NLM logo

For All the People: A Century of Citizen Action in Health Care ReformFor All the People: A Century of Citizen Action in Health Care Reform

ExhibitionThe Power of Medicine

Return to Carousel
8 White women, seated and standing around a 5 foot tall board with text on it.

1. National League of Women Voters, 1920

  • Enlarge Image
  • Read Transcript

    Transcript

    Planks to be presented by the National League of Women Voters to the Democratic Platform Committee

    • I Child Care: Prohibition of child labor, Infancy and maternity care, Adequate appropriate for childrens bureau
    • II Education: Federal department of education, Increased teachers’ salaries and removal of illiteracy, Citizenship instruction
    • III Home and High Prices: Increased training in home economics, Federal regulation of marketing and distribution of food.
    • IV Women in Gainful Occupations: Representation of women on all commissions having to do with women’s occupations. Civil service re-classified on merit basis and freed from sex discrimination.
    • V Public Health and Morals: Continued appropriate for public education and sex hygiene.
    • VI Independent Citizenship for Married Women: No forfeiture of citizenship through marriage to foreigners by American born women who continue to reside in the U.S. No acquiring of citizenship by foreign born women except through individual naturalization
    Close

“Infancy and Maternity Care” and public health education are part of the planks presented by the National League of Women Voters during the 1920 Democratic Convention

Courtesy Collection of the Oakland Museum of California

Right after American women received the vote in 1920, women’s rights advocates briefly succeeded in winning government support for expanded public health nursing with the Sheppard-Towner Act (1921–29), the first federal program to assist babies and expectant mothers.

View