Progressivism During The Progressive Era

During the period of 1900 through 1920, there was a huge movement that took place called the Progressive Era. Progressivism means to support or to be an advocate for social reform. During the Gilded Age, there were multiple examples of corruption, dirtiness, and just straight up discord. There were people that noticed that and did not like it one bit. These people were called the progressives. They wanted to change American society to make it better or to improve it in a positive way. There were multiple ways the progressives expressed that; the women's suffrage movement with Alice Paul, Carrie Catt, ect., the muckrakers like Upton Sinclair who wrote “The Jungle”, Jacob Riis, Ida Tarbell, Lincoln Steffens, and many more, and also through the

This movement lasted from way back in the mid-1800s all the way to the 1920s. Even today women are still fighting for equal rights, for equal pay and something called the “pink tax”. The main leaders during this movement were Susan B. Anthony, Alice Paul, Elizabeth Stanton, Ida B. Wells, Carrie Chapman Catt, and many others. Carrie Catt and Anna Howard founded and built up the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). Alice Paul eventually broke off from NAWSA and made her own party, The National Woman's Party. They all picketed the White House for days and days until one day, President Woodrow Wilson jailed them for “obstructing traffics”. After the women fought for so many years, Congress finally passed the 19th amendment that stated that no one should be denied the right to vote on the account of

The muckrakers were journalists who exposed the corruption in politics, living conditions, and big business. Some of the famous muckrakers were Upton Sinclair, Jacob Riis, Lincoln Steffens, and Ida Tarbell. Upton Sinclair wrote a book called “The Jungle” which exposed the nasty truth about Chicago's meat-packing industry. The book was read by Theodore Roosevelt who after he read the book, immediately started investigations on the meat industries. After this, the government and the businesses had to respond to the people now that they were exposed. This eventually help pass the FDA. Upton Sinclair made a huge impact on our daily lifestyle because now we have healthy, inspected food. Jacob Riis was a photographer who put together “How the Other Half Lives”. This book exposed the cramped and unsanitary living conditions of the immigrant people in the tenement houses. This exposure eventually led to health and sanitation laws making better living conditions for those people in the slums. The muckrakers had a long-lasting effect because it gave us better, safer, more sanitary living conditions, and also the food