Temperance & Women’s Movement

Temperance Movement

Alcohol blamed as cause for societal problems – reformers wanted to end alcohol abuse and problems created by it.

 

Definition of temperance- drinking alcohol in moderation

 

temperance

American Temperance Society-  thousands of members all over US pledged to refrain from alcohol

 

Neal Dow passed a law in Maine restricting the sale of alcohol.

 

Women’s Movement

 

In the 1800s, women’s freedoms and rights were severely limited.

 

After the 2nd Great Awakening, women took a much greater role in society.

 

Women’s Limitations

  • no property
  • no public office
  • no voting rights
  • usually forbidden  to speak in public
  • limited education

 

The reform movements previously discussed in this chapter all had women playing prominent roles.

 

Industrialization provided women economic opportunities outside the home

Social Independence- networks of friends with other factory workers

Economic Independence- working to make their own wages in the mills

Women’s Labor Unions- went on strike for better pay and working conditions in the 1830s

 

2 trends of the 1830s led to the Women’s Movement’s true beginnings

1. many urban middle-class women hired poor women for the house giving them more time to think about society

2. women began to see their own social restrictions like slavery

 

Margaret Fuller- transcendentalist who didn’t believe personal power was needed.  She believed rather that one should grown in nature and intellect.

 

Grimke Sisters- Abolitionists who published ideas on women’s rights by saying God created men and women (and slaves) equally

 

Lucretia Mott- Active reformer for women’s rights and abolition.  Helped to found the American Anti-Slavery Society and the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society

 

Elizabeth Cady Stanton- Female abolitionist married to Henry Stanton who also fought for women’s rights

Seneca Falls Convention (New York) – 1848

  • “Declaration of Sentiments” – Women’s Rights convention publication modeled on Declaration of Independence which marked the beginning of the Women’s movement in America

declaration of sentiments

  • Susan B. Anthony – Temperance and Abolition supporter at Seneca Falls who helped gain the right to vote

 

Married Women’s Property Act- (1848) – New York law which guaranteed many property rights for women.