Title: Women in the Workforce - The Progressive Era and Women's Reform
Headings: The Progressive Era and Women's Reform

Content: These Unions were created both by the workers themselves as well as the government institutions that supported them. “ The role of women reformers who were hired by the government agencies and charged with overseeing in certain industries became abundant.” [ 2]
This was a time when “economic expansion produced millions of new jobs and brought an unprecedented array of goods within reach of American consumers.” 1 For women this was truly one of the first times that work outside of traditional stereotypical roles was established. The amount of women in the workforce sharply rose as well as the type of work. For instance the number of “female clerical workers, for example, increased from 2.6 percent in 1870 to 37.7 percent in 1910.” 2 Additionally the most shocking statistic is that the amount of women that became telephone operators, “99 percent of them were women by 1918.” [ 2] The technological advancement of the age induced many more job opportunities during the era. Another main facet of the changing work environment during the time came in the form of a natural disaster. The infamous Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire of 1911.