Progressives, Suffrage,
and Nativism: The Highlights
Defining Progressivism
• Social reform movement of the early 20th
century (1890-1920)
• Sought to use the government to soften
harshest effects of unregulated capitalism
• Expanded government
• Middle-class professionals
What problems did Progressives see
overwhelming modern society?
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Urban poverty
Poor labor conditions
Poor living conditions (slums)
Vulnerable young women and mothers
Unassimilated immigrants
Vice and immorality
The Solution?
• Regulation and
protection!
• Strong believers in
protective legislation
and government
regulation
• Labor laws
• Consumer protection
• Public health
department
• Social Services
• Election reform
Women in the Progressive Movement
• High representation of
middle- and upper-class
women
• Had more free time
than working women
• Challenged traditional
gender roles
Jane Addams
“Protecting” Poor Women & Children
• Legislative campaigns: Campaigning for
protective labor laws and anti-child labor laws
• Mothers’ Pensions for “deserving” mothers
and children
• Sometimes imposed middle-class social norms
on immigrants and the poor
Settlement House Movement
• Private charities
• Provided services for
poor and immigrant
women
• Precursors to modern
social workers
• Strong moral
component: teach
urban poor how to be
“proper” American
women
Fighting for the Vote
• Fight begins at Seneca Falls Convention, 1848
• Women fight for inclusion in 13th, 14th, and
15th Amendments
• Suffrage achieved in western states in 1910,
1911
• National Woman’s Party, founded 1917
The Case Against Suffrage: J.B. Sanford,
Chairman of Democratic Caucus, 1911
• “The kindly, gentle influence of the mother in the home
and the dignified influence of the teacher in the school
will far outweigh all the influence of all the mannish
female politicians on earth.”
• “Woman does not have to vote to secure her rights.
Man will go to any extreme to protect and elevate her
now. As long as woman is woman and keeps her place
she will get more protection and more consideration
than man gets. When she abdicates her throne she
throws down the scepter of her power and loses her
influence."
Suffragettes and the Temperance
Movement
• Women’s Christian
Temperance Union founded
in 1873
• Alcohol is a social ill with
negative effects on families,
immigrants, and the poor
• Evangelical Christians
• Anti-saloon crusades
• Temperance is a feminist
issue
• Nearly 250,000 members in
1911
18th Amendment to the Constitution
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Established the prohibition of the production and sale
of alcoholic beverages in the United States. Ratified by
the states in 1919, and went into effect in January,
1920.
Nineteenth Amendment
• Ratified August 18,
1920
• Prohibits and U.S.
citizen from being
denied the right to
vote on the basis
of sex.
Early Immigration Policy and Law
• Constitution, Article 1, Section 8:
• Congress must establish a uniform rule of
naturalization; immigrants eligible for all
federal offices except President and Vice
President
1790 Statute
• Naturalization restricted to “free white
persons.”
• Purpose was to prevent African Americans and
indentured servants from voting
Naturalization Act of 1870
• Part of Reconstruction Era legislation
• Extended naturalization to “aliens of African
nativity and to persons of African descent.”
• Other non-whites still excluded
1924 Immigration Act (Johnson-Reed Act)
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Created a quota system to limit immigration
164,000 immigrants allowed per year
Quotas for each nation, based on 1890 statistics
Goal of limiting Eastern and Southern European
immigration
• Set immigration policy until 1965
• Did not specifically exclude Mexican immigrants.
• Barred Asian immigrants.
Why did the Immigration Act of 1924 Pass?
• 1) Resurgence of the KKK in the 1920s
• 2) Employers, by and large, withdrew their
opposition to restrictions on immigration
• 3) The growth of scientific racism (Eugenics)
What were the effects of the Immigration
Act of 1924?
• The derisive concept of the “illegal alien is
born,” and it is specifically used against people
who are “less than completely white” or
people of color.
• The act, by using the census in 1890 and
excluding people of color entirely, had as its
clear intent to prioritize immigration from the
whitest countries of northern and western
Europe.