social reform

Examples of social reform in the following topics:

• Middle-Class Reformers

  • After 1900 the Progressive Era brought political and social reforms, such as new roles for education and a higher status for women.
  • After 1900, the Progressive Era brought political and social reforms, such as new roles for education and a higher status for women, as well as modernizing many areas of government and society.
  • At the urging of such prominent social critics as Jane Addams , child labor laws were strengthened and new ones adopted, raising age limits, shortening work hours, restricting night work and requiring school attendance.
  • Beside presidents such as Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson , she was the most prominent reformer of the Progressive Era and helped turn the nation to issues of concern to mothers, such as the needs of children, public health, and world peace.

• The Second Great Awakening

  • Social reform prior to the Civil War came largely out of this new devotion to religion.
  • Efforts to apply Christian teaching to the resolution of social problems presaged the social gospel of the late nineteenth century.
  • Reforms took the shape of social movements for temperance, women's rights, and the abolition of slavery.
  • Social activists began efforts to reform prisons and care for the handicapped and mentally ill.
  • Many participants in the revival meetings believed that reform was a part of God's plan.

• Social Justice

  • Progressive reformers tried to achieve social justice by targeting poverty and all forms of social and political corruption.
  • Rather than any dominating party affiliation, therefore, American progressives shared a common goal of wielding federal power to pursue a sweeping range of social, environmental, political, and economic reforms.
  • The Progressive Era witnessed an increasing interest in social reforms.
  • Equally significant to progressive-era reform were the rise of crusading journalists, commonly referred to as "muckrakers. " Muckrakers, who appealed to most middle class readers, targeted economic privilege, political corruption, social injustice, and corporate abuses.
  • In sum, the "Progressive Era" is a broadly construed term that refers to a myriad of social, cultural, and political reform movements advocated by otherwise disparate interest groups and political parties that were reacting to the modernizing, industrializing economic and social situation that arose by the turn of the century.

• The Age of Reforms

  • The Second Great Awakening spurred waves of social change and reform.
  • Efforts to apply Christian teaching to the resolution of social problems presaged the Social Gospel of the late 19th century.
  • Thus, evangelical converts were leading figures in a variety of 19th century reform movements.
  • Social activism influenced abolition groups and supporters of the temperance movement.
  • They began efforts to reform prisons and care for the handicapped and mentally ill.

• The Limits of Progressivism

  • Although the Progressive Era was a period of social progress, it also had multiple, contradictory goals that impeded reform efforts.
  • Although the Progressive Era was a period of broad reform movements and social progress, it was also characterized by loose, multiple, and contradictory goals that impeded the efforts of reformers and often pitted political leaders against one another, most drastically in the Republican Party.
  • Although significant advancements were made in social justice and reform on a case by case basis, there was little local effort to coordinate reformers on a wide platform of issues.
  • Finally, many Progressive achievements were frustrated by the federal court system, which struck down laws regulating child labor, and by lack of resources and funds to fully implement social and political plans of reform.
  • Paul Fass, speaking of youth, says "Progressivism as an angle of vision, as an optimistic approach to social problems, was very much alive."

• Types of Social Movements

  • Social movements occur when large groups of individuals or organizations work for or against change in social and/or political matters.
  • The diagram below illustrates how a social movement may either be alternative, redemptive, reformative or revolutionary based on who the movement strives to change and how much change the movement desires to bring about .
  • Scope: A movement can be either reform or radical.
  • A reform movement might be a trade union seeking to increase workers' rights while the American Civil Rights movement was a radical movement.
  • Based on who a movement is trying to change and how much change a movement is advocating, Aberle identified four types of social movements: redemptive, reformative, revolutionary and alternative.

• Conclusion: The Successes and Failures of Progressivism

  • Political corruption was a central issue, which reformers hoped to solve through civil service reforms at the national, state and local level, replacing political hacks with professional technocrats.
  • Illinois modernized its bureaucracy in 1917 under Frank Lowden, but Chicago held out against civil service reform until the 1970s.
  • Furthermore, racism often pervaded most progressive reform efforts, as evidenced by the suffrage movement.
  • At the local, municipal, and state level, various Progressive reformers advocated for disparate goals that ranged as wide as prison reform, education, government reorganization, urban improvement, prohibition, female suffrage, birth control, improved working conditions, labor reform, and child labor reform.
  • Although significant advancements were made in social justice and reform on a case by case basis, there was little local effort to coordinate reformers on a wide platform of issues.

• Social Movements

  • Social movements can advocate for a particular social change, but they can also organize to oppose a social change that is being advocated by another entity.
  • Sociologists draw distinctions between social movements and social movement organizations (SMOs).
  • A social movement organization is a formally organized component of a social movement.
  • In large part, these oppositional groups formed because the women's movement advocated for reform in conservative religions.
  • Discover the difference between social movements and social movement organizations, as well as the four areas social movements operate within

• Wilsonian Progressivism

  • During his first term as President, Wilson focused on three types of reform: Tariff Reform, Banking Reform, and Business Reform.
  • During his first term as President, Wilson focused on three types of reform: tariff reform, business reform, and banking reform.
  • Wilson spoke only briefly, but made it clear that, in order to avoid repeating the embarrassment of the thwarted reform of 1894, tariff reform was essential.
  • The reform agenda of Wilson's "New Freedom," however, did not extend as far as Theodore Roosevelt's proposed New Nationalism in relation to the latter's calls for a standard 40-hour work week, minimum wage laws, and a federal system of social insurance.
  • Despite this, Wilson did much to extend the power of the federal government in social and economic affairs, and paved the way for future federal reform programs such as the New Deal.

• Introduction

  • Social movements are any broad social alliances of people who are connected through their shared interest in blocking or affecting social change.
  • Social movements do not have to be formally organized.
  • A distinction is drawn between social movements and social movement organizations (SMOs).
  • A social movement organization is a formally organized component of a social movement.
  • For instance, the women's movement of the 1960s and 1970s resulted in a number of counter movements that attempted to block the goals of the women's movement, many of which were reform movements within conservative religions.