Interpreting Secondary Sources

Questions

1. What is the title of the document?
2. Who is the author?
3. What topic is the author addressing in this work?
4. What is the author's thesis?
5. Evidence that supports thesis?
6. What questions does this source/ interpretation raise?

Essay #1

1. Women in Industrializing America
2. Stacy A. Cordery
3. "How the origins of modern America affected women"
4. "Many important trends evident during the Gilded Age presaged the emergence of the "new woman" of the Progressive Era."
5. Women were given opportunities to redefine their roles as a cause of industrialization (new home technologies, opportunities for jobs away from home)
   Creation of organizations like the Women's Christian Temperance Union supported women's rights (showed effectiveness of organized women, "invented Progressivism")
   Other women's organizations increased women's political awareness, self-esteem
   Women engaged in politics even without being able to vote (organizing rallies, providing food/ service, etc.). This increased their desire for suffrage, equality
   Women made up a growing part of the workforce by 1900 (consistent growth from 1870 on), but out of necessity more than choice
6. To what extent did the civil rights movement started by the Civil War's Emancipation Proclamation allow women to embark on their own path towards equality?
   What details would be left out, added, or changed had this essay been written by a male of the same credentials?
   In what ways was the Progressive Era made possible by women?

Essay #2

1. The African-American Experience
2. Leslie H. Fishel Jr.
3. The ways African-Americans felt the effects of Gilded Age political, cultural, and industrial advancements