Reading and Writing Workshop

The Gilded Age and Progressive Era: Women in a Changing Society

Session 1: The Rise of Industrialization and Its Impact on Women’s Labor
Readings:

• Women at Work: A Study of Their Economic Independence by Clara E. Colby (1893)
  URL: archive.org/details/womenatworkstudyo00colbrich
• The Spirit of Youth and the City Streets by Jane Addams (1909)
  URL: archive.org/details/cu31924022067868
• The Long Day: The Story of a New York Working Girl by Dorothy Richardson (1905)
  URL: archive.org/details/longdaystoryofne00richrich

Session 2: The Suffrage Movement and Key Figures (Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton)
Readings:

• The History of Woman Suffrage, Volume I by Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Matilda Joslyn Gage (1881)
  URL: archive.org/details/historyofwomansu01stanuoft
• Woman Suffrage: The Argument of Carrie Chapman Catt (1917)
  URL: archive.org/details/womansuffragearg00catt
• Eighty Years and More: Reminiscences 1815-1897 by Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1898)
  URL: archive.org/details/eightyyearsmorer00stan

Session 3: Women in Labor Movements and Progressive Reforms
Readings:

• Life and Labor of the People in London, Vol. 4: Women’s Work by Charles Booth (1897)
  URL: archive.org/details/lifelaborofpeopl04boot
• The Case for the Factory Acts by Mrs. Sidney Webb (1901)
  URL: archive.org/details/cu31924002343254
• The Newer Ideals of Peace by Jane Addams (1907)
  URL: archive.org/details/neweridealsofpea00addauoft

Session 4: Women and Urbanization: The Settlement House Movement (Jane Addams)
​Readings:

• Twenty Years at Hull-House by Jane Addams (1910)
  URL: archive.org/details/twentyyearsathul00addarich
• The Education of Women by Marion Talbot (1910)
  URL: archive.org/details/educationofwomen00talb
• The Woman’s Movement in America by Belle Squire (1911)
  URL: archive.org/details/womansmovementin00squi

This structure provides foundational public domain texts for research and discussion, supporting a Women's History reading and writing workshop.