The Lily Bloomer Summary

In the early 1800s, women were second-class citizens. Women were expected to restrict their area of interest to the home and the family. Women were not encouraged to have a real education or pursue a professional career. Also, women were considered unequal to their husbands and all males legally and socially. The day-to day lives of men and women were quite clearly divided during the late 1800s. Woman in the late 1800s were treated inhumane because of society, class, and their rights.

This view was very conflicting to those of the Progressive era. During this time period, suffragist were working very hard to get those past stereotypes thrown out the window. Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Author of “The Yellow Paper” and feminist activist, also wrote about her struggle with mental illness. She was directly affected by these misunderstood diagnosing of mental illness that differed from male to female. Gilman herself wrote and studied about this inequality in many of her life works. She was intrigued in why women were so socially criticized, in Ann Jane’s The Charlotte Perkins Gilman Reader, she wrote about Gilman’s ideas on this topic, “Gilman believed that women’s subordination started with the expropriation by men of the agricultural surplus women produced, limiting women’s full expression and autonomy and therefore dehumanizing them… men appropriated women’s work and by forcing them to depend economically on male authority, demeaned them” Gilman 's testimonies were taking very seriously because of her undeniable wit but later because of her shocking literature. Gilman is also known for her intellectual work in Women and Economics that was published in 1892. She was ahead of her time and seemed to foreseen what was to come with women’s advancement during the progressive era.

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.

To this day the women’s suffrage movement ignites women in the present to keep those right burning. Alice Paul and her fellow women suffrages demonstrated through speeches, lobbying and petitioning Congressional Committees, with parades, picketing and demonstrations, and with arrest that lead to imprisonment. These women express courage that women still uphold for years after their legacy has passed on, such as the article “Women’s Strike for Equality,” by Linda Napikoski, in the demonstration that was held on August 26, 1970 on the 50th anniversary of women’s suffrage. As well as an article “Women to Protest For Equality Today,” by United Press that talks about on the eve of the 50th anniversary of the women’s suffrage and “declared war on firms that Damage the Image,” of the fair sex. Alice Paul, set the stage for inspiring women to fight for their rights everywhere across the world.

The place of women changed drastically during the nineteenth century. Many factors such as the market revolution and the second great awakening impacted the way they were in the family, at work, and society. The role of women changed in a way that they were treated differently not just by society but in the house as well. They were beginning to be noticed and they fought to be independent from men, which took a long time to achieve, but they did it. Women believed they were just as able as men to work and be able to vote which is also one of the big differences during this time.

As the years progressed from the 1700s into the 1800s, women started to see that they were not treated as equal as men even though they could do anything men could. During the late 1800s was when women first started to fight for more rights and equality. They started forming more and more women groups, and even went on labor strikes to protest the diversity. Although it seemed that as hard as they tried to gain this equality, the harder it was for them to obtain it. They were treated horribly and unequally to men. While African American men received the power to vote in 1870, women still did not have a chance at that right. Even though many people disagree that women were treated fairly, the studies show that they were discriminated against. The treatment of women in the late 1800s was discriminatory because they

According to the article “Rights for woman”, in the 1800 women were treated as subsequent class citizens, and they did not have many rights at all. They were not able to vote and were not encouraged to get an education, or even get a job that they enjoyed (Rights for Women, Par. 1). Women were expected to clean, cook, and find a husband. According to Juliet Levy, Marriage is an agreement that over all comes with substantial financial upbringing. (Levy, 427) As previously stated woman were worth less than men during that time, so the men were basically able to treat them however they wanted. Men were able to send their wives to insane asylums if they did not follow the rules or live up to the expectations of women of that time. According to an article on woman

The U.S. women’s movement had its beginnings in 1848 when Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott called the Seneca Falls Convention in New York to discuss the social, civil, and religious condition and rights of woman (Women’s History in the U.S....). Over time, this inspired many women to stand up for their own beliefs and for the better for women in future generations. During World War I, the high birth rates led to food and supply shortages, and disease which mainly affected those in poverty (Putting Margaret Sanger’s Ideas in Context). At the time, a woman’s life revolved around bringing food home and onto the table which became an issue with the lack of supplies and the best foods would be given to men (Comstockery in America). As a nurse visiting, Margaret Sanger witnessed and met immigrant working mothers who were deeply impacted by unexpected pregnancies and botched miscarriages (Amory). Margaret Sanger violated the Comstock Act of 1873 of 1873 because she wanted to advocate women’s rights which resulted in a conflict between Sanger and the those against her ideas, and the laws that suppressed her from advocating. As a result, as a compromise of the amendment of the Comstock Act after she gained support from her article and supporters which resulted in Planned Parenthood, the ability to distribute contraceptives, and a new found support for women to have more control over their lives.

The women’s suffrage is a major reform movement in the 1800’s. It was a movement for women’s rights and freedoms. “They are both moral and accountable beings, and whatever is right for a man to do, is right for women to do” (pg 283). Everyone is created equal it stated. No one else was above anyone else. The Grimké sisters, Sarah and Angelina, are the one’s who spoke up and got active about this movement. They stated that women had social & legal limitations that limited their participation. The leaders of this movement along with the Grimké sisters were Catherine Beecher, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, & Dorothea Dix. Many accepted this factor, others did not. The women worked on many movements, but didn’t help because, they could not vote. The Seneca Falls Convention of 1848 in New York, was to discuss the women's rights. There it became the Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions, “All men and women created equal”. The battle for women to have the right to vote was won in 1920.

As the 1800's progressed, women developed an increased awareness of their lack of rights in society. Even though they were productive members the society, women were not allowed to vote or have an input in the government (Marshall). Men had “compelled [women] to submit to laws, in the formation of which [they] had no choice” (The Declaration of Sentiments). Thus, women were not treated equally to men and they had no control over this.

Women were always treated differently from men. They couldn't vote for anything. They were always stereotyped as people who couldn't do a single thing. They were basically only allowed to cook, clean, and homeschool the children. They couldn't go out and do things with their husbands and do the things that they do like hunting.

The main subject of the book is women, This book also covers women's activism, from 1840-1890, focusing on the incredible figures --Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucy Stone, and Susan B. Anthony that started it all and it also discusses their accomplishments. McMillen addresses the stories of the four figures lives, and how those women took up the leadership on the cause of women's rights, and the astonishing progress they accomplished during their lifetimes, and the lasting legacy they left behind and transformative effects of the work they did. In Seneca Falls, New York, over the course of a couple of days in July, 1848, a small group of women and men, led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton who was a: suffragist, social activist, abolitionist, and Lucretia Mott an abolitionist and a women's rights activist and a social reformist, they held a convention that set in motion the woman's rights movement and changed history. The significance of that important convention would not only be important in America but is very important all around the world. In Seneca Falls and the Origins of the Woman's Rights Movement, at the convention they talked about how women and men are equal and they also argued that women deserve legal rights and education opportunities just as men receive those rights.

Their roles were still emphasized as wives and mothers. Women were viewed as naturally suited to a different social role than men, and sometimes known as inferior to men. This was a social issue because woman had to be told where they were allowed to go and what they were allowed to do according to their husbands.

In comparison with men, women didn’t have a lot of rights and freedom. Some argued that men and women were different species and that men were similar to gods and women were similar to animals. Men could vote but women couldn’t,

Since the beginning of the 1800's, women had been fighting for the rights that they wanted. Women should be able to vote, control their own property and income, and they should have access to higher education and professional jobs. Women also had many roles in society. Women had very important parts in jobs as they took up more responsibilities. Girls, young ladies, and women of all ages were working harder to bring home income. Most women thought the pay and the conditions were unfair. These arguments grew as women fought more and more for social equality.