1. +
Women in Early 20th
Century America
Suffrage, Consumerism, Changing Gender
Roles

2. +
The Fight for Suffrage: Early Organizing
1790s-1850s 1860s
 1790: All free inhabitants of New  1859: rubber vulcanized—reliable
Jersey have the right to vote condoms available soon after. U.S.
birth rate begins to decline.
 1807: Women lose their voting
rights in New Jersey  1868: 14th Amendment to Constitution
essentially defines “citizen” and
 1848: Seneca Falls, NY: 1st “voter” as male
women’s rights convention in the
U.S  1869: 2 major women’s orgs founded
 “Declaration of Sentiments and
(split over 15th Amendment)
Resolutions” signed  National Women’s Suffrage
(organizing principles for Association (more radical, women-
suffrage movement) only)
 American Women’s Suffrage
 1854: Massachusetts grants Association (supported
women property rights amendment, included men)

3. +
The Fight for Suffrage: State-by-State
1870s 1880s-1890s
 1870: 15th Amendment enfranchises  1883: Women in Washington territory
black men granted full voting rights
 1869-70: Utah and Wyoming  1887: U.S. Supreme Court
organized into territories; women have disenfranchises women of
Washington territory
suffrage rights in both states
 1890: NWSA & AWSA merge to
 1874: Founding of Women’s Christian become National American Women’s
Temperance Union Suffrage Association
 1878: Women’s suffrage amendment  1890: Wyoming admitted to the Union
first introduced in U.S. Congress with women’s rights to suffrage intact
 1883: Women in Washington territory  1893: Colorado passes women’s
granted full voting rights suffrage

4. +
The Fight for Suffrage: Taking it Public
1890s-1900s 1910-1912
 1896: Formation of the National  1910: Washington, now a state,
Association of Colored Women in grants women full voting rights
Washington, D.C.
 1910: First large-scale suffrage
 1896: Utah admitted to the Union with parade, held in NYC
women’s rights to suffrage intact
 1911: California grants women full
 1903: Formation of Women’s Trade voting rights
Union League of New York (later
International Ladies’ Garment  1912: Progressive Party (Teddy
Workers Union, ILGWU) Roosevelt’s party) makes suffrage
part of their political platform
 1909: 20,000 women workers strike in
the NYC garment district  1912: Kansas and the Arizona and
Alaska territories grant women the
right to vote

5. +
The Fight for Suffrage: Taking it to D.C.
1913-1917 1918-1923
 1913: Congressional Union (later  1918: President Woodrow Wilson issues a
statement in support of women’s suffrage
National Woman’s Party) formed;
stages sit-ins and hunger strikes to
 1918: The 19th Amendment passes the
draw attention to suffrage cause. House of Representatives
 1914: Women win the right to vote in  1919: Women are granted voting rights in
Nevada and Montana Oklahoma, Michigan and South Dakota
 1916: First woman in the House of  1919: The Senate finally passes the
amendment
Representatives (Jeannette Rankin,
Montana)  1920: 19th Amendment ratified by state
legislatures; becomes law August 26th
 1917: New York State grants women  NAWSA disbands, its members form the
full voting rights; other states grant the League of Women Voters
right to vote in presidential elections
 1923: The ERA is first proposed. (Still has
never been passed!)

6. +
Changing Views of Women
Additional Factors During Prohibition
 Roles of women during the Civil  Increasing consumer power
War and especially WWI  Fashion
 Home
 Women as advocates for and
providers of services to the  Greater interest in birth control
poor and needy  First as a social issue
 Hull House, Jane Addams,  More & better barrier methods
1890 become available
 Emerging consumer society  More rigorously educated
 Mt. Holyoke, 1837
 Growth of advertising
 2-3 generations of college-
educated women

7. +
So it isn’t just about suffrage!
 By the mid-1920s, women are emerging as equal players
 Especially true among upper classes (wealth enables privilege)
 Fitzgerald’s novel depicts a set of related anxieties about
shifting, ungrounded gender roles
 Best embodiment of these anxieties is not Gatsby or Tom but
Nick (esp. when talking to or about Daisy or Jordan)

8. +
F. Scott & Zelda
 Fitzgerald, like Nick, is involved with 20s high society after his
first novel is a success
 F. Scott & wife Zelda are literary celebrities of their day; live a
high-flying life of alcohol and parties
 F. Scott borrows from their relationship and Zelda’s writing in
his own works, & is generally thought to have done so without
her consent