Blog #10

Textbook: Chapter 7
1. During the time of women’s suffrage and reform, Jim Crow laws had been in effect in the Southern states and many blacks felt the impact of racism partly because the white people did not believe that the blacks would adapt to the new industrial society. Even though these prejudices were occurring, many African American women were for the idea of reform and had contributed to it as well. Some of these contributions included their effort to create kindergartens for children with mothers that were unable to take care of their children, since they were always working. Some popular African American women entrepreneurs, such as Sarah Breedlove, showed that they too were able to become successful, despite the disadvantage they had do to their race. The white women suffragist groups refused to help the black women with racism because they believed it would hurt the white women’s chances of rising up in society. Even though the black women did not receive help, they still had their willingness to receive their own political rights and were even more aggressive in their groups than the white women were in theirs.

2. The main differences among the feminist movement and the suffrage movement was that the suffragists focused more on the equality of women’s roles in the public life while the focus on the feminist movement was more on the equality of women’s private life. The suffragist usually looked for their political rights such as their right to vote. Feminisms brought upon a whole new idea of women’s liberty and equality in their own personal and individual life. These, more individual equalities, included ideas of how they would live their own lifestyle such as their own sexual life in which some lived with men even though they were not married, some lived alone in apartments and others were lesbians living together.

Source Interpretation
Textbook document
3. There were many definitions in the article that were for the idea of feminism. In a sense, all the definitions were the same because they were so similar. One of the definitions was that feminism would cause a lot of trouble but this trouble would eventually help the society to readjust to a new way of life that is ultimately better than the old way of life. Other definitions prove that feminism is there in order to give women their equality with men and to show that the two genders are “made of the same soul stuff (460).” The definitions all try to show that women are human beings just as men are and that these women, since they are human beings, deserve their own individuality.

4. As women practice their feminist beliefs in their own individual life, their feminism eventually leads them to receive economic independence. For example, since women are now individuals and do not have to follow the idea of working for their husbands in the home, they are now able to go out into the world and work in order to receive more opportunities economically and even politically. In the past, many women had a different attitude about divorce. The changing of times has influenced many of these women to have a different and more free perspective mainly because of feminism. Since these women are individuals and not property of men, they are able to work for themselves and have their own economic independence.

5. As seen in the first article, there are many different definitions that people could give for feminism even though they are similar in some aspect. Feminism is the individuality that women receive in order to make themselves personally equal to males, not only in public society but in the private life as well. This equality is usually in order to allow for women to have the same humanistic rights that males have had throughout history. These rights include the opportunity for women to make their own choices when dealing with situations that relate to their own private life and the liberty to live a life in which women are free of male dominance.

Blog #9

Textbook: Chapter 6
1. During immigration, women had gone to the United States in order to receive better opportunities and more equality than those of European and Asian countries. Most women had come from countries such as German, Italy and eastern Europe. Many of these women appreciated the idea that they were able to choose their own husbands in the United States and were not forced to marry. They were searching for their independence and The United States was the place where they would receive this independence. Men mainly emigrated to the United States in order to work temporarily and then return home. Some of these immigrant women had to go through harsh times when they were forced into prostitution. Others worked in the factories or as servants where they would receive low wages. Many immigrant men had received these low wages as well. Other similarities between the immigrant men and women were that they both came to the United States for economic or political reasons. The United States was the land of opportunity and the opportunity to become rich was believed to be very easy for these immigrants. The United States had enough jobs for many people in order to help its economy and both men and women saw the opportunity to become wealthy and pursued it.

2. Many of the women during the time of immigration were similar in their fight for what they believed in. Even though they all fought for their beliefs, all these women were involved in different kinds of protests and had their own distinct reasons for their movements. For example, the populists movement was based primarily on the alliance of farmers. These women were usually non-elite southern white women or black women who were in debt. The populist helped with the rise of women’s suffrage. The idea of the settlement house movement was different from that of the populist because it involved helping immigrants with the new values and culture of the United States. They had helped immigrant women that were away from their families as well. The populist and settlement house movement were similar in changing social reform for women. The Industrial protest had involved workers of industries in which they fought for higher wages and better working conditions for all the workers throughout the nation. All these women had their different reasons for their movements but they were all similar in trying to fight for their priorities in order to better themselves and future generations.








Source Interpretation
Textbook document
3. There were many different experiences for people who were involved in the work with immigrants because many different views were expressed in both spectrums. The charity worker usually sees herself as a person of good character who is more important than the poor. Those who are poor have a hard time understanding why the charity giver is there to advice them to work rather than just giving them what they actually want. They also have different views with saving. The rich believe that it is important to save while the poor do not see it as any priority in their lives. The poor usually talk about how the rich are landlords and collect money which is why they do not like them, although they do respect them. These different experiences allowed for Addams to write about the complex ideas and perspectives that these two groups had of one another even when dealing in close relations with one another.

4. As a settlement house volunteer, Addams' views of the poor were different than those of others because she had different opinions of why the poor became poor. Many believe that one of the main reasons for poverty was laziness. In contrast to that theory, Addams who was very well educated, believed that the reason for the poverty was do to the social structure of society. It was do to her knowledge and education that she was able to better understand the differences that occurred between the charity giver and the charity recipient after comparing the relationship to the words of the Hebrew prophet. If it was not for her education from college, she would not have had a different and maybe less accepting perspective of the settlement house volunteer.

Blog #8

Textbook: Chapter 5

1. After the civil war, the late nineteenth century brought upon a lot of economic change mostly do to the rise of industrialism. Many of the American women were involved in helping the economy because of their involvement in the labor force. Women worked in textile and garment industries, which had dramatically grown after the invention of the sewing machine. Many of these women believed that they were not earning enough for their hard labor. They were given difficult jobs and, in return, would produce a large amount of goods. Women were usually treated unfairly because they were not seen as “skilled workers” as the men were. Sometimes, women would take the place of men when the men were on strike, but the women were let go as soon as the men returned to their positions. Eventually, women were given more opportunities in office work mostly do to the invention of the typewriter. Single Working-class girls were affected in that they felt as if they were now given more freedoms, since they were able to make money and only support themselves. Many women had left their homes and entered the cities where they would receive the feeling of dependence, a feeling that they had always pursued. Other working-class women would have to work in order to support their families and usually used more than one income in the household. The middle-class women and elite women lived in more comfort than the working-class. Middle-class women would usually chose to shop around in department stores rather than work. They would even hire a couple domestic servants to do the domestic work around the home. The elite women would have a lot more of these servants than the middle-class women did, therefore making their lives a lot easier than any of the other classes. They, too, would shop around for their luxurious with the money that their husbands had brought home. Another way their lives were affected was that the poorer women had more children than the wealthier women. Since the middle-class and elite women were the consumers and the working-class women produced the goods, it would keep the economy balanced.

Textbook: Chapter 6

2. The image that is shown identifies the U.S. government’s strength in assimilating the Native Americans into the White American culture. The U.S. government practically forced these young children to attend these boarding schools that stripped them from their Native American culture and way of life. They did this in hopes to get rid of the Native Americans. The Native Americans had lived a hard life during these troubled times because of the White man’s priority of destroying the Native Americans. The children in the image are completely changed after a few years. These changes are seen in the way these girls are sitting, the way they are dressed, and they way they have their hair done. The girls in the image had only kept their sad faces because of the fact that many of these children were taken from their families and loved ones.

Source Interpretation
Textbook document

1. There are all sorts of women in the factory with their own story to tell. One girl is in the factory in order to buy herself clothes because she is already supported by her father and brother. She does not mind the work in the factory and usually looks happy. Another woman is an old widow who talks about how hard the factory work is. Some of these girls work for pleasure but some work in order to help the family. One girl that Bessie Van Vorst meets is in the factory to help her other two sisters support their mother and pay for food and rent. There are the differences between the bread-winners and the semi-bread-winners. The responses usually vary between the women who have to support others and the girls that have nobody to support that are able to spend their earnings on themselves. This is because the girls that are not supporting themselves know that they get extra luxurious out of their work while the women who are supporting others know that all their hard labor is going to others, in which they will need have the opportunity to enjoy.

2. Van Vorst concludes that the women do not stand up for themselves because they do not have enough spirit and strength to do so. Van Vorst is correct in her analysis because these women were indeed treated unfairly and did not do anything about it. Many of these women knew that it was easy for the employers to replace the workers and therefore did not want to risk losing their jobs because some of the women needed the jobs in order to support their families at home. If one work day was to be missed, it could have caused negative consequences such as missing the rent payments.