The Rise of
Progressivism
Ch. 21
I. The Progressive Impulse
• Direct, purposeful human intervention in social
and economic affairs was essential to ordering
and bettering society. Laissez faire and Social
Darwinism looked upon as inefficient to
maintain order.
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Varieties of Progressivism
Progressives often disagreed
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Spirit of “Anti-monopoly”
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no longer just populist
spread to middle class
Social cohesion
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individuals not autonomous, but rather part of a web
welfare of individual dependent upon welfare of society
concern now “victims” of industrialization
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Faith in knowledge
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Increasing the role of government
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some looked to knowledge for order and efficiency
others looked to it as a means of making society more
equitable and humane
modern life too complex to be run by party bosses
enhanced institutions
new breed of leaders
Incompatible Philosophies?
The Muckrakers
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term coined by TR in accusation that they were
raking up muck
crusading journalists whose goal was to direct
public attention toward social, economic, and
political injustices
often times reported scandal, corruption and
injustice to public view
Muckrakers
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Individuals
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Charles F. Adams (1860s) = railroad
Ida Tarbell (1904) = Standard Oil
Lincoln Steffens = Political Machines
Charles F. Adams
Ida Tarbell
The History of the
Standard Oil Company
Lincoln Steffens
Shame of the Cities
Chapters of Erie
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Other areas of influence
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Organizations: labor unions, governments, corporations
Social Issues: prostitution, immigrant ghettos, child
labor and family disorganization, conservation of
natural resources, subjugation of women, oppression of
blacks
Reached peak of influence in first decade of the
20th century
Inspired Americans to take action and echoed
progressive ideals
The Social Gospel
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Social outrage combined with a humanitarian sense
of social responsibility helped produce many
reformers who were committed to social justice
“Social Gospel” movement came to power in the
early 20th century
Started with Protestantism, but soon found a
following in Catholicism and Judaism
– Salvation Army
• began in England, but spread to the US
• example of fusion of religion with
reform
• 3,000 officers / 20,000 privates
• committed to offering both material aid
and spiritual service to the poor
– Individual contributions
• Charles Sheldon’s In His Steps: 15 million
copies
• Walter Rauschenbusch: Darwinism not
survival of the fittest, but rather all should
work to ensure a humanitarian evolution
into the social fabric
• Pope Leo XIII: Rerum Novarum “New
Things”
• Father John A. Ryan
The Settlement House Movement
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Where Social Darwinists (William
Graham Sumner) argued that
people’s fortunes reflected their
inherent “fitness”, progressives
disagreed… Ignorance, poverty,
even criminality were not the result
of inherent moral or genetic failings
they were, rather, the effects of an
unhealthy environment.
Settlement houses build in response
to growing public concern over poor
immigrant neighborhoods (Jacob
Riis)
The Settlement House Movement
Continued
– Hull House (1889),
Chicago
• Jane Addams
• Became a model for more than
400 similar institutions
• Helped immigrant families
adapt to the language and
customs of their new country
• Middle class had a responsibility
to assist and educate immigrants
The Settlement House Movement Continued
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Role of college women
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provided assistance
settlement houses were an “appropriate” place for
young, single women to live
Eleanor Roosevelt
The Birth of Social Work
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connection to University of Chicago
compassion for poor combined with values of
progressivism
The Allure of Expertise
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Progressives placed high value on knowledge and
expertise
Non-scientific problems could be solved with science
Belief that well designed bureaucracies could create the
stability and order America needed
Whereas S.Darwinism sought to justify the current
system, these progressive intellectuals sought to create a
new society
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Thorstein Velben: social scientist who was critical of industrial
tycoons
Pros and cons… where progressives disagree
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Scientific Management and Taylorism
Social science and inquiry
The Professions
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Birth of a new middle class
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American Medical Association (1901)
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high value on education and individual accomplishment
establishment of modern professions
Called for strict, scientific standards
John Hopkins (1893) training and research
Professional Bar Associations (1916)
National Association of Manufactures (1895)
United States Chamber of Commerce (1912)
Some professionals used admission requirements to
exclude women and minorities
Women and Professions
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Most women were excluded from most of the
emerging professions, but many did find ways to
enter professional careers
1900 5% of all physicians were female… a
proportion that remained unchanged until the
1960s
Settlement houses and social work as
“appropriate”
Teaching: 2/3 of all grammar school teachers were
women
Women and Professions Continued
– Nursing in the post-Civil War era gains
credibility
– Librarians
– the “women professions” common traits
with progressivism in that they established
a professional identity
– differed in that they had a vaguely
“domestic” or “helping” image
Women and
Reform
The progressive era represented both
an expansion of women’s separate
sphere and a confirmation of it
The “New Woman”
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housework taking up less time of the day
– income-producing work leaving the home and going to the
factory or office
– technological innovations: running water, electricity and
household appliances reduced housework (higher standard of
cleanliness)
– result is that women were looking for activities outside of the
home
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Less Children and longer lives = more time alive
without children around
The “New Woman” Continued
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“Our failures marry”
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many women believe that only by remaining single
could they play the roles they envisioned in the public
world
10% of all women never married in the last decades of
the 19th century… high proportion of them were
middle class
Jane Addams and Lillian Ward = settlement house
movement
Francis Willard = temperance movement
Anna Howard Shaw = suffrage movement
The “New Woman” Continued Again
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“Boston Marriages” in secret
Divorce rates rise
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The role of higher education and women’s colleges
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1880 = 1:21
1916 = 1:9
increased literacy and social understanding
creation and establishment of female communities
Un-definable yet shifting identity of woman
both defined and limited their public activities
The Clubwoman
– large network of women’s associations grew
rapidly between 1880s and 1890s
– became the vanguard of many important
reforms
– formed to give women an outlet for
intellectual energies
– General Federation of Women’s Clubs
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1882: 100,000 members / 500 clubs
1917: 1 million members
Clubwoman Continued
– In the early half of the twentieth century
focus shifts to social betterment
– Many women were from wealthy families
– African American women formed clubs of
their own
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modeled their white counterparts
took stands on lynching
segregation
The Clubwoman Continued Again
– Few women actually believed that traditional
gender roles were “exploitive and obsolete”
(Charlotte Perkins Gilman 1898)
– Much of what they did was uncontroversial
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planting trees
supporting schools, libraries and settlement houses
building hospitals and parks
… and once again.
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Some of what they did was controversial
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important force is passing state and federal laws against
child labor
established gov’t inspection at the workplace
regulated food and drug industries
reformed policy against the Indian tribes
applied new standards to urban housing
outlawed the manufacture of alcohol
“mother’s pensions” which became absorbed into Social
Security
1912 Children’s Bureau in the Labor Department
And Again
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Alliances formed between women’s
groups
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Women’s Trade Union League 1903
Raised money to support strikes and bail
women out of jail
Early success depended on male interest
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“maternal” character
but reflected contemporary ideas about
the natural inclinations of women
Woman Suffrage
Considered the greatest movement
during the progressive era… one of
the greatest in American history
Why was it considered “radical”?
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rationale some supporters used to advance it
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Popular belief was that men and women also
believed in separate spheres
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“natural rights” women have same right as men
Elizabeth Cady Stanton woman’s role as “mother,
wife, sister and daughter” was “incidental” to her
larger role in society
woman’s foremost role was as wives and mothers
powerful anti-suffrage movement emerged
organized by men with the support of some
women
anti-suffrage newspapers, rallies, petitions and
legislatures
How did the tide turn?
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suffragists became better organized
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Anna Howard Shaw and Carrie Chapman Catt increased
membership in the National American Woman Suffrage
Association from 13,000 in 1893 to 2 million in 1917
Leaders began to justify suffrage in “safer” less
threatening ways
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women’s suffrage would not challenge separate spheres
would allow women to bring their separate and distinct
virtues into a corrupt political sphere
How did the tide turn? Continued
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Connection to other issues
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temperance movement
World War I
Less optimistic reason: If immigrants and black males
could vote, “well born” women should be allowed to
vote too
Supporters played both ends
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radicals continued to support, working class, immigrants and
blacks
Middle class also supported because of connection to other
issues
Legislative Process
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The West leads the way
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1910 Washington becomes the first state in 14 years to extend
suffrage to women
California would follow a year later
4 more western states after that
not many Catholic communities in the region
East gets caught up
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Temperance issue: Catholics v. Protestants
1913 Illinois first state East of Mississippi River to grant
women suffrage
1917/1918: New York and Michigan, two of the most
populous states in the Union
Legislative Process Continued
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1920: 19th Amendment guaranteed the political rights
to women throughout the nation
Feminist Divisions
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One side: Alice Paul wanted a constitutional amendment
that would provide legal protection for the rights of
women and would prohibit discrimination on t he basis of
sex, Equal Rights Amendment
Other side: Jane Addams, Florence Kelley, Carrie Chapman
Catt: political compromise the only way to go at this time