Women’s Participation in Public Life: A Brief Overview

1. Before the ratification of the Constitution of 1787

a. political rights and participation

b. economic status of women prior to the industrial

revolution

c. notable exceptions

2. Impact of the revolutionary war and the new

government

3. Political and economic status of women in the 19th

19th century

a. the role of race, class, and immigrant status

b. overview of political and economic participation

1. examples

2. recap of changes over the century: the emergence of social movements, abolition of slavery, home and workplace separation, sexual segregation in economic and political life

3. notable women: Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, Maria Stewart, the Grimke sisters, Susan B. Anthony, Ida B. Wells, Sojourner Truth

4. Women’s Suffrage Movement

a. roots of the movement

b. important organizing events

c. important individuals and organizations

1. National American Women’s Suffrage Association (NAWSA)

2. National Women’s Party (NWP)

3. Anti-suffrage movement

5. Passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920

6. Women’s participation in politics after suffrage

7. Economic status of women

a. working class women - Florence Kelley and the

National Consumer’s League

b. protective legislation - Muller v. Oregon (1908)

c. women and the professionals