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Women and Social Reform
Contributing teacher:
Daniel Kotzin
Time period: 1880–1910
Overview
The historical context for this simulation on women and social reform is well developed by Professor Casey Blake, who points out that educated American women at the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century attempted, in a variety of ways, to redefine gender roles for women, many of whom found themselves in repressive domestic roles as just wife and mother. The social reformer Jane Addams (1860–1935) and writer Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860–1935) are two prominent examples that Professor Blake discusses. By the end of the nineteenth century, enough middle-class women had joined clubs, many of which were dedicated to philanthropy, social reform, and intellectual endeavors, to warrant the establishment of the General Federation of Women's Clubs in 1890. Thirty years later, the organization boasted one million members.
The Assignment
In this simulation, your students will focus on the development of feminist consciousness by exploring influential women (listed below) and the development of associational groups or clubs in American society. Students will be broken into groups of four to six, depending on class size. This works best if groups are roughly equal in number. Each student will be assigned a real historical character and a corresponding reading, but each group will have the same historical characters.
The simulation is a completely fictitious meeting to found a women's club in 1900. Some of the most prominent women in America, including Jane Addams and Frances Willard (1839–98), attend the meeting to become its leaders. Your students, acting as their assigned characters, will analyze problems affecting American society and discuss how middle-class American women perceived and used the club to address these problems. Remember that each character has her own objective in terms of the club's purposes and goals. Students will thus be expected to address a variety of questions during the founding meeting.
Students should be assigned their historical character and readings about a week before the founding meeting is scheduled, as well as a one-page paper to write that outlines the viewpoint and specific goals of their characters. To ensure that your students have clearly understood their characters, it is a good idea to review the papers of your students and return them a few days before the simulation begins. This will give them time to pursue further research if you deem it necessary.
Historical Characters (6) and Readings
Jane Addams (1860–1935)
A cofounder of Hull House (1889), the model Chicago settlement house, Addams was also a pacifist who believed that educated women should be involved in the amelioration of pressing social problems. She believed that the "feminine virtues" were essential to the improvement of living and working conditions in urban society. Her slate of reforms were adopted as part of the platform of the Progressive Party in 1912.
Addams, Jane. Twenty Years at Hull House. New York: Macmillan, 1912.
You can read an excerpt from Twenty Years at Hull House
, in The Crisis of Victorianism.
Carrie Chapman Catt (1859–1947)
A close associate of Susan B. Anthony and president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association from 1900 to 1904 and again starting in 1915, Catt is given a lot of the credit for winning nationwide woman's suffrage through her brilliant organizational tactics and oratory. Catt believed that women's right to vote was essential as a counterweight to the aggressiveness of men and would serve as a tool for world peace and dignity for women and children. In 1920, the year American women finally got the vote nationwide, she founded the League of Women Voters.
Catt, Carrie Chapman. Preface in The Ballot and the Bullet. Philadelphia: Alfred J. Ferris, 1897.
 You can find excerpts from The Ballot and the Bullet
at the Library of Congress's American Memory Web site.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860–1935)
A great-niece of Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811–96), who wrote the celebrated antislavery best-seller Uncle Tom's Cabin in 1851–52, Gilman was one of the most influential and prolific writers and social theorists of her time. Gilman criticized the "cult of domesticity" for its repression of intellectual vigor and civic discrimination against American women. In her vast body of work, she traced the history of women and the process by which they became subordinate to men. She called herself a humanist, not a feminist, in an effort to underline her aim to correct an unnatural social balance. Gilman advocated education and access to the professions for women, at a time when both were widely discouraged, and promoted two novel ideas to accommodate working mothers: the establishment of professional facilities for child-rearing and of mass kitchens for communal meals. She also advocated that women be paid for their work in the home.
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. The Home: Its Work and Influence. New York: McClure, Phillips, 1904.
You can read an excerpt from The Home: Its Work and Influence
, in The Crisis of Victorianism.
Hannah Solomon (1858–1942)
Solomon founded the first national association of Jewish women in the United States: the National Council of Jewish Women, which operated according to her motto, "Woman's sphere is the whole wide world." Active in Chicago reform efforts, Solomon supported woman's suffrage and worked with Jewish immigrants. Believing in assimilation, she was very active in helping Russian Jewish women adapt to American culture and society. Throughout her career, Solomon believed that a woman's primary responsibility was to her family; she believed that Jewish mothers were important standard-bearers for Jewish faith and culture, and she hoped to get Jewish women more involved in their religion.
Solomon, Hannah. "Organized Jewish Womanhood." The American Hebrew, 31 May 1895.
Mary Church Terrell (1863–1954)
The daughter of slaves who prospered in Memphis, Tennessee, after the Civil War, Terrell earned bachelor's and master's degrees from Oberlin College and traveled extensively in Europe (1888–90), where she learned to speak French and German fluently. After the lynching of a childhood friend, Terrell became involved in the woman-suffrage movement, founding the National Association of Colored Women, and later helping to establish the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). She was a tireless speaker and writer as an advocate for social justice in the United States.
Terrell, Mary Church. "Greetings from the National Association of Colored Women to the National Council of Women." 1900, in Mary Church Terrell Papers, Library of Congress (Microfilm, Reel 21, Frames 738–42).
You can read a transcript of "Greetings . . . to the National Council of Women" at the Women and Social Movements, 1775-2000 Web site.
Frances Willard (1839–98)
As president of the Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) from 1879 to 1898, Willard earned distinction for her organization as the first one to endorse woman's suffrage (1882). Although the WCTU concerned itself initially with sobriety, Willard espoused a "Do-Everything Policy," establishing departments within the WCTU to address myriad issues ranging from obscenity to safe conditions for laborers. Willard mobilized the membership of her organization by appealing to Christian values closely associated with the women's sphere: "For God and Home and Native Land."
Davis, George T. B. "The Greatest American Woman" from "Miss Frances E. Willard's Last Autobiographical Interview" in Our Day 18 (March 1898): 107–16.
You can read the text of "The Greatest American Woman" at the Ohio State University Department of History's Web site.
Discussion Questions
When your students assemble, in character, for the first time in their respective clubs, they will discuss the following questions:
1. Who should run the meeting? What should the club be called? What will be its primary purpose? (This could be decided and written in the club's constitution or by-laws.)
2. What are the overriding social, political, economic, or cultural issues affecting American society that the club wants to address? How will the club take it on?
3. Are there male organizations that overlap with the work of any aspect of this club? If so, what should be the relationship between this club and the male counterpart?
4. How should this club be portrayed and presented to the public? What public image do the leaders want to project?
The simulation will take two full class periods. Questions 1 and 2 should be dealt with on the first day, the remainder on the second day. A third period will be required to allow each group to present its public image to the class, and the reasoning that led to its choice. Once all the clubs have given their presentations, the teacher has the opportunity to open up a class discussion about similarities and differences among the clubs.
The simulation should culminate with a paper. Each student should discuss the role he or she played in the meetings, compare his or her objectives to those of the others in the meeting, and explain the process by which the club members agreed to their constitution or by-laws. Ask your students to evaluate how their textbook portrays American women in this time period. You can suggest that they compare their research on their assigned historical characters with the information provided in their textbook. As you know, many textbooks discuss women in separate chapters in an attempt to cover different themes. Ask your students whether this simulation has helped them understand the general changes American women experienced during this period, and how they acted on those changes. Do your students view the women as active or powerful agents of change, or as passive witnesses to large historical trends?
Concluding Remarks
It is important to stress the process of this simulation. The goal is for students to discover not only the various and at times divisive objectives and opinions of middle-class American women, but also to identify common goals and a vision for women, the larger society, and the world. Please think of these suggestions as a guideline for the simulation and adapt it to your particular classroom.
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