Women’s role in America began with Colonial Family Ethic, a system that primarily used

women for housework and rearing children. After gaining independence, American men decided
to elevate their role from child rearers to democratic teachers with Republican Motherhood. This
lasted until the 1820s, the start of the industrial revolution. Now, the Cult of Domesticity was in
rise, teaching women they should be subservient to men and purer than men. While women of
this time period like Elizabeth Cady Stanton tried to fight the Cult of Domesticity, the new guard
of women suffrage in the Progressive Era used society’s backwards view on women to their
benefit. In fact, their arguments for suffrage completely stagnated social reform for women and
immigrants in the Progressive Era. However, their massive strides in economic independence,
protection, and legal policies allowed them to achieve social reform into the modern age.
The new guard decided to regress their arguments to the days of the early 19th century in
an effort to appeal to policymakers, preventing any real social reform regarding women. The
court case Muller vs. Oregon reveals this idea. Women argued that since they were weaker than
men, they deserved to work less hours and gain extra protections. While an old guard member
like Stanton would vehemently disagree with the premise, the general populace believed in this
idea stemming from the Cult of Domesticity and this argument would not fall on deaf ears like
countless others during the Transcendentalist Movement. Another regressive idea the new guard
adopted was the nativist idea of massive waves of uneducated immigrants invading the country
and taking over the polls. They argued that only women could stop the immigrants from
overpowering the educated, native born Americans. These two principles of new guard suffrage
greatly widened their audience, but at the cost of preventing progressive social reform.
Women made improvements in their economic lives, gained protection from alcoholism,
and achieved political freedom in the Progressive Era. With less jobs relying on physical labor,
women could take up jobs themselves rather than work in the house and rely on a man for
money. The advent of professional business with inventions such as the typewriter especially
opened up spots for women to be secretaries, accountants, and adders on the adding machines.
However, this economic freedom was also met with harassment by men at the workplace. Thus,
progressive women founded organizations such as the Hull House, National Consumers League,
and Women’s Christian Temperance Union to maintain economic change without reverting back
to stay at home motherhood. Their greatest achievement in protection was the 18th amendment,
banning the drinking and selling of alcohol to conclusively end the battle against domestic
violence. Although the amendment was ultimately ineffective, it revealed the newfound political
power women had in this era. Finally, women gained the right to vote in this era. Beginning with
western states such as Wyoming, suffrage took effect in the west to entice women to settle.
Cities, however, did not share the same ideas as western states, and a national suffrage act was
necessary for women. The 20th amendment was successfully campaigned for by progressives\\,
ending the Progressive Era.
Women’s arguments may have initially stagnated social reform, but new ideas about
immigration and women in the late 20th and 21st centuries show a clear improvement in societal
ideas about women and immigrants. Waiting for social reform and tolerating sexism akin to
Booker T. Washington would drastically decrease women’s overall liberties in the Progressive
and successive Eras, and the overall outcome would be about the same as it is today.