4. Changes for Women

About this Lecture

Lecture

In this module, we explore how society changed for women before and during the Gilded Age. Women had been demanding greater equality earlier in the 19th century and the fight against slavery during the Civil War had made their unequal position in society ever more apparent. The Civil War had also had the effect of the reducing the male population available for marriage. This in turn created large numbers of unmarried women who began to educate themselves and prize their independence. These changes meant that women called for equality during the Gilded Age more fiercely than any time previously.

Course

In this course, Professor Susan Curtis (Purdue University) explains how different reform movements responded to the rise of industrial capitalism in the Gilded Age. In the first three modules, we look at this through the lens of the economy - examining the changes that occurred as a result of the industrial revolution, the reasons reform was needed and then what workers did to initiate reform. In the next two modules we explore how the United States changed for women in these years and why reform was needed as a result. After this, we explore why political reform was needed in this era and what reform was passed as a result. Finally we examine the issues of race relations - the area where reform was needed most but where none came.

Lecturer

Susan Curtis in Emeritus Professor of History and American Studies at Purdue University. She specialises in the History of American culture, religion, and race relations; and is the author of four books - A Consuming Faith:  The Social Gospel and Modern American Culture (1991): Dancing to a Black Man's Tune:  A Life of Scott Joplin (1994); The First Black Actors on the Great White Way (1998); and Colored Memories:  A Biographer's Quest for the Elusive Lester A. Walton (2008).