Women's Freedom In The Gilded Age

The article, “Creating the System: Railroads and the Modern Corporation”, informs us all about the development of the transcontinental railroad and how it helped drive the nation west and also transformed western North America into a economy that had many opportunities. The railroads have always interested me when it comes to this period of time. What I learned from the reading that I didn’t know before was that the Western railroads were primary carriers of grain, other agricultural produce, livestock, coal, lumber and minerals. Also seeing the prices that the farmers shipped their products for, and what they paid for the freights rates was very interesting. Overall, if the railroads wouldn’t have been built in a time when there was so little

In 1886 the Knights of Labor wrote in their Declaration of Principles of the Great and Growing Order of the Workingmen about the adoption of new rules and regulation in the work environment and even a shorten work day. These reforms were desired by many American in the 19th century where many of them were industrial laborers. These ideas would be carried along to the Populist Platform of 1896 adopting the shorter worker day and a graduated income tax. This ideas with be carried into 20th century with the 16th Amendment that would levy the graduated income tax which was at first a Knights of Labor idea. Along with the shorten workday that will eventually come from the Lochner v. New York supreme court case that would give every factory worker a 10 hour workday in 1917.Yet the adoption of workplace regulations would come after a tragedy despite the strikes of Ladies Tailors nearly a year before. In 1911 when many women tailors who worked in the Triangle Shirtwaist Company died in a tragic preventable fire many building and factory regulations were put into place. Populist ideas which were derived from movements such as the Knights of Labor Movement which would later impact the Progressive

The Knights of Labor was a standard labor union comprised of individual workers across the nation. They were inclusive in terms, employing both skilled workers in crafts industries as well as unskilled laborers such as coalminers. (Rayback, 1966, p. 168). They had limited political objectives such as the eight-hour workday and the prohibition of child and convict labor. Their broader objectives were social: to improve the image and social status of the working man.

The entire Women’s Movement in the United States has been quite extensive. It can be traced back to 1848, when the first women’s rights convention was held in Seneca Falls, New York. After two days of discussions, 100 men and women signed the Declaration of Sentiments. Drafted by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, this document called for equal treatment of women and men under the law and voting rights for women. This gathering set the agenda for the rest of the Women’s Movement long ago (Imbornoni). Over the next 100 years, many women played a part in supporting equal treatment for women, most notably leading to the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, which allowed women the right to vote.

The 1800s is characterized with the rise of industrial America. As technological advances were introduced to industry, unskilled labor also rose in accordance to the rise in factories. However, this rise also introduced several labor unions such as the Knights of Labor, which organized a series of protests and riots. The labor unions had good intentions, aiming to lower the average work hours for workers, as well as increase their wages. However, their methods which involved riots and protests, were altogether not effective, and ended up being detrimental to their cause. Between 1875 and 1900, labor unions surged and were temporarily successful; however, their methods would prove detrimental to their cause overtime, leading to their

The Knights of Labor represented the pinnacle of the up lift labor movement. They, at one time, had membership that numbered in the hundreds of thousands and nearly hit a million members. This organization was unique in its time because it espoused many of the ideals we hold today as statutory for an ethical and equitable society as well as employee and employer relationships. The Knights of Labor did not begrudge industry or capitalism, moreover they were less of a concern than the organization’s larger goal to protect and promote social equity in labor and society, for the common man.

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

By the middle of the 19th century, the Industrial Revolution was changing the face and culture of the United States. Demand for raw materials and new inventions was increasing. From 1800-1850, territories claimed by the United States had grown to stretch from the East Coast to the West Coast. The spirit of “Manifest Destiny”, the California Gold Rush, and the promise of rich new land, ripe with raw materials and opportunity drew settlers ever westward. Following the invention of the steam engine, trains were becoming very important to the expansion of civilization and its infrastructure. Trains and the railroads they ran on soon became the lifeblood of industrialized economic development across the country. Public and private partnerships were formed with railroad companies to provide them with vast amounts of investment funding. Within a few decades, the railroad companies and their transcontinental railroads ushered in the Gilded Age and changed American society forever.

Freedom in a utopian society is considered to be impeccable. Freedom was given to all and force by other people wouldn’t be necessary for this perfect place. But, during the Gilded Age, freedom wasn’t for everyone. People like Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller (or the captains of industry) had more freedom than the workers of the time. Workers during this age had less freedom for the fact that they didn’t have nearly as much money as the Captains of Industry. With the low wages of this era, it was pretty much impossible to make money, unless your business became profoundly popular to the point where you could then call yourself a robber baron. For example: while workers and other middle-lower class people were at their jobs, high-class and other citizens with money were out and about doing things that they please. This was mainly for the fact that they could because they had the money to do so. So, in the reality of that time freedom was most definitely not for everyone. Now on to another ideal that should be honored in a utopian society.

The successes and failures of the Knights of Labor, have generated many controversial issues that have helped shape the North American labor movement. They fought for eight-hour day shifts, abolition of child labor, equal pay for equal work, and political reforms, including the graduated income tax in the late 1800s. During this time period, many immigrants were coming to America to find jobs. The Knights affected all sorts of workers from this time period, including skilled and unskilled workers. In the present, a holiday, more equality, and government passed Acts were created thanks to the inspiration of the Knight’s actions. In the late 18 hundreds the Knights of Labor Union affected people’s lives, this including skilled and unskilled workers.

In the mid to late 1700's, the women of the United States of America had practically no rights. When they were married, the men represented the family, and the woman could not do anything without consulting the men. Women were expected to be housewives, to raise their children, and thinking of a job in a factory was a dream that was never thought impossible. But, as years passed, women such as Susan B. Anthony, Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucy Stone, and Elizabeth Blackwell began to question why they were at home all day raising the children, and why they did not have jobs like the men. This happened between the years of 1776 and 1876, when the lives and status of Northern middle-class woman was changed forever. Women began to

The latter half of the 1800s women were restricted and beliefs based on race, ethnicity, gender and national origin. For instance, Western women were entrepreneurs or worked for wages to provide for their families. Also, women played a major role in the West community such as founding schools and other public institutions. However, female immigrants worked as domestic servants or prostitutes to provide for their families. Consequently, Chinese women and African American women were paid little benefits in the West. Then in 1890, women had to contribute to the family economy by working at the mill or piecework at home during the Industrial revolution. Also, other race of women such as African American women had to work as domestic servant services or laundry to help their husbands who were paid very poorly. Equally, immigrant women arriving in the late

Up until the 1920s, women’s struggle for their right to vote seemed to be a futile one. They had been fighting for their suffrage for a long time, starting numerous women's rights movements and abolitionist activists groups to achieve their goal. “The campaign for women’s suffrage began in earnest in the decades before the Civil War. During the 1820s and 30s, most states had enfranchised almost all white males (“The Fight for Women's Suffrage” ). This sparked women to play a more emphatic role in society. They began to participate in anti-slavery organizations, religious movements, and even meetings where they discussed that when the Constitution states "that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain

Knights of Labor is a national labor organization with a broad reform platform reached peak membership in the 1800s . In 1869 - Another labor group of national had emerged . The failure of the railroad striked in 1886 . Knights also declined because its leaders spent more time promoting national reforms than focusing on better wages . American Federation of labor is founded in 1886 of trade unions made up ofskilled workers . Differences between the knights of labor and the American federation of labor is that the knights of labor was more radical , in 1879 Terrence Powderly led the knights and Samuel led the afl

The creation and advancement of the United States national government sparked recognition by women to understand the importance of and wanting the right to vote. Women’s rights and the reform movement were a contentious request at best. Not until 1848 did an organized convention occur that would later serve as a building block towards women’s rights advancements in the future. The United States was governed by all men who already had an opinion of what a women’s place in society should be, in the home, and the issue of women’s rights was