Summary Civil Rights in the USA

WOMEN 1865-1992
What was the position of women in 1865?
 Many women involved in the Church
 Many AA women played a role in the abolition of slavery
 Involvement in the Temperance movement – 60,000 women took part

Temperance movement (HUGE IN GILDED AGE)
- The belief that alcohol was a major social evil and that a good family life was only
possible by prohibiting alcohol – was causing family issues
- Prohibition = A ban on the creation, sale and consumption of alcohol
- Protestant Church opposed alcohol – women who lived on the south were more
likely to support the movement
- 18th Amendment 1919 = Made it illegal to make or sell alcohol in the US (Fed Law)
- 21st Amendment 1933 = Made alcohol legal  states could make their own laws on
prohibition
- Prohibition led to a bigger urge to drink – women realised excess drinking was the
problem  illegal shit was happening – the creation of speakeasies and stuff
Did the Temperance Movement HELP or HINDER?

Help Hinder
Developed political skills – skills could be Highlighted the difference between
used for other causes working and middle-class women
Developed the skills to deal with mistakes White women and Black women were
 they understood the mistakes they unable to work together
made with the temperance movement and
corrected their mistake


WCTU (Women’s Christian Temperance Union) 1874
- Worked to ban alcohol to protect families
- Members reached 800,000 by the 1920s
- Didn’t include all the people who supported the cause
- Consisted of white, middle-class protestants
- Didn’t aim for equality but had an indirect link
ASL (Anti-Saloon League) 1893
- Lobbied for prohibition during Temperance
- Passed the 18th Amendment in 1919
- Was more successful in the South
- Indirect link to equality

, WONPR (Women’s Organisation for national Prohibition Reform) 1929
- Founded by Pauline Sabin
- Wanted to repeal the 18th Amendment because of the surge in underage drinking
and speakeasys
- Very successful – disbanded after the 21st Amendment
- 3x the membership of the WCTU
- Great Depression was a factor too
- Split wealthy women and Working Class women – working-class women benefitted
the most from prohibition and felt that the work was being undone
- Not focused on equality

CIVIL WAR 1861-65
The impact of the Civil War 1861-65
- Women had to take on greater roles than ever before  responsible for keeping
households running and keeping farms and businesses running
- Women establish charities for the worthy poor, veterans and their families – carried
on into the New Deal eg: Settlement houses
- Women in the north getting involved in war work
- By 1870, 13% of all unmarried women worked in domestic occupations or in
factories  15% of all women
- Married women did unofficial work that wasn’t on the books such as taking in
laundry or mending clothes
Homestead Act 1862
- Allowed women to own their own land a part of Westward Expansion  Link to NAs
End of the war
- End of the war brought about enfranchisement for AAs  led to raised issues about
voting for women
- Saw enfranchisement of slaves as putting AA men over white women
- 15th Amendment - Established that Fed and State government couldn’t withhold
voting rights based on race  said nothing about women

Individual groups of women in the Gilded Age
 Black women
- Black Women wanted to vote
- Not only did White Americans laugh at this but so did AA men
- AA men enjoyed their newfound control over women
- Hard for AA women to get jobs so servant jobs were the most common employment
 wages were low
 White Middle-Class women
- Became politically active