Women in the US

Third wave feminism

encompasses several diverse strains of feminist activity and study. Though exact boundaries are a subject of debate, it is generally marked as beginning in the early 1990s and continuing to the present. It is an "individual movement" in the sense that its purpose includes redefining what it is to be a feminist. The third wave arose partially as a response to the perceived failures of second-wave feminism, and the backlash against initiatives and movements created during the 1960s, '70s and '80s. It attempts to expand feminism to include women with a diverse set of identities recognising that women are of "many colors, ethnicities, nationalities, religions and cultural backgrounds". Thus it can be seen as a reaction to or continuation of second-wave feminism, and constitutes a partial destabilization of constructs from the second wave. The related concept of intersectionality was introduced in 1989, a few years before the third wave began, but it was during this wave that the concept was embraced. Rebecca Walker coined the term "Third Wave" to highlight the focus on queer and non-white women.

Feminine Mystique

found that many of them were unhappy with their lives as housewives, prompted her to begin research for The Feminine Mystique, conducting interviews with other suburban housewives, as well as researching psychology, media, and advertising.

Wyoming Territory

gave women the right to vote in 1869. Women's suffrage was passed there because people though it would encourage more women to settle there. Women's suffrage appeared in the west before it appeared anywhere else. The influx of women as intended to balance out the heavily male population and bring law and order to the wild territory. Utah and other states soon followed Wyoming's strategy which marked a much needed victory for the women's rights movement.

Sarah Lousa Forten

was a regular contributor of poems to the abolitionist newspaper "The Liberator". She recruited her mother and two sisters to help her create the Philadelphia Female Anti-slavery society. Sarah Forten helped shape the group's policies and organized antislavery events. She was one of the most articulate and persistent voices of the anti-slavery movement.

"The New Woman"

were women who acted differently than their mothers. They were white, college educated, single, and self-supporting. They played sports, hunted, and wore differnt clothing. Some piloted airplanes and they extended social behavior of women. They met men in bars publicly.

Four characteristics of the second wave

1. Included women of all social classes and races 2. Questioned all assumptions regarding women and their prescribed roles 3. analyzed the effect of culture on the development of gender roles and behavior 4. American women had new kinds of power(out numbered men in colleges, general population, primary consumers)

Americans for Democratic Action

Americans for Democratic Action (ADA) is an American political organization advocating progressive policies. ADA works for social and economic justice through lobbying, grassroots organizing, research, and supporting progressive candidates. The ADA grew out of a predecessor group, the Union for Democratic Action (UDA). The UDA was formed by former members of the Socialist Party of America and Committee to Defend America by Aiding the Allies as well as labor union leaders, liberal politicians, theologians, and others who were opposed to the pacifism adopted by most left-wing political organizations in the late 1930s and early 1940s. It supported a strongly interventionist, internationalist foreign policy and a pro-union, liberal domestic policy. It was strongly anti-communist as well. It undertook a major effort to support left-wing Democratic members of Congress in 1946, but this effort was an overwhelming failure. Though strongly anti-communist, unlike other contemporary liberal groups like the Progressive Citizens of America, which supported cooperation with the Soviet Union, the ADA was still subject to significant McCarthyist scrutiny. The plight of the ADA during that period prompted Eleanor Roosevelt to accept a position as honorary chair of the organization in 1953, and in doing so, put Senator McCarthy in a position in which he would have had to "call her a communist as well" to continue his inquires into the activities of the group. Because of her actions, many ADA leaders credited her with "saving" the organization. James Isaac Loeb (later an ambassador and diplomat in the John F. Kennedy administration), the UDA's executive director, advocated disbanding the UDA and forming a new, more broadly based, mass-membership organization. The ADA was formed on January 4, 1947, and the UDA shuttered.

Black Women Organized for Action

BWOA was among the first Black feminist organizations in the United States. The organization had a truly progressive model of collective responsibility and political philosophy. This created an emphasis on fostering Black women as leaders while simultaneously avoiding a hierarchy among Black female activists. This was a rare structure in comparison to sister organizations. formed in the San Francisco Bay Area in response to the lack of representation of Black women in local women's organizing". The group emerged from Black Women Organized for Political Action (BWOPA). BWOPA, which functioned in an auxiliary fundraising role for men of color running for office, and had many members who wanted to shift to a space explicitly defined by Black women's concerns. "Though members had strong roots in the Civil Rights Movement ... more so than any of the other organizations, BWOA exhibits a clear link to the Women's Movement". BWOA was among the first Black feminist organizations in the United States. The organization had a truly progressive model of collective responsibility and political philosophy. This created an emphasis on fostering Black women as leaders while simultaneously avoiding a hierarchy among Black female activists. This was a rare structure in comparison to sister organizations. The BWOA Statement of Purpose reads: BLACK We are Black and therefore imbedded in our consciousness is commitment to the struggle of Black people for identity and involvement in decisions that affect our lives and the lives of other generations of Black people who will follow. WOMEN We are Women, and therefore aware of the sometimes blatant, waste of the talents and energies of Black women because this society has decreed a place for us. ORGANIZED we are Organized, because we recognize that only together, only by pooling our talents and resources, can we make major change in the institutions which have limited our opportunities and stifled our growth as human beings. ACTION We are for Action, because we believe that the time for rhetoric is past; that the skills of Black women can best be put to use in a variety of ways to change the society; that, in the political work in which we live, involvement for Black women must go beyond the traditional fundraising and into the full gamut of activities that make up the political process which affects our lives in so many ways.

National American Woman Suffrage Association

Formed in 1890 when the National Woman Suffrage association and the American Woman Suffrage Association united. Elizabeth Cady Stanton was the first president and she favored extreme ideals like divorce. People worried her views would turn the public support away from their cause so they elected Susan B. Anthony to replace her in 1892. After Susan, Carrie Catt was elected who organized the NAWSA and began the new strategy of fighting for suffrage on a state and federal level simultaneously.

Geraldine Ferraro

In 1984, she was the first female vice presidential candidate representing a major American political party. She was a New York congressperson. She was an attorney admitted to the New York bar in 1961, and left her private practice in 1974 to serve as assistant district attorney for Queens County, New York. In this position, she handled cases of child abuse, domestic violence, and rape. In 1978, she gained a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. She ran successfully for two additional terms. In the House, Ferraro voted with liberal Democrats on most issues. Despite her membership in the Roman Catholic Church, she voted for legal access to abortion. Although she and her running mate lost the election for presidency in 1984, the fact that she campaigned with intelligence and style established her as a memorable role model for women in politics. When she was accepted as the DNC's VP nomination it sent a powerful signal to all Americans that there were no doors women couldn't unlock.

United Nations and United Nations Human Rights Commission

In December 1945, President Harry S. Truman appointed Eleanor as a delegate to the United Nations General Assembly. In April 1946, she became the first chairperson of the preliminary United Nations Commission on Human Rights. Eleanor remained chairperson when the Commission was established on a permanent basis in January 1947. Along with René Cassin, John Peters Humphrey and others, she played an instrumental role in drafting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). In a speech on the night of September 28, 1948, Eleanor spoke in favor of the Declaration, calling it "the international Magna Carta of all men everywhere". The Declaration was adopted by the General Assembly on December 10, 1948. The vote was unanimous, with eight abstentions: six Soviet Bloc countries as well as South Africa and Saudi Arabia. Roosevelt attributed the abstention of the Soviet bloc nations to Article 13, which provided the right of citizens to leave their countries

National Organization for Women

NOW members attacked the traditional assumption that a woman had to choose between marriage and motherhood on one hand and participation in industry or professions on the other. The NOW felt it was possible to have marriage, motherhood, and paid activity outside the home. NOW first resolution maintained that passive, emotional, and nurturing traits were a matter of learning rather than of genetics. NOW's second resolution was vowing to bring women into full participation the mainstream of American society. They would settle for no less than truly equal partnership with men. NOW advocated for a list of reforms in effective birth control to give women control over their bodies and family size, paid maternity leave to allow women time off without losing their jobs, tax deduction to help cover childcare expenses, daycare centers to help working mothers, and training programs to teach women to work outside the home. In 1967, the NOW added the passage of an Equal Rights Amendment to its list of goals. The NOW campaigned through literature, speeches, public protests, lobbying, and litigation. was formed in 1966 when a small group of feminists formally organized the modern feminist movement during the Third National Conference of State Commissions on the Status of Women. They were tired of constant discussion of women's issues that rarely produced results. Betty Friedan was elected as the first president of the NOW. The first meeting also issued a statement of purpose. NOW members attacked the traditional assumption that a woman had to choose between marriage and motherhood on one hand and participation in industry or professions on the other. The NOW felt it was possible to have marriage, motherhood, and paid activity outside the home. NOW leaders had specific actions in mind to achieve this goal. They criticized gender expectations that cast women as passive, emotional, and nurturing. Instead, the NOW maintained that these female traits were a matter of learning rather than of genetics. They believed if American society stopped teaching its boys to be manly and its girls to be feminine, then the two genders could meet in the middle. If the media would stop telling boys to stop growing up strong and girls to grow up weak then both sexes could grow up to share in family, home, and work. The NOW's second resolution was vowing to bring women into full participation the mainstream of American society. They would settle for no less than truly equal partnership with men. This was a lofty aim and NOW members had no way of predicting the complications that would occur. In the mid-1960s, NOW assumed that equality with men provided the best possible goal. Previous reforms, notably the right to vote, had not brought women liberation. Although first wave leaders like Carrie Catt and Alice Paul had worked hard to obtain suffrage, women's lives were still restricted. To achieve equality the NOW advocated for a list of reforms in effective birth control to give women control over their bodies and family size, paid maternity leave to allow women time off without losing their jobs, tax deduction to help cover childcare expenses, daycare centers to help working mothers, and training programs to teach women to work outside the home. In 1967, the NOW added the passage of an Equal Rights Amendment to its list of goals. The NOW campaigned through literature, speeches, public protests, lobbying, and litigation. Women flocked to these events where they discovered other women shared their anxieties

Thomas Jefferson

Principle author of the Declaration of Independence and the third president of the United States. He thought of white women as primarily helpmates to men and mothers. He praised their beauty instead of praising the skills they had, and he idealized women as Republican Mothers. Jefferson was hostile towards Native American women as well because they weren't citizens so they couldn't raise children of the new Republic. He compared Native women to animals. and rated them based on how many children they could bear. He had an equally negative attitude towards enslaved women, once again comparing them to animals. Jefferson also degraded slave women's achievements and talents. His opinons on women, especially slave women, was ironic because he took a slave woman as his mistress. Jefferson's attitude towards women shows that even education and liberal men of the time had extreme prejudice towards women.

19th amendment to the US Constitution

Ratified in 1920 and introduced to congress y Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. Was passed primarily because Carrie Catt took over the NAWSA and united the splintered group and its strategy. Finally gave women the right to vote.

The baby boom

The U.S. birthrate exploded after World War II. From 1945 to 1961, more than 65 million children were born in the United States. At the height of this baby boom, a child was born every seven seconds. Factors that contributed to the baby boom consisted of young couples who started families after putting off marriage during the War, government encouragement of growth of families through the aid of GI benefits, and popular culture that celebrated pregnancy, parenthood, and large families. Historians say that the baby boom was the result of couples holding off on having children due to the Great Depression and World War II. Once the baby boom began, the average woman started getting married around the age of 20 instead of 22. Couples were very eager to have babies after the war ended because they knew that the world would be a much better place to start a family. Another leading cause that led to the baby boom was that people were able to afford moving out to the suburbs to raise a family instead of living in the city. Additionally, the cost of living in the suburbs was very low, especially for those returning from the military. This was also the time period where women were encouraged to take on their "roles", meaning that they were encouraged to stay home and be householders along with being a mother while the husband worked. The market became a seller's market. Many families were adapting to popular culture changes that included purchasing TVs, opening credit card accounts, and little things like buying mouse ears to wear while watching Mickey Mouse. Overall, the baby boom time period was a blessing but it also had its flaws once economists realized how many children were being born. Concern arose about enough resources being available, especially when those born in the baby boom time period started having kids of their own.

CWA and WPA

The Works Progress Administration (renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration; WPA) was the largest and most ambitious American New Deal agency, employing millions of people (mostly unskilled men) to carry out public works projects, including the construction of public buildings and roads. In a much smaller project, Federal Project Number One, the WPA employed musicians, artists, writers, actors and directors in large arts, drama, media, and literacy projects. Almost every community in the United States had a new park, bridge or school constructed by the agency. The WPA's initial appropriation in 1935 was for $4.9 billion (about 6.7 percent of the 1935 GDP). Headed by Harry Hopkins, the WPA provided jobs and income to the unemployed during the Great Depression in the United States. At its peak in 1938, it provided paid jobs for three million unemployed men and women, as well as youth in a separate division, the National Youth Administration. Between 1935 and 1943, when the agency was disbanded, the WPA employed 8.5 million people. Most people who needed a job were eligible for employment in some capacity. Hourly wages were typically set to the prevailing wages in each area. Full employment, which was reached in 1942 and emerged as a long-term national goal around 1944, was not the goal of the WPA; rather, it tried to provide one paid job for all families in which the breadwinner suffered long-term unemployment.

Salem Witch Trials

This was a period of time during the 1600s in colonial America when women who questioned authorities were branded witches. Women were jailed, whipped, excommunicated, and executed if they rebelled from commonly accepted norms. Witches were often middle aged or older, causing some sort of controversy, and involved in community affairs. Women who achieved success or wealth were more likely to be accused than unsuccessful women. The Salem Witch Trials punished women whose economic activities strayed from the norm, and encouraged women to be quiet and passive.

Civil Death

This was the legal state in colonial America also known as marital unity. It was derived from English common law and tradition to deny legal existence to married women. This made a husband responsible for his wife's support, crimes, and debts. Civil death made it so women couldn't sign contracts, own property, vote, or control their earnings. It reflected the widespread belief that women were best represented by males who had superior knowledge.

Anne Bradstreet

Was a colonial woman and poet who struggled with conflict between the norms of womanhood and her own desires to write. She immigrated to Massachusetts Bay in 1630 and bore 8 children, doing her duty as a woman. However she also did un-womanly acts such as write poetry which angered many men. If women deviated from the accepted rules of society, they quickly felt the sting of the public's disapproval. However, Bradstreet continued to write in the face of primarily male disapproval. This was an early and powerful example of a woman standing up for herself in spite of strong disapproval, even from her own brother.

Phillis Wheatley

Was a slave purchased by John Wheatley as a companion for his wife Susannah. Susannah quickly realized that Phillis was intelligent, and Phillis quickly grew to become a Latin scholar, poet, and conversationalist. She wrote pleas for equal rights of slaves and argued the hypocrisy of slavery. Phillis also joined the American propaganda effort by wielding her pen to keep people fighting and improve the American spirits. Her efforts were part of important early steps to bring about equality.

Mary Lyon

argued for separate women's colleges. She founded the first women's college in the nation because she was so dissatisfied with her own education. She had to personally appeal to other women to donate to her school because it was so hard for a woman to raise money, especially for a women's school. Her school had a three year course of study that included "male" fields like science, language, and anatomy. Many of her students went on to be successful in their fields proving that women's education was a good thing. Lyon's efforts paved the way for high level formal women's education in the future.

Phyllis Schlafly

as an American constitutional lawyer and conservative activist. She was known for her staunchly conservative social and political views, her opposition to feminism and abortion, and her successful campaign against the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Her 1964 book, A Choice Not an Echo, a polemic push-back against Republican leader Nelson Rockefeller, sold more than three million copies. She co-authored books on national defense and was highly critical of arms control agreements with the former Soviet Union.[2] Schlafly founded the conservative interest group Eagle Forum in 1972 and remained its chairman and CEO until her death.

Clara Barton

assisted the efforts of the US sanitary commission. She was a former schoolteacher, and she quickly earned the name "Angel of the Battlefield" for her amazing contribution to the war effort. The civil war alerted her to the lack of supplies, corruption, and carnage that was rampant throughout the war. She became convinced that a national relief organization was needed to help offer aid during national disasters and wars. She went on to found the American Red Cross to provide proper relief efforts.

Economy Act of 1933

enacted March 20, 1933 was an Act of Congress that cut the salaries of federal workers and reduced benefit payments to veterans, moves intended to reduce the federal deficit in the United States. Enacted By FDR to help the economy, it ended up being deflationary and worsened the Great Depression

The Second Sex

is a 1949 book by the French existentialist Simone de Beauvoir, in which the author deals with the treatment of women throughout history. Beauvoir researched and wrote the book in about 14 months when she was 38 years old. She published it in two volumes, Facts and Myths and Lived Experience (Les faits et les mythes and L'expérience vécue in French). Some chapters first appeared in Les Temps modernes. One of Beauvoir's best-known books, The Second Sex is often regarded as a major work of feminist philosophy and the starting point of second-wave feminism

second wave of feminism

is a period of feminist activity and thought that first began in the early 1960s in the United States, and eventually spread throughout the Western world and beyond. In the United States the movement lasted through the early 1980s. Whereas first-wave feminism focused mainly on suffrage and overturning legal obstacles to gender equality (e.g., voting rights, property rights), second-wave feminism broadened the debate to a wide range of issues: sexuality, family, the workplace, reproductive rights, de facto inequalities, and official legal inequalities. Second-wave feminism also drew attention to domestic violence and marital rape issues, establishment of rape crisis and battered women's shelters, and changes in custody and divorce law. Many historians view the second-wave feminist era in America as ending in the early 1980s with the intra-feminism disputes of the feminist sex wars over issues such as sexuality and pornography, which ushered in the era of third-wave feminism in the early 1990s.

Republican motherhood

it was an ideology about gender roles that shaped the time period surrounding the American Revolution. Good discussion of the primary tenets of Rep. Motherhood. However, you state that it "held back" women - how so? Even if it sounds retrogressive to our 21st century ears, Republican Motherhood actually provided opportunities for advancement for women by encouraging education.

Ida Wells Barnett

launched editorial attacks on lynching and infuriated the white community of Memphis. At one point she suggested that some white women initiated relationships with black men. She believed that most of the assult of white omwne by black men would be called adultery if both parties were of the same race. Barnett advised memhpis blacks to save money and settle elsewhere to avoid racism. She also left memphis to speak against lynching and for black suffrage. She helped organize black female and reform organizations. her pleas to black women to defend their race led to the founding of the Women's Loyal Union in New York. She also helped organize the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). She recognized that black women would advance little without the right to vote.

John Hancock

led the moderate party and was the president of the second Continental Congress. He was the richest merchant in Boston and represented a change in the political movement of the time. He was a constant member of the Continental Congress throughout the 1770s and played a great role in the political scene. He publicly attempted to gain political support from the people. John Hancock was extremely successful and popular with the colonists. He had an instinctive grasp on the new realities of power and represented political changes of the Revolution.

Vassar College

opened its doors to 35 women in 1865. It was the first institution in the US that gave women degrees for higher education. The college taught women philosophy, math, physics and other previously "male" subjects. The faculty at Vassar was originally composed of men, but people protested and the college began to hire women. Vassar represented a large victory for women's education and employment.

Women's Strike for Peace

opposed nuclear weapons, and in 1961 it called for a one-day peace demonstration to protest radioactive fallout from the testing of nuclear weapons in the Soviet Union. More than fifty thousand women participated in the strike and the demonstration led to the organization of local peace groups in sixty towns and cities. 61% of the members of these groups were full-time homemakers. The following year the House Un-American Activities Committee accused WSP members of being communists. The founder of WSP replied by stating that the group was concerned with mother lover and protecting children rather than influencing politics. The WSP represented women going out of their comfort zones to support causes they knew would be controversial. It was an important step forward for increase the confidence women had in themselves and their ideals.

ERA

proposed in 1923 by alice paul for equal rights between men and women. It was orginally supported by middle class women but opposed by working class women who believed that women needed specific protections in the workplace. It got renewed in the 1960s with the renewed women's rights movement but once again failed to meet the extended ratification deadline of by 1982 bc Physsills Shafely mobilized conservative women's opposition to the amendment

Emma Hart Willard

ran the Middlebury Seminary. She wanted to show what female students could achieve with math, history, and geography. She appealed the New York legislature to grant aid for women's education. She believed that women's education would only be equal to men's if the state supported it. Her plea for public aid was denied and ridiculed, showing how anti-female beliefs were still strong. Willard went on to found the Troy Female Seminary which was the first school in the nation to offer a high school education to women

Carrie Catt

resumed her presidency of the National American Woman Suffrage Association in 1915. She had served as president before From 1900 to 1904 before her husband's illness forced her to resign. However, after her husband died catt returned to be active in the New York suffrage movement. Her intelligence and organizatioinal skills brought her to the attention of the NAWSA leadership, and they begged her to join. She took a divided and unorganizaed NAWSA with no plan and turned things around. She arrived ready to capitalize on women's and men's growing interest on women's suffrage. Women could already vote in 11 states and national women's voting rights was a very prominent issue. Catt drew on her experience working with the Woman Suffrage Party of New York City and her own political ideas to devise her "winning plan". This plan intended for NAWSA to fight for suffrage on the federal and state levels simultaneously. Her goal was to gain a suffrage ammendment to the U.S. Constitution by december 1920. Congress entered World War I. Catt made the controversial decision to support the war effort, which shifted the public's perception in favor of the suffragettes who were now perceived as patriotic. She helped the 19th amendment get ratified in 1920. Catt didn't recognize female antisuffragists as credible and therefore didn't attempt to bring them around to the suffrage position, missing a great opportunity. Catt identified the real enemy as males. 331 She generally distanced herself from the enfranchisement of black women in the hops of gaining the support of southern white suffragists and white supremacist democrats 333. In 1925 Catt organized the National Conference on the Cause and Cure of War to adovcate against war. Catt founded the League of Women Voters in 1920 encourage women to use their hard-won right in 1920 before the amendment was passed,

Anti-Lynching Movement

started as early as the 1890s when Ida Wells-Barnett began her campaign. The movement began to formally organize in 1922 when the black woman reformer Mary B. Talbert organized the Anti-Lynching Crusade. The goal of the movement was to bring together black and white women to stop lynching in the united states. The Anti-Lynching Crusade released docuements detailing the lynching of 83 african american women since 1892 that were mainly carried out by racist groups like the Ku Klux Klan. The majoirty of white women opposed lynching and in 1922 the Natinal Council of Women voted to endorse the anti-lynching Crusade. One year later more than 700 other women leaders in 25 states had joined the Anti-lynching movement. These women used tactics like pressuring Congress and state legislaturess for anti-lynching legislation, publicizing the gory details of lnyching, and suing lynchers. In 1924 the League of Women Voters established a Committee on Negro Problems which called for an end to lnyching. However, since this was supported by many southern women the traditional notions of the southern female plagues women activists throughout the postwar decade.

Molly Dewson

was Eleanor Roosevelt's friend and Democratic colleague. She helped mobilize huge numbers of women activists as potential administration members. She had long campaigned for minimum wages for women. In 1933, Dewson became a top echelon New Deal politician as director of the women's division of the Democratic party. She urged the equal representation of women in party membership and leadership. Because of Dewson's efforts women campaign workers increased drastically. Dewson also helped secure an unemployment insurance act in New York state in 1935 and minimum-wage laws in Illinois and Ohio. She served on the President's Commission on Economic Security and had a hand in shaping the Social Security Act of 1935. Dewson helped improve federal-state relations with the Social Security Act.

Lucy Mercer

was Eleanor Roosevelt's part time social secretary. Lucy cast a long shadow over Eleanor's life because of the affair she had with Eleanor's husband Franklin. Her lineage was very impressive even compared to Eleanor's. She arrived in Washington in 1913 and sought employment as a social secretary to support herself. She was lovely, charming, and pedigreed which hostesses appreciated. She often filled the need for an additional young woman as Washington dinner parties. Lucy helped Eleanor at social amenities. Lucy also assumed some of Eleanor's responsibilities at the Navy League. Eleanor discovered love letters from Lucy to her husband in a dresser while he was sick with pneumonia which caused Eleanor's world to crumble. Franklin, Eleanor's husband, was ready to leave his wife and family but Lucy decided she wouldn't marry a divorced man while his wife was still alive and stopped the affair. Lucy Mercer drove a huge wedge into Eleanor's marriage which almost led to the demise of her marriage and happiness. Eleanor and Franklin wouldn't truly attempt to mend their relationship for a long time until Franklin contracted Polio. Lucy caused unfathomable damage to Eleanor's life and personality.

James Otis Warren

was Mercy Otis Warren's brother who played a critical role in supporting her education and political development. He established his own legal practice and was soon a leading spokesman of the opposition party and one of the first proponents of American rights. James was one of the most articulate and erratic leaders of the revolutionary movement. James believed in the unfashionable belief of equality of the sexes because of his sister. James led a case against the Writs of Assistance which permanently changed the way colonists thought about their relationship with England. James was one of the first to question the constitutionality of Parliamentary acts in the colonies which laid the foundation for the American Revolution. He later began to show signs of insanity and then Mercy took over his political passions as her own.

Winslow Warren

was Mercy Otis Warren's second son. He gave Mercy the greatest joy and greatest grief. He was never very successful and he fell in with a bad crowd. He failed at most of the things he did, but Mercy still loved him the most out of all her children and lived vicariously through him. He was arrested and freed, after which he joined the military and was killed in an ambush by American Indians. Winslow was a great inspiration for his mother's writing. She dedicated one of her most beautiful poems to honor his death.

History of the American Revolution

was Mercy's master work that she finally published at age 62 after 30 years of hard work. It was rejected by her old mentor and friend John Adams. It was one of the most comprehensive and earliest accounts of the Revolution. It was the earliest history of the Revolution written by a woman, and it was also written from a woman's point of view. It included everything a standard history should from the start to a little after the second president of the United States. Mercy's major theme was the decline in virtue and the transformation of American social beliefs. She believed the colonies had reached their peak of social development during the revolution. She also traced a dangerous tendency of Americans imitating European systems and institutions. She believed foreign influence was a poison that corrupted Americans. Mercy's history strayed away from the discussions of battles and instead focused on the effects the war had on civilians, especially women. Mercy celebrated patriot women who joined the struggle. A main point of her argument was that gender was more important than nationality. She argued that suffering women transcended geographic boundaries even in war. Mercy's History of the American Revolution represented the last testament of a republican who could not reconcile the liberalism of the new age with the values she held during the revolution.

Prudence Crandall

was a Quaker teacher who took a stand against slavery and racism. She accepted a free black student into her Canterbury Female Boarding School. Local authorities threatened to destroy her school if the African American student stayed. All of Crandall's white students left the school and then she converted the school into the High School for Young Colored Ladies and Misses. Crandall proved that a woman and an African American could be educated, which scared traditional people. Crandall avidly supported the abolitionist movement and traveled to promote abolitionism with her husband once her school was destroyed.

Emma Tenayuca

was a San Antonio labor organizer. She effectively blended Communist and Socialist ideals in her speaking to defend workers' rights. She initially tried to organize all workers of Spanish heritage into a single union, but failed. She then founded the Workers' Alliance to distribute civil rights literature and protest the indiscriminate deportation of Hispanics by the federal government. She was arrested in 1937 during a sit-in in San Antonio's city call that she organized. A year later she led a walkout that affected 170 pecan-shelling plants and 6000 to 8000 workers. Tenayuca resigned when a union rally ended in a violent attack by white opponents and the police. Tenayuca played a large role in strengthening the minority labor organization movement.

Plessy v. Ferguson

was a Supreme Court case in 1896 that ruled public facilities could be seperate but equal. It caused signs reading white only to appear above bathrooms, water fountains, and vending machienes. Black people were prohibited from entering amusement parks, public swimming pools, and zoos. This was a great blow against minority rights.

Minor v. Happersett

was a case brought to the Missouri Supreme Court and the US Supreme Court. by Virginia Minor and her husband. She had to enlist the help of her attorney husband because women were still not allowed to sue at the time. Virginia sued the state of Missouri for refusing to let her vote. The chief justice of the case ruled that the state had the power to grant or deny suffrage, and that the US constitution does not confer the rights of suffrage to anyone. Either other male justices agreed and the case was a powerful blow against women's political rights.

"My Day"

was a daily syndicated column written by Eleanor Roosevelt. Six times a week the column appeared in growing numbers of American newspapers. The words written were completely Eleanor's, like every speech or piece she published. She was rarely at a loss for something to share with her growing audience, and she often spoke of her personal life. The column became part of Eleanor's daily pattern. As a writer, Eleanor described herself as a painter of pictures and a reporter of unimportant events, not a writer who interpreted and influenced public opinion. However, when Eleanor reported something like the success of relief projects, the projects almost always received a boost in support. She sketched mental pictures for the readers of My Day which were impassioned endorsements for federally funded relief and construction projects. Using this column Eleanor did indeed affect public response to New Deal policies. Her columns were also as effective as any Democratic party literature. In simple and clear ways, she translated experiences along the campaign trail into flowing praise for FDR's presidency and its achievements. The column also gave some transparent insight into her relationship with her husband when it came to political issues. My Day was a powerful way that Eleanor influenced the nation's people.

Benjamin Rush

was a doctor in Philidelphia who advocated for the education of women, or at least upper class women. He argued for academic subjects to be included in the education of women at the Young Ladies Academy of Philidelphia. However, the education he argued for was only enough to allow women to understand the Republican woman ideals. Rush's education for women was not a true education, and it lacked many things compared to male education. Rush wanted women to know just enough to teach their children how to be good citizens of the republic. His efforts helped limit the education of women to Republican Motherhood instead of improving women's education to become the education they deserved.

Lorena Hickok

was a female journalist and the Associate Press reported assigned to the campaign train to cover Franklin and his family. She lived in the White House during much of the late 1930s. She was a large, plain, and successful woman. She escaped an abusive father at 14, one year after her mother's death. She went out on her own to alternate school and menial jobs to save enough money for college. Her college work was often sacrificed to work at a newspaper. Hickok moved to New York after her companion abandoned her. Her talent and drive earned her a respected position with the wire service. She had journalistic competence, a harsh exterior, and a keen sensitivity that allowed her to sense the quiet despair of Eleanor. Hickok shared a lot of space with Eleanor on the campaign trail. They had interviews and informal conversations that evolved into soul searching confessions. Eleanor's talks with Hickok eliminated her fear and replaced those feelings with a renewed sense of purpose and possibility. Hickok supported Eleanor in the search for real jobs and the discord that the White House need not be place she feared. Hickok replaced Cook and Dickerman at the center of Eleanor's emotional universe. Hickok was someone not as politically involved that could help give Eleanor effective therapy for her sense of self-worth. Hickok played a crucial role in helping Eleanor regain her poise by the time of the presidential inauguration. Hickok assured Eleanor that she could once again fashion a life of public achievement to compensate for private hurts. Hickok was aware of the pains the depression was having on female journalists and suggested to Eleanor that she hold press conferences for women. This idea was adopted by Eleanor and helped women reporters get hired, retained, and promoted when many female professionals in non-traditional positions were losing ground. Hickock resigned her post with the AP after the Roosevelts entered the White House because she feared her intimate friendship with the first lady compromised her objectivity. She scoured the country on behalf of federal relief agencies, writing accounts of the costs of the depression from the points of the American people.

Roe v. Wade

was a historic Supreme court decision in 1973. A young female attorney from Texas argued for the legal right to have an abortion. The Supreme Court justices overturned state laws that prohibited abortions during the first twelve weeks of pregnancy. For the first time in the nation's history, American women could have abortions legally. Furthermore, Roe v. Wade allowed women in life-threatening cases to have abortions between 12 weeks and viability. This led to subsequent rulings striking down laws requiring parental or spousal consent except in cases involving minors. However, Roe v. Wade unsparingly ignited an anti-abortion movement who believed abortion violated their values and religious beliefs. They protested that abortion constituted murder of unborn children. They opposed the argument that a fetus was not a human being until 12 weeks of age. They maintained that a fetus was human from the moment of conception. Even with this anti-abortion opposition, Roe v. Wade marked an important step forward for women gaining control over their bodies and personal lives.

Griswold v. Connecticut

was a landmark case in 1965 that established American's right to practice birth control. The Supreme court considered the situation of Planned Parenthood officials who had been arrested and fined for defying Connecticut laws that banned birth-control devices and prohibited the distribution of birth-control information. The Court declared Connecticut's birth-control law unconstitutional and established citizens' right of privacy in matters of marital intimacy. Justice William O. Douglas set an important precedent when he ruled for the protected nature of the intimate relation of husband and wife. Griswold v. Connecticut was a major victory for women's rights over their own bodies.

John Adams

was a layer and political leader during the revolution who later served as the second president of the United States. He was a delegate in the Constitutional Congress where he played a crucial role in convincing Congress to declare independence. He assisted Thomas Jefferson in drafting the Declaration of Independence. He also served as a diplomat to Europe to negotiate a truce with Britain. He had extensive correspondence with his wife Abigail Adams and with his friend Mercy Otis Warren. He treated Mercy as an intellectual equal and asked her advice on political matters.

Sara Josepha Hale

was a leading producer of women's literature and publishing. She founded a women's journal in 1828 called "American Ladies' Magazine" in which she tried to help women improve their domestic abilities and become agreeable companions. She argued that women would be able to achieve these things by improving their education. Her goal was to expand the concept of the women's sphere to increase more women's activities. She argued that women would excel at many fields such as social workers and teachers. She even mainly hired women employees and encouraged other talented females.

American Woman Suffrage Association

was a major women's suffrage organization that encouraged both men and women to join. It focused on gaining women's political rights on a state by state basis. The AWSA published a newspaper called "The Women's Journal" to counteract the radicalism of the Revolution. The AWSA was very different from the Nation Woman Suffrage Association who saw men as their enemies. The AWSA represented a strong step forward for the women's rights movement as men and women were joining together for the first time to fight for women's rights

Abigail Adams

was a patriot woman married to John Adams, the second president of the United States. She wrote letters concerning the chaos in the American colonies. SHe was educated and discussed political events in public letters so that other women might understand the current policital issues. She was the most visible and vocal woman of the revolutionary era. Abigail Adams wrote to other wives of patriots, but also to the men involved in the patriot movement. She read her letters to groups of interested friends and neighbors. THis is believed to have provided the basis for the Committees of Correspondence, agencies for communicating insurrectionist ideas and actions from colony to colony. Abigail also wrote to her husband while he served in the continental congress to remember women while writing the new laws of the U.S. Abigail simply wanted women to be protected from the unlimited powers of men.

Elizabeth Blackwell

was a pioneer in medical reform for women. She decided to change professions from a teacher and subsequently enrolled in medical school. She was rejected by many schools because she was a woman, and the only school that accepted her did so to prove that women couldn't get a medical education. However, she proved to be an excellent student and graduated first in her class. She was admitted as a resident in a hospital in London, but they barred her from practicing gynecology and pediatrics because she was a woman. She left the hospital and started her own in the New York slums. She lectured in England on medicine as a profession for women. Eventually she was allowed to lecture on gynecology and she made huge contributions to the field of medicine. She paved the way for other women who wanted to enter the medical field, a profession previously dominated by men.

Margaret Sanger

was a public health nurse in New York City. She had long been concerned about women's desire to control family size. Sanger was credited coining the term "birth control". She pushed for birth controlbecause she had seen too many of her female patients harmerd by illegal or self induced abortions. She distributed a monthly publication in 1914 called the Woman rebel aimed at working class women. It advovated women's right to secual freedom and control of their own bodies. The journal openly supported birth control which brought on criticism. She faced arrest under the Comstock law which prohibited distributing birth control related information so she fled ot Europe where she studied family planning clinincs. Sanger returned to the US in 1915 to continue her birth control crusade. She and her sister estabished the first birth control clinic in 1916 for which they were arrested and jailed. Sanger's sister went on a hunger strike that almost killed her and drew attention to the birth control movement, but the stunt alienated suffrage leaders and feminists who hoped for more dignified reform. However, Sanger's efforts still eld to a court decision allowing physics to dispense a restricted amount of birth contro, information. Sanger enlarged her target audience to include middle class women and medical doctors to help with funding and lobbying Congress to modify the Comstock law. Hey lobbyists argued for voluntary parenthood rahter than birth control. They said that American citizens should have the right to make their own decisions regarding family size. Sanger founded the American Birth Control League in 1921, the year of the first American Birth Control Conference. The ABCL offered birth control information and dispensed birth control devices. The ABCL also gave out name sof New York physicians willing to help women with birth control. She was met with great oppositions and threats but continued her efforts to promote parents raising children they consciously wanted so they could be born of love. 341. In 1923 Snager opened the Birth Control Clinical Research Bureau, the first birth control clinic in the US staffed by licensed physicians. The bureau trained doctors who received no birth control education in medical schools. Sanger helped establish over 300 other birth control clinics in the US which helped native born white women.

Anne Hutchinson

was a religious dissident that stepped beyond the bounds of traditional womanhood to question religious teachings. She believed that people could interpret religion for themselves and was therefore condemned as a heretic. Puritan ministers were scared of her because her teachings weakened their power, so they called her to trial and banished her. Anne Hutchinson then moved to Rhode Island with many of her followers to continue teaching religious freedom. Hutchinson's ideology encouraged women to resist harsh restrictions placed on them by the church and society.

Arthurdale

was a resettlement community within the Subsistence Homesteads program. It was the first planned community under the Subsistence Homestead Program. It was envisioned by Eleanor Roosevelt as human rehabilitation with a model environment complete with modern health care, progressive schools, and productive industry. Small scale manufacturing became the centerpiece of the experiment. Arthurdale was created in part due to growing anti-urban bias. The desire to counteract the concentration of industries of cities was an important goal. The value of Arthurdale was believed to lie in decentralizing industry within the country. Eleanor believed it would help greater numbers of people to have more in their lives than they would otherwise have. The program purchased land, relocated mining families, and found suitable industry and housing for residents. Arthurdale was the center of political controversy. Critics complained it was a communist plot and potential factories were believed to be threated to related industries around the country. Prefabricated houses were condemned as luxuries furnished by an extravagant government. Resettlement communities were placed under the control of the Department of Agriculture and they got more support. However, Assistant Secretary Rex Tugwell believed marginal farmers and not employed miners were the prime candidates for relocation. Eleanor and others financially supported the Subsistence Homesteads program and Arthurdale. However, a firm economic base was never established and political support remained elusive. Eleanor admitted that Arthurdale was not secure. Arthurdale taught Eleanor the limits of social planning and her own ability to affect it, but her ideals remained firm and only her faith was slightly shaken.

Women in the Harlem Renaissance

was a trend that resulted from the migration of southern rural African Americans to northern cities. They brought blakc oral traditionas and rhythms to northerns and New York in particular which captivated white audiences. Harlem was the epicenter of this cultural renaissance as white patrons became interested in the work of black artists. Harlem had incubated the renewal of black culture since the early 1910s and provided a mmodel for African Americans living in the rest of the country. Black women deomstrated African American literay talents and creative imaginiations to the nation. These women included writers, pianists, composers, and orchestra conducters. They performed in tiny hole in the walls and huge clubs in front of whites and blacks. Women in the Harlem Renaissance produced some of the most innovative and important music styles of the era. Female blues singers were at the heart of the Harlem Renaissance. They created a unique form of artistic expression that reflected the common excities of the black women of the day such as poverty, abandonment, and migration. Some of these black female artist were signed by huge production companies such as Paramount Records which gave them national exposure. Black and white people were hooked by this new style and it provided a continuity from Afirccan American music to the blues and jazz.

Frances Perkins

was a white woman in the New Deal and a social reformer. She was the first female cabinet member of the nation's history and worked as Secretary of labor. She helped draft new deal legislation including the Federal Emergency Relief Act, the Social Security Act, and the National Labor Relations Act. Perkins helped President Roosevelt make appointments, maintain relations with union leaders, and bring the US into the International Labor Organization in 1934. Perkins' leadership of the Labor Department helped establish an image of women as competent and trustworthy individuals. Perkins role as a leader of the New Deal helped advance the idea of women successfully handling government positions.

Catharine Sawbridge Maculay

was a woman British historian who supported republican liberty. Macaulay was a female role model for many women because she practiced a profession that was dominated by men, and she did it successfully. Macaulay openly pursued her work without apology to the male sex about her gender or strong republican beliefs. Macaulay helped many refine their idea and vision of American politics like Mercy Otis Warren.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

was a woman delegate at the world antislavery convention in London. She argued that a woman's protest meeting was needed in the United States. She recognized that reform efforts would continue to confront huge obstacles until women had the full rights of citizenship like voting. Her main goal was women getting political rights. She advocated women's suffrage and said that women's liberation lay in their political participation. She played a large role in helping further women's rights and organization.

Jane Adams

was a woman reformer who believed that a more fundemental approach to reform was needed. She was enthused with the idea of settlement houses located in slums to provide immediate aid to poor, immigrant, and other disadvantaged people. In 1889 Jane established Hull House in Chicago to provide a center for higher civic and social life. It was the first settlement house and helped Adam's further her goals of instituting and maintaining educational philanthropic enterprises. She wanted to utilize HUll House to investigate and improve the conditions in the industrial disstricts of Chicago.

Antifederalism

was adopted by political leaders who had supported the Revolution, but now rejected the proposed constitution. The members had age and formative political experiences in common. However, their primary loyalty remained with their respective states instead of their nation. Mercy and her husband fit this mold perfectly. Mercy voiced her opposition to the new Constitution publicly because she feared its power, but she voiced her opinions under a pseudonym because she was a woman. Mercy's antifederalist beliefs inspired her to public "A Colombian Patriot" which argued the new Constitution's lack of a bill of rights, the difficulty of preserving a republican government, the threat of a standing federal army, and the inadequate representation in the proposed Congress. Mercy begged states not to adopt the new form of government. However, the new Constitution was eventually accepted and Mercy along with most antifederalists stopped their opposition.

Frances Ellen Watkins Harper

was an African American abolitionist, suffragist, poet, and author. She was active in many types of social reform. She was a part of the Women's Christian Temperance Union, which advocated the federal government taking a role in progressive reform.

The Woman's Peace Party (WPP)

was an American pacifist organization formally established in January 1915 in response to World War I. The organization is remembered as the first American peace organization to make use of direct action tactics such as public demonstration. The Woman's Peace Party became the American section of an international organization known as the International Committee of Women for Permanent Peace later in 1915, a group which later changed its name to the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom.

Helen Hunt Jackson

was an American poet and writer who became an activist on behalf of improveed treatment of Native Americans by the US government. She described the adverse effects of government actions in her history: a Century of Dishonor. Her novel Ramona also dramaztized the federal governemnet's mistreatment of Indians in sourth california after the Mexican-American war and it attracted considerable attention to her cause.

"Rosie the Riveter"

was an advertising character created by the War Advertising Council to help convince women across the nation to join the home front army of the employed. Advertisements promoted patriotism by joining the war effort and gender gains by promoting women to take men's jobs to help end the war. Rosie stressed a woman's patriotic duty to her country. It also played on a woman's sense of loss and her duty to her man. This wartime propaganda created an image of women as dynamic citizens and persuaded millions of women to go to work. The number of women working outside the home increased by more than 50% from 1940 to 1945. Rosie the Riveter inspired women seize the substantial employment opportunities during World War 2.

Marian Anderson

was an amazing singer that was barred from performing at Constitution Hall in 1939 by the Daughters of the American Revolution. This caused Eleanor to resign from the organization. This action spoke loudly about Eleanor's attitude towards racial discrimination and embarrassed the DAR. Eleanor argued that the inflexibility with which the DAR declared its racist policies convinced her that change was impossible within the organization. Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes scheduled an open-air concert that was free at the Lincoln memorial in response to Eleanor's and the public's outrage. Over 75,000 people attended the concert to hear the talented singer Anderson perform. The concert recognized the indignities of discrimination to the singer and minorities as a whole. Eleanor played a large role in the events surrounding the public uproar, but didn't attend the concert.

The Group

was an anonymous play published on April 3, 1775 by Mercy Otis Warren. This play had satire aimed at Boston's loyalist community, and the new Mandamus Councilors. The play predicted that the patriots would triumph over their evil English masters if there was ever actual bloodshed. This play was essentially a call to arms that pushed colonists towards active resistance. The Group solidified anti-British sentiment around Boston. It eventually became Mercy Otis Warren's most popular pre-revolutionary work.

Margaret Mead

was an anthropologist who was the first American woman to earn a PHD in antrhoplogy. She became world famous and published her acclaimed "Coming of Age in Samoa" in 2918. Mead's studies indicatred that culture shaped individual personality. According to her findings individual behavior resulted more from cultural patterning than genetic determinants. Mead also served as Curator of Ethnology at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. Mead legitimized the study of anthropology and popularized the concept of comparative cultures.

Mary Ann Shadd Cary

was an antislavery activist, journalist, publisher, teacher, and lawyer. She was the first African American woman to become a publisher in Canada. She was also the first female African American to become a newspaper editor in North America. She played a crucial role in improving women's professional opportunities.

Rita Mae Brown

was an articulate lesbian spokesperson for the liberation of lesbians. She was a student at New York University where she helped found the first Student Homophile League in 1967. NOW leaders rejected Brown because of her outspoken lesbian sentiment, so she turned her energies to supporting a group called Racialesbians. During the 1960s and 1970s Brown advocated lesbian separatism. In 1970, Radicalesbians published an influential statement of lesbian-feminist philosophies and beliefs titled "The Woman-Identified Woman" which defined a lesbian as the rage of all women condensed to the point of explosion. Brown helped form the first lesbian separatist group, the Furies. The Furies published a newspaper supporting lesbian separatism in 1972 and 1973 while Brown was writing full time on her own works. In 1973 Brown published her semi-autobiographical novel Rubyfruit Jungle which was the first published narrative to show lesbian lifestyles in positive terms. Brown introduced a new subgenre with her novel called the lesbian-comic novel. Brown continued to use her writing to bring the topic of lesbianism into the open.

Judith Sargent Murray

was an author and early feminist. She was one of the first Americans to argue for the equal education of women. Murray believed that women had equal minds and therefore deserved equal education. She argued that if women had equal education then they could achieve equally great things. Her efforts attempted to raise the standards of women's education and which had long been neglected and ridiculed.

Louis Howe

was an ex-reporter and Franklin's political adviser. He accompanied Franklin to Washington in 1913 to serve as his secretary at the Navy Department. He was a shrewd and sensitive man who became friends with Eleanor during Franklin's campaign to become vice president. He sought out Eleanor's thoughts on the campaign's strategies and listened to her ideas. Howe explained the vagaries of public moods and shared with Eleanor the disappointments of political defeat. Howe was one of the first new friends outside the immediate family circle who helped Eleanor rebuild the confidence to create the new Eleanor Roosevelt. He played a large role at bolstering Eleanor's resolve and deflecting some of her mother in law's fury while her husband was sick with polio. Howe moved into the family town house when Franklin was discharged from the hospital. He became part of Eleanor's familial problems as well as partner in masterminding franklin's personal and political solutions. He played a large role in outmaneuvering Sara and in directing the courses both Eleanor and Franklin traveled during the years following Franklin's polio attack. Howe insisted that Eleanor act as a stand-in for Franklin while he was sick to maintain the visibility of the Roosevelt name. Howe was one of the primary reasons that Eleanor entered the political and public scene to support her family while her husband was sick.

Mary Harris 'Mother' Jones

was an irish immigrant that became obessed with the reform movement. She moved to chicago after losing her husband and 4 children to disease. She turned to labor organizing after her dressmaking business was destroyed in the great Chicago fire of 1871. SHe used socialist ideas to organize workers in the minig and cotton industries and to stir up strikes. Jones participated in all labor confrontations of the eera. She developed ideas that annoyed everyone from socialists to industrial managers. She was instrumental in founding the Social DEmocratic Party and the Industrial Workers of the World. She became an American legend who helped further the labor reform movement

Allenswood School

was an unusual school for upper-class Americans because they deemed such advanced education unnecessary for their daughters. The headmistress of Allenswood, Marie Souvestre set high standards for instruction. The school introduced students to unconventional and challenging ideals. Opinions were encouraged, assumptions were challenged, and critical judgement was demanded. The school had a stimulating environment that encouraged confidence and poise in her students like Eleanor Roosevelt. Allenswood School played a critical role in developing Elanor's confidence and personality. Eleanor adored Marie Souvestre and the school had a lasting positive impact on the girl well into her adult life.

Sojourner Truth

was born as Isabella and a slave. She fled from her owner in 1827. She successfully sued her son out of slavery. She went to New York City to work as a domestic servant, but quickly became upset with the way African Americans were being treated. She went on to become a preacher and joined the abolitionist and women's right effort. Isabella took on the name Sojourner Truth when she began to preach on foot throughout New England. She was an enthusiastic supporter of the abolitionist movement who preached against slavery. She was one of the most effective speakers of the Abolitionist movement and made great contributions to the anti-slavery movement.

Office of Civil Defense

was created by FDR with an executive order to counter cuts in social service programs. The OCD encouraged the British Women's Service for Civil defense to link voluntary morale-building efforts on the home front to federal aid for community needs. New York's reforming mayor Fiorello La Guardia was named head of the OCD. He focused on the mechanics of civil defense rather than on voluntary participation which upset his original backers. Eleanor Roosevelt became co-director of the agency. The directors invited trusted and experienced social workers and reformers to devise programs. They obtained federal backing for maternal and child health, nutrition and physical fitness, and day-care services. However, Pearl Harbor happened and local politicians had little sympathy for voluntary participation programs. The war undermined the social service aspects of the OCD. La Guardia was replaced because his administrative abilities were suspect. Conservative opponents of the New Deal social welfare policies welcomed the excuse to gut programs and defeat their proponents. The House of Representatives voted to give the OCD funds to the War Department. The OCD was ridiculed for many additional reasons including Eleanor's appointment of her friend as a dancing instructor. The House later voted to prohibit OCD expenditures for any physical fitness projects that included dancing or community efforts involving theatrical shows. This was Eleanor's first official appointment to a government positions and she was getting attacked left and right by other politicians. Her appointment offered new ways for opponents to attack the President in wartime when it was not politically wise to do so, so Eleanor resigned. The OCD enlisted tens of thousands of volunteers anxious to contribute to progress on the home front, however they never received assignments. Six months after Eleanor resigned the OCD lost its fight with Washington and failed.

Equal Pay Act of 1963

was created by President Kennedy. The act attacked the long-term problem of pay inequality that could be traced back to American industrialism. The Equal Pay Act was the first major federal legislation concerning women's employment since the Progressive era and it required employers to pay equal wages to women and men who performed jobs requiring equal skill and effort. The United States Labor Department attempted to enforce the EPA provisions by making routine workplace inspections and taking specific complaints, but the Act was unclear as to what was considered equal skill. The law also didn't apply to all women who performed special women's work at lesser pay. Even though the EPA was difficult to enforce and didn't actually do much to help women in the workforce, it gave women an inspiring amount of confidence. Congress and the president were both finally directly supporting women's reform efforts, which was a victory for feminists.

President's Commission on the Status of Women

was created in 1961 by President Kennedy to make up for the fact that he was unable to appoint a female cabinet member like he had promised. Eleanor Roosevelt was appointed as the Commission's chairperson. Two years later the Comission presented a 60 page report on its deliberations. These dilberations included endorsement of improved access to education for all women, and aid and child-care services for working mothers. The report also supported equal employment opportunities, a wider role for women in government, and equality of right under the law. The equality of rights was preferedd under the existing Fifth of Fourteenth Amendments rather than under the ERA. The report also asked for continuing government action on the behalf of women, a recommendation that led Kennedy to establish the Interdepartmental Committee on the Status of women and the Citizens' Advisory Council on the Status of Women. The Commission's findings were conservative but had widespread influence. The dilerations helped initate a national debate on womens issues. In time, every state established a comiision on the status of women. The federal government had also committed itself ot a comprhesnive polcy of reform for women. Kennedy hopped to do more for women than simply appointed a few to office as the truman and eisenhower administrations had done. The Equal Pay Act recommeneded by the Comission further demonstrated the resolve of the Kennedy administration. The act attacted the long term problem of pay inequality that could be traced back ton Amewricna industrialism.

National Woman's Party

was formed by suffragist Alice Paul who believed in using high-pressure techniques as she had observed in England. Paul broke from the NAWSA and founded the NWP. The NWP used techniques such as 24 hour pickets of the White House which resulted in riots, hunger strikes, and arrests. These public spectacles created even more pressure for President Wilson. The force feeding of jailed protestors on hunger strike created nationwide headlines. The NWP used very aggressive and militant tacts to force the hands of President Wilson and members of Congress who couldn't just stand by while members were being abused and force fed in prison. Members in prision smuggled notes out to tell the horrors of their imprisonment to the entire nation. 332 Alice paul and the NWP even recruited Hispanas from New Mexico to help spread women's the NWP's ideals to minorities which proved to be very effective.

Women's Army Corps

was formed from the Women's Army Auxiliary Crops in 1943. The formation was a definite step up for women's status in the military. Female recruits were now offered the same rank, title, and pay as males. It provided better salaries and better chances for advancement than peacetime employment. The WAC had a fine reputation because its women were proud to do every job with a thrilling competence. The WAC also commissioned the first African American woman officer, who went on to lead the first all-black female unit to serve overseas. However, the WAC required African American officers to live separately and lead racially segregated companies. The WAC was a powerful signal of the government supporting women by allowing them to formally join the military.

General Federation of Women's Clubs

was formed in 1890 when many smaller women's clubs organized into one national association. The GFWC had two hundred clubs and over twenty thousand members. Club memebrs focused on cultural and ltierary activiites. The women in the GFWC also concentrated on opening new jobs and careers for women and achieving women's suffrage. The women's club philisophy quickly verged on feminism and reform activities. The GFWC allowed African American women's clubs to join their ranks, but only as segreated local chapters.

League of Women Voters

was formed in 1920 when the NAWSA officially changed to help further women's political education and action. They wanted to demonstarate that women could become effective and involved citizens. The League advocated political education for women, social reform, and the elimination of discriminatory laws against women. The LWV tried to achieve all these goals within the framework of a nonpartisan and moderate position. The League provided a solid training ground for women. However, the League frequently produced more literature than action because of their moderate stance. The LWV tried to increase its influence by creating the Women's Joint Congressional Committee in 1920. The WJCC brought together 10 womens grops and organized them. The WJCC engaged largely in lobbying and campaigning for support of things like poublic health centers and individual citizenship to married women. Individual citizenship was very important because it prevented american women from losing their uS citizenship when maring foreign nationals. The WJCC expanded by 1924 to include 24 women's groups.

International Women's Year Conference

was formed in 1977 and led by Bella Abzug. Two thousand delegates and twenty thousand observers gathered to devise a plan for the liberation of womankind. The delegates represented every race and class of women, from African to white and from rich to poor. The conference created a National Plan of Action which its leaders presented to President Jimmy Carter in 1978. The document was wide ranging and had twenty-six planks. It addressed topics such as child abuse, childcare, disabled women, education, employment, an Equal Rights Amendment to the US Constitution, health, homemakers, insurance, older women, rape, reproductive rights, rural women, poverty, and women of color. Although few suggestion were implemented, the conference and its report defined the broad problems all women faced and their report generated public discussion. The IWYC was an important event that brought attention to the various problems women still faced.

Women's City Club

was founded by women who supported a greater role for women in American political life. Members were upper-class society leaders and middle-class professional women who identified, publicized, and devised public policy responses to civic and social problems. Eleanor Roosevelt eventually chaired its legislative committee. This Club is where Eleanor and many other women formed ties with socially conscious, capable, and prominent women. The Club was a large factor in enhancing Eleanor's skills and reputation. In 1927, the Women's City Club became decidedly Democratic in which Eleanor excelled in many reform areas.

Thomas Hutchinson

was one of the most important representatives of royal authority in the colonies. He served in various local offices and on the Governer's Council. He became the liaison responsible for the colonies' conduct in the French and Indian War. He always had more supporters in England than in the colonies. Hutchinson held a huge concentration of power as one man. Revolutionary leaders acted against Hutchinson and destroyed his house which cause him to get huge compensation. This angered revolutionary leaders and caused them to reassess their tactics to become more diplomatic. This led to the first intercolonial meeting to discuss the colonies' shared objectives. It led to the boycott of the Stamp Act and Parliament's right to tax the colonies. Hutchinson was a negative force in the colonies that gave revolutionaries a domestic figurehead to unite against.

Harriet Beecher Stowe

was one of the most well known abolitionist writers. She came from a family of reformers and was passionate about reform herself. She worked hard on temperance, achieving higher wages for women workers, and improved women's education. She later became involved in the abolitionist movement and wrote many antislavery novels to promote the idea. Her work achieved worldwide fame and books such as "Uncle Tom's Cabin" was spread across the nation to help promote the abolitionist movement.

Harriet Tubman

was one of the most well-known female abolitionists. She was a conductor in the underground railroad. She was born a slave and fled to freedom in Philadelphia. She later returned to her slave plantation to free her sister and two children. She continued to successfully guide so many slaves to freedom that she became a wanted criminal. She represented the strong antislavery sentiment that was growing in America among African Americans and played a crucial role in the abolitionist movement.

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964

was passed in 1964 by Congress. It prohibited racial discrimination on many fronts as well as discrimination by employers on the basis of race or gender. Employment agencies and labor unions also fell within Title VII guidelines. The act also created the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to enforce these provisions. The office of Federal Contract Compliance also enforced these regulations through fifteen different departments and compliance agencies that conducted periodic reviews. However, the OFCC had a small staff and small funding which limited its ability to enforce Title VII provisions. The agency showed its weakness by reprimanding few employers. It was also widely criticized because it exercised preferential treatment on behalf of people of color and women. Senator Everett Dirksen remarked that Title VII was Congress's attempt to remake the social pattern of the country, but it had more power in theory than practice. Affirmative action remained problematic because of the difficulty in enforcing it principles, but Title VII was a strong indication of the government's increasing support for racial and gender equality.

American Female Reform Society

was reorganized from the New York Female Moral Reform Society. They believed that homes and other institutions were necessary to bring about meaningful change. They opened refuges for women in need and provided a crucial support system for women of the era.

M. Carey Thomas

was the first female president of Mawr, a Quaker women's college from 1894 to 1922. SHe led the challenging of the ideals of domesticity. Thomas believed women had the capability to achieve serious education. She hated the idea of women giving up their education for marriage. THomas beleived that marriages could only be happy if partners were equally involved in home and careers. Thomas refused to marry and instead became romantically involved with a long term female partner

Lowell, Massachusetts

was the most famous factory village after the war of 1812. Women workers lived together in company houses here in a small village so they didn't need to travel home. They sent part of their small pay to their families. These women worked hard in bad conditions so that they could be true women in the future. These girls were called mill girls, and they had some commodities like a library. However, the pace of work quickly increased but not the pay, leaving mill girls overworked and underpaid. Work conditions deteriorated and Lowell became a great example of how industrialism was taking advantage of female workers.

Shay's Rebllion

was when westerns within Massachusetts felt the stress and consequences of postwar economic depression. Legislators in Boston passed a series of heavy taxes. Underrepresented in the government, and over-taxed, the westerners initiated a series of protests. The protesters compared themselves to the patriots of the revolution who fought against unjust taxation. There were only a few small incidents, but the rebellion caused a lot of commotion. The rebellion was quickly crushed by an army made up from the colonies. The rebellion became a symbol for the problems that the government had under the Articles of Confederation and was a catalyst for the calling of the Federal Constitutional Convention to improve the government. Mercy believed it wasn't right for people to rebel against a government the people established themselves. James took this opportunity to reenter the political scene, but he sympathized with the rebels and was quickly branded a Shaysite. The branding led him to lose future political battles which ruined many of Mercy's connections to politics.

Sarah and Angelina Grimke

were abolitionist sisters who argued that white women were sisters to slave women. They said that slaves had the right to look towards white women for sympathy and rescue. Their argument revolved around the idea that if one woman suffered, no matter the race, all women suffered. They hoped that if slaves were freed then they would receive expanded rights as humans. Both men and women listened to the sisters speak. Their lecturing resulted in a heated discussion of women's roles and responsibilities, and their antislavery ideals were spread throughout the nation.

Cherokee women

were adept and productive agriculturalists. The US commissioner of Indian affairs declared that Cherokee women must break their cultural norms and come in from the fields to learn to spin and weave like white women while the men farmed. This hurt the women's work and social standing, and it disrupted Cherokee culture by forcing changes.

Free Women of Color

were freed former women slaves who either worked their way out of slavery, received their freedom as a gift from their masters, or were freed as part of their owner's will. Some free women of color also won their freedom through legal appeals, but this was very uncommon. These freed women could finally enjoy their lives with substantially more rights than their enslaved counterparts. Some women started their own businesses or plantations, and married. Most worked as servants, but many could also read, write, and do math. These freed women had finally escaped the horrors of slavery and could establish homes of their own and happily raise children.

Nancy Cook and Marion Dickerman

were intimate companions who shared a Greenwich Village apartment. They were college educated women, veterans of the suffrage movement, proponents of child and women's labor laws, and advocates of peace. They both served as nurse orderlies overseas during World War 1. They had taught school and tested their newly won political opportunities when Dickerman ran for the New York legislature and Cook managed her campaign. They lost, but it didn't dim their enthusiasm for partisan politics. They taught Eleanor the importance of local organization from lessons they learned during suffrage battles. Cook and Dickerman played a very important role in shaping Eleanor's political attitude and skill from a women's reform perspective.