Progressive Era Storyboard

Labor Issues (Cell 1): During the Progressive Era, women and children were subject to low wages, harsh working conditions, and extremely long work hours. The Women's Trade Union League began petitioning for reforms to improve these issues. However, not until the Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire did reforms begin to take place. New York passed laws to change labor conditions and in 1908 the U.S. Supreme Court reversed the "Muller vs. Oregon" court ruling and limited women's workdays to ten hours. Prohibition (Cell 2): By 1917 alcohol had already been banned in nineteen states, and as the World War I went on, prohibitionists used the war as an opportunity to further their cause. To solve the issue of only having prohibition in certain states, Congress decided to pass the 18th amendment banning the manufacture, transportation, and sale of alcohol as a way to save resources, boycott distilleries, and increase the democracy’s power. Women's Rights (Cell 3): Women were struggling to obtain voting rights throughout the entire United States. After several years of fighting for suffrage through campaigns, marches, speeches, etc., Alice Paul and her followers picketed the White House which ultimately led to President Wilson and Congress passing the 19th amendment guaranteeing women the right to vote.