Progressivism During The Progressive Era

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Progressivism is known as a middle-class reform movement. It began as a social movement, but turned into a political one. It is a term that explains the social problems that a lot of people faced and overcame. The Progressive Era was also a period when new laws were made. A few of the many problems and laws were women’s rights, child labor, civil rights, socialism, and anarchism. Child labor is the employment of children, normally under unfair and inhumane terms. This was a very difficult problem to overcome. In fact, many of the children worked long, hard hours for very little pay. Mother Jones was a fearless woman, who wanted to help others, especially children. She did everything she could to pass laws for better working conditions. It took…show more content…
Muckrakers, writers who exposed dirt about injustice, also played a big role during this time. They took pictures of the children working under very dangerous circumstances, and wrote articles about the danger and unfairness of child labor. Once everyone saw the pictures in their local newspapers, it made people work even harder to get justice for the children. Other progressives also began looking into safer working conditions. Not everything was perfect, but they had made huge progress. This was a huge accomplishment, considering it was a very difficult problem to overcome. A very important issue that wasn’t focused on during the Progressive Era was racism. A lot of the white progressives allowed, or even supported, segregation. Some even thought that African Americans were causing most of the social problems. Other problems such as poverty were also overlooked. A lot of the problems were caused by greed and money, which everyone seemed to ignore. Today, some people think that financial difficulties are what really caused the Progressive Era. With industrialization and immigration, poverty became a big problem for some middle-class families. It also made wealthy people even

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