There was more continuity with the general tendency (of pre-war women) to campaign for specific social and civic issues.
- There were many professional and business organisations, women were active in church organisations, groups promoting educational improvement and working standards,
as well as in the continuing campaigns for temperance and moral uplift.
There was interest in non-party political issues like the Women’s International League for Peace.
Notably, there was the Association of Southern Women for the Prevention of Lynching, urging federal action against increasing violence in the South against AAs.
Not all female political activity was radical, conservative associations were also popular, most famously the Daughters of the American Revolution. (Formed in 1890 for women with ancestors that played a role in US independence.
Continuity in Opposition
Opposition to change was omnipresent throughout the period, with female suffragists being seen as ‘unwomanly’.
- Many women opposed the ‘flappers’ and more sexually emancipated women of the 20s.
- Many also believed men should have first access to jobs during the Depression and supported women’s return to the home after WW2.
The National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage had a similar outlook to the DAR and conservative women, who later opposed the new feminism of the later 20th Century and the ERA.
The pre-war pattern of women becoming more active in public life, but not entirely represented in legislatures, Congress, government or judiciary, was not radically altered by the 19th Amendment. Equality was far off by 1920.