Women took part in social and political movements from 1890 through 1920. Progressive reformers pursued to improve people's life, end political corruption, and increase government intervention to protect citizens. The women's suffrage movement was part of the Progressive Era reforms.
During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, women of all backgraounds (rich and poor, white and black, native-born Americans and immigrants) joined national organizations and participated in national women’s campaigns which succeeded in...
- obtaining the women's suffrage,
- starting the nationwide prohibition of alcohol in 1919,
- creating the Chicago’s Hull-House (a settlement house for providing services as well as education to local immigrants),
- promoting campaigns against the lynching of African Americans,
- fostering laws that protected women in the workplace.
However, there were many people who opposed women's active role in political and social matters, for example anti-suffragists who did not agree with allowing women the right to vote. Not only did religious leaders but also the press speak against women's political activism in public life.
