about fortunes and extreme poverty, labor clashes between working class and companies, large-scale immigration, and other events that made the middle class nervous. Herbert Croly wrote the “millionaire and the trust have appropriated too many of the economic opportunities formerly enjoyed by the people.” (The Promise of American Life) The progressives had many goals: votes for women, labor improvement laws, prohibition, and many others. Women stood at the forefront of change in the earliest parts of the 20th century, pushing back against societal restraints and expectations of family and marriage. The reform movement was ideal for these …show more content…

She was excited to be in the states, hopeful for a better future, saying “we, too, Helena and I, would find a place in the generous heart of America.” (Emma Goldman, remembering her arrival) She found work in the factories, and quickly became a part of the movement to change the inequality and inhumane working conditions. Inspired by the group who bombed Chicago’s Haymarket square in 1886, she became a part of the anarchists’ society. Implicated in the assassination of President William McKinley in 1901, she withdrew from the public eye due to harassment. She emerged later and wrote on subjects such as free speech and birth control. Emma also mentored Margaret Sanger, as Emma believed that birth control was a key to women’s

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