The Civil War disrupted traditional constructions of womanhood. For some white women, new opportunities emerged as plantation owners, but for many black women, sharecropping replaced slavery and stereotypes persisted for over 100 years. Native American, Mexican, and black women faced marginalization. Meanwhile, middle-class white women like Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton fought for women's suffrage. Former slaves like Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman battled against slavery and for racial equality. Throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries, many women struggled for reforms relating to labor, temperance, racial uplift, and women's rights while navigating various hardships.

1. The Civil War Disrupted Some Constructions of Womanhood

2. “I’ll Never Be Poor Again, So Help Me God” Imagine here the iconic image of Scarlett O’Hara in “Gone with the Wind” as she stands in the middle of the devastated field on her plantation, “Tara,” and shakes a few rotting turnips at god.

3. And Others

4. As “happy” “mammies” became sharecroppers A brave sharecropper teaches her own children at home Should freedwomen stay at home, or join the waged workforce?

5. (though it took 100 years for black women to have less stereotyped representation in popular culture)

6. While Others were Marginalized Kiowa Women, 1890s

7. Like Native American Women Hopi Women Gabrileño Women

8. And Mexicanas

9. Courageous Fighters for Woman Suffrage Susan B. Anthony Elizabeth Cady Stanton

10. Anthony and Stanton Were Lifelong Allies

11. And Strong, Middle-class White Women Reformers Stanton House, NJ Anthony House, Rochester, NY

12. Escaped Slaves Became Strong Fighters against Slavery and Prejudice Sojourner Truth (1797-1883) Fierce abolitionist Harriet Tubman (1820-1913) Vital part of the Underground Railroad Post-war worker for rights And (below) her extended, constructed family

13. Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Fighter against Terrorism Ida Belle Wells-Barnett (1862-1931) Fighter for justice, suffrage, women’s rights, Wells-Barnett fought fiercely and bravely against the terror of lunching

14. Jane Addams, Settlement House Pioneer (1860-1935) text

15. Addams Built and Operated Hull House, Chicago The Flagship Settlement House during the Chaos of U.S. Industrialization and Immigration

16. Addams Addressed the Progressive Party Convention, 1912

17. Florence Kelley, Fighter for Working Class Rights of Women, Children, and All Workers (1859-1932)

18. When Women Were Supposed to be Otherwise Occupied “ No Time for Politics”

19. The Gemütlich household as Refuge from the Industrial World A Social Icon of the late 19 th and 20 th Centuries

20. Some Women Struggled to Reform Men, the Home, and (later) Society Frances Willard of the WCTU Willard and Lady Somerset of the British temperance movement

21. While Middle-Class African-American Women Sought Racial Uplift through Reform Anna Julia H. Cooper, educator and social activist (1858-1964)

22. And Some Immigrants Endured a Tough Life on the Frontier Jewish Immigrants in North Dakota, 1890

23. Or Urban Life in the Sweatshops Italian Garment Worker, NYC, 1910

24. Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, 1911, NYC exposed the working dangers of young, immigrant women and inspired a new wave of reform Locked in their high-rise factory, 123 suffocated, burned, or jumped to their deaths, most girls aged 13 to 23

25. Or in Small Town “Women’s” Jobs Telephone Operators, Roseburg, Oregon, 1910

26. Flappers, dangerous “modern” women

27. Working for Women’s Control of Their Reproductive Bodies (though the eugenics angle was a problem) Margaret Sanger

28. Struggling with Poverty during the Depression “ Migrant Mother,” Dorothea Lange, 1936

29. Fighting for Workers’ Rights - ILGWU Dressmakers’ Strike, 1933

30. Or Enjoying the Good Life in Hard Times Shirley Temple provided a comic, sentimental image of girlhood during the Depression

31. The Distractions of Popular Culture Used Women as Signifiers of Luxury and Wealth in Hard Times

32. Social Contrasts During the Depression

33. While Some Real Women Created the Actual Progressive Strength and Compassion of Government in Hard Times Eleanor Roosevelt

34. Women Began to Use Novel Tactics, Even in Their Union Struggles ILGWU Dressmakers Used Their Bodies to Draw Attention to Their Strike in 1958

35. Women Took Important Roles in the Struggle for Black Civil Rights Ella Baker Fanny Lou Hamer

36. and Mexican-American Rights Luisa Morena, Zoot Suit activist Dolores Huerta of the UFW Jessica Govea and D. Huerta

37. The 1960s Opened a “Second Wave” of Diverse and Powerful Feminism Betty Friedan, Early Second Wave Leader Andrea Dworkin, Radical Lesbian Feminist

38. While Some Worked against the Trend Phyllis Schlafly of the Eagle Forum

39. Consider Women’s Bodies as Symbols …. of Beauty Ruth Bernhard

40. And Art

41. Or Titillation

42. And Exploitation

43. But Are Women “Naturally” Workers for Equality and Peace? Madeleine Albright Jeane Kirkpatrick Lady Margaret Thacher

44. And Is This Really an Age of Women’s Liberation and Equality?