To what extent was the 1920s a turning point in the advancement of civil rights for women in
the period 1865-1992?
In assessing the hypothesis presented in the question, it is important to evaluate the position
of women before and after the 1920s in terms of three aspects: political, social, and
economical.
Socially, women’s positions improved to a certain extent in 1865. Before the Civil War,
women had already been starting to get more and more active as a result of increase in
religious enthusiasm (which was the direct cause of their later promotion of temperance), the
movement to support the abolition of slavery, and the development of a movement for
women’s suffrage. There is a strong relationship between the social concerns that the women
took interest in and organised themselves to promote, and the wider political issue of
suffrage.