Clubwomen, Reformers, Workers, and Feminists of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era

Abstract

During the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, clubwomen, reformers, laborers, and feminists asserted their right to participate in the public, political sphere. Whether they intended to further their education, improve society, gain better working conditions, or control their own bodies, women expanded traditional gender roles and played an important role in transforming their society. Most significantly, the guarantee of voting rights provided by the Nineteenth Amendment marked a major milestone in the history of the struggle for women's rights. While women made important advances in other areas as well, many of the goals of tum-of-the-century reformers and feminists-for economic justice, racial equality, and women's full emancipation- remained unrealized, and would be left for subsequent generations of women to continue to pursue as the 20th century unfolded.