It was during this period of time [the progressive era] that such significant changes were brought about within the American society’s stance on women that they permanently altered the inferiority that had, till then, been assumed as a norm of the weaker sex; women wouldn't have a lot of rights that they have now, if it wasn't for the women in the Progressive Era.

One of the things that have been apparent practically since the existence of man as a wandering primate roaming from place to place in search of bare shelter and sustenance has been the ingraining of inferiority into the female figure. This, moreover, is something that is made even more apparent when considering it in light of the fact that it has been only within the more recent years that women have been able to achieve widespread access into the commercial sector (s). Consider, for instance, that not too far back in history, the very concept of a woman within the workforce of any particular organizational segment would have been considered something of a controversy. Today, however, we find women within practically all of the commercial and industrial segments, ranging from the segment of medical science to the armed forces.

Women during the progressive era

One of the prime reasons for this insurgence in the stance on women within the workforce was the rise of the women’s liberation movement, a movement that attained exceptional momentum during the progressive era, transpiring approximately during the early 1900s. ‘During the late 1800s and early 1900s, women and women's organizations not only worked to gain the right to vote, they also worked for broad-based economic and political equality and for social reforms’ (The Library of Congress, 2002).

The progressive era heralded the emergence of American women as a major force for social reform. Exceptional numbers of women ‘joined civic organizations and, under the banner of “municipal housekeeping,” extended their roles from domestic duties to concern about their communities and environments’ (Kovarik, 2004).

Characteristics of the changing role of women during the progressive era

Take into consideration, for instance, the establishment of the waterways committee, which was one of the more relevant achievements made by the women of this era. While their counterparts in California focused on rescuing the sequoia forests and the Hetch Hetchy valley, Progressive women in New York and New Jersey were busy with ensuring that the Palisades of the Hudson River weren’t turned into a stone quarry.

The Progressive women of Colorado, on the other hand ‘were saving cliff dwellings and pueblo ruins from vandalism’ (Kovarik, 2004). The effectuality that the various social reform groups [formed by women] had on the societies as a whole that made for the first step of their success with attaining a whole new societal position.

One of the more significant achievements made by women during this era was the establishment of the waterways community, in 1909, to promote water -power, clean water and cheaper transportation. ‘The rationale for women's involvement lay in the effect of waterways on every American home: Pure water meant health; impure meant disease and death’ (Merchant, 1985). It was, however, the 1869 establishment of the National Woman Suffrage, by founders Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth C. Stanton, that was of exceptionally monumental relevance in concern to it’s impact on progressivism.

The relevance of Anthony’s and Stanton’s initiative is accentuated quite strongly when considering that this establishment influenced a similar project by Lucy Stone, Julia Ward Howe later that same year; the latter two formed the American Woman Suffrage Association which, in reflection of it predecessor, the National Woman Suffrage, worked towards getting women the rights to vote.

Although it wasn’t until the passing of the 19th Amendment in 1919 that women throughout the nation gained the right to vote, it is clear that had it not been for Anthony and Stanton, such an amendment would perhaps never have been passed. It quite apparent, thus speaking, that one of the prime reasons for the exceptionality of the impact that the women of the progressive era had on progressivism itself was the determination and single-mindedness that they displayed in their march for and towards social involvement and activism.

Bibliography

1. The Library of Congress (2002). Progressive Era to New Era; 1900 - 1929. Accessed
online on Wednesday, October 20, 2004 @ http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/timeline/progress/suffrage/suffrage.html

2. Kovarik, Bill (2004). Ellen Swallow Richards and the Progressive women's reform movement: Accessed online on Wednesday.

3. Merchant, Carolyn (1985) The Women of the Progressive Conservation Crusade: 1900 -
1915. Qtd in Kendall E. Bailes, ed., Environmental History: Critical Issues in Comparative Perspective, (NY, University Press, 1985): 156. Qtd in Kovarik, Bill (2004). Ellen Swallow Richards and the Progressive women's reform movement. Accessed online on Wednesday