10/9/12Women in the Post Civil War EraEducational Opportunities-Two colleges before the war began to accept women:-Oberlin, 1837-Antioch, 1853-More colleges after the war began to accept women:-Vassar, 1865 -Wellesley, 1875-University of Indiana took 9 years to admit Sarah Parke Morrison, who then had to suffer petty annoyances throughout her college career because most people still disagreed with it.-Dr. Edward H. Clarke’s book Sex In Education told that the strain of learning would make a woman sterile.Occupations and Professions-Number of women working outside the home-1880: 2.6 million-1890: 4 million-1900: 5.1 million-1910: 7.8 million-Domestic work remained the largest category of employment for women-Teaching and nursing among leading fields for women-Women began to dominate professions such as nursing, stenography, teaching, clerical, book keeping, and sales-Elizabeth Blackwell: first licensed female doctor in the U.S., finally admitted in 1848 to the Geneva Medical School in New York, graduated first in her class but was shunned by students and townspeople-Annabella Mansfield: first female attorney in the U.S., licensed by the Iowa Bar in 1869-Teaching-Most female teachers were young and single-Many states prohibited women teaching after marriage-Manufacturing-Clothes making-Textiles-Millinery-Commercial food production-Cigar and tobacco-Shoe making industry-Black women even more restricted than white women – worked the jobs white women didn’t want as-Farm laborers-Cleaning women-Cooks (more so in private homes than in restaurants)-Nursemaids-Laundresses (something you could do at home while caring for kids)-Building cleaning-Church maids-Hairdressers-Seamstresses-Midwives (female dominated industry)-Rebecca Lee Krumpler: first Black female to graduate from medical school, got her degree from New England Female Medical College-Mary Ann Shadd Cary: teacher, journalist, lawyer after Harvard Law School, first Black woman in North America (based in Toronto) to edit a weekly newspaper – “The Provincial Freeman”Ida Wells Barnett-Daughter of a former slave-Born in Holly Springs, Mississippi in 1862-Both parents died of yellow fever - at age 16 had to raise five brothers and sisters, --Attended Rust College, Lemoyne Institute where she got a elementary teaching license, and Fisk -Chesapeake and Ohio RR-Ida Wells Barnett removed from the ladies’ train car on the way to Woodstock, Tennessee-She sued but lost the court in the Tennessee Supreme Court-She began writing a column called, “Living Way,” under the pen name “Iola” about national and local issues that was picked up by Black newspapers all over the country.-Interest in paper “Free Speech”-1891 fired from teaching position as a result of an exposé she wrote on the Memphis school system-Traveled through Arkansas, Tennessee, and Mississippi to increase the “Free Speech” subscriptions -Triple Lynching in Memphis in 1892-Thomas Moss-Calvin McDowell-Henry StewartIda was the godmother to one of these men’s daughters and was very upset over this. She thought that the lynching of these three men was purely economic – they had opened up a store in a white area. She began researching lynching (728 people) and found that only 1/3 of lynching in the past ten years had been people actually accused of rape – most had shoplifted, gotten drunk and made threats, or something else trivial. She also found that women and children had also been lynched. She published an article about it and left town to avoid the inevitable huge fallout.-Founding member of the NAACP-Founded the first Black woman’s political club - Alpha Suffrage Club in Chicago (women in some places could vote at the local level then)Susan B. Anthony-A white woman who demanded that the 14th amendment included a guarantee of the right to vote for women and not only men-1869: the unity of the women’s rights movement split-Along with Elizabeth Cady Stanton, founded the National Women Suffrage Association-Looked at suffrage as one among many feminist causesLucy Stone and Julia Ward Howe -Formed the American Woman Suffrage Association-Focused single-mindedly on suffrage as the first and basic reform1890: two groups merge and become National American Woman Suffrage AssociationAnna Howard Shaw and Carrie Chapman CattTerritory Wyoming 1869: granted full suffrage to women- Wyoming came into the Union in 1890 & women retained the right to voteColorado, 1893Utah 1896Idaho, 1896Gradual Emancipation of Women around 1890Own propertyMore Independent A career was considered an attractive alternative to marriage – people were getting married later and couples were having fewer kids.These women still were heavily controlled…they often had to stay home and watch babies all day.Smaller families-Higher living standards-Birth control Increase in divorce
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