H 4321/CS 401 Study Questions

For 9-12:

1.) How should historians interpret the Muller decision? Was it an important step forward for children’s rights?

2.) Based on the Skopcol reading, what do you see as the relationship between gender issues and children’s rights—i.e., how did public policy toward women affect public policy toward children?

3.) Was there a difference between a pro-labor public policy and a pro-consumer public policy in the Progressive Era?

4.) Why did issues such as maximum workweek laws for women emerge at the time they did?

5.) Were women’s pensions programs similar in motivation to the Civil War pensions we read about last week?

6.) Who were the opponents of the various women’s/children’s issues described in the Skopcol? What were their ideological motivations? What was the alternative to the policies that were adopted in the US during the Progressive Era?

7.) How important was the Children’s Bureau and the Sheppard Act to understanding this period of American history?

8.) Were government actions or local grassroots movements more important in shaping how the various women and children’s public policy initiatives developed?