Muckrakers-American Journalists, Novelists, And critics. who in the first decade of the 20th cent. attempted to expose the abuses of business and the corruption in politics. The term came from the word muckrake, as president Theodore Rosevelt In one of his speeches in 1906. As he spoke, he agreed to many of the charges of the muckrakers, but asserted that some of there methods were irresponsible and sensational. Since the 1870s there had been recurrent efforts at reform in government, politics, and business, but it was not until the advent of the national mass-circulation magazines such as McClure's, Everybody's, and Collier's that the muckrakers were provided with sufficient funds for their investigations and with a large enough audience to arouse nationwide concern.
Women and social change- Before the civil war the married women were expected to only caring for there famillies and homes. And in the 19th century midle-class and uper-class women were barely able to aford to do so. Poorer women had no choice besides, workiong outside the home for pay. On farms in the South and the Midwest, women’s roles had not changed substantially since the previous century.
Efficiency in the work place Many progressive leaders put their faith in experts and scientific principles to make society and the workplace more efficient. In defending an Oregon law that limited women factory and laundry workers to a ten-hour day, lawyer Louis D. Brandeis paid little attention to legal argument. Instead, he focused on data produced by social scientists documenting the high costs of long working hours for both the individual and society.
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