| Progressive Era Through the Great Depression | [Type the document subtitle] |

Iris 2/4/2013 |

From the Progressive Era through the Great Depression, the two major historical points were the Women’s Right Movement and the Stock Market Crash. In 1919 the Nineteenth Amendment last granted women’s suffrage. The struggle for women’s right to vote was one of the key elements in women’s overall fight for equality. Elizabeth Stanton and Susan B Anthony continued to work for the right to vote for women, but for most of the 19th century their efforts were focused on the states. The first jurisdiction in the world to give women the right to vote was Wyoming, in 1869. In 1890 Wyoming was the first state to allow women the right to vote when it was finally admitted. Until 1912 the move for constitutional amendment did not start to make progress even though it was introduced in 1878. Both Alice Paul and Lucy Burns participated in public activities in support of women’s equality and both were jailed several times in London. In 1912 Alice Paul returned to the United States and joined the National Women’s Suffrage Association. In 1913 Alice Paul along with Lucy Burns formed the Congressional Union for Women Suffrage making an effort to have the amendment passed by congress. The Congressional Union soon became the National Women’s Party, and together with the NAWSA they lobbied Congress to pass the amendment. www.publications.socialstudies.org www.nwhm.org
In 1916 during the presidential election, the women campaigned against Woodrow Wilson’s refusal to support the Woman’s Suffrage Amendment, they paraded and picketed in front of the White House and where eventually arrested for obstruction of traffic. In 1916 President Wilson capitulated and supported Women’s Suffrage as an effort of unity in the war. He asked congress to pass the amendment as an aid to the war cause, in 1919 the vote was 56 to 25 adopting the Susan Anthony amendment to the constitution. Section 1 of the Nineteenth Amendment reads: “The right of Citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex”. www.publications.socialstudies.org www.nwhm.org
In 1929 the Stock Market Crashed, marked the beginning of the Great Depression, the worst economic crisis in United States History. Many people had bought stocks using borrowed money and could not afford to pay off their debts. The Great Depression was brought upon by many different factors for example: The Economy was not stable, National wealth was not spread evenly. Instead most of the money was in the hands of a few families who saved or invested instead they spent their money. Federal Reserve’s failure to prevent widespread collapse of the nation’s banking system in the late 1920 to 1930’s which lead to the severe shortage of US currency in circulation. Tariff act was in place which hurt international trade and farmers. Short sighted government economic policies also contributed to the depression. Politicians believed that the growth of business should occur with little to no help from the government. The United States entered WW1 and was very wealthy. Germany was burden with massive debt, Britain and France needed to rebuild. The United States banks were willing to loan the money, but when the bank started failing the banks not only stopped the loans but demanded repayment right away, which put a lot of pressure on European economies, which had not fully recovered from WW1, contributing to the global economic downturn. Another possible cause what the bank failures, in 1929 there were about 25,000 banks in the United States by 1933 there were only about 14,000. Personal and corporate savings dropped from $15 billion in 1929 to about $2 billion in 1933. Fewer banks, tighter credit less money to pay employees less money that they could spend caused the “too little consumption”. The Great Depression caused all aspects of the economy to