Many people know and can explain what the importance of Ellis Island was to the diversity and development of the culture that makes up the northeastern region of the United States what it is today. What many people may have trouble putting into context without any outside help, like a timeline, is the fact that the surge of immigration following the Civil War and into the twentieth century happened almost at the same time as the Women’s Rights Movement in the United States, just give or take a few years. In fact, in the year 1900, there were a reported 8,056,000 immigrants from Europe alone (U.S. Census Bureau, 2017). That was just from Europe and only those recorded; there could’ve been more unreported and there were definitely more from other …show more content…
There were also many outspoken leaders that surfaced in the movement that, in fact, were immigrants or were born from immigrants. Those that had been born from immigrants had the tendency of being more supportive and emphasise with them, helping recruitment and support. One of these leaders was Rose Schneiderman from New York. She was born in 1882 and was Polish. She was also the leader of the Women’s Trade Union League, which was a huge known supporter of the Women’s Rights Movement. They worked for achieving gains for working class women (Historic New York Suffragists, …show more content…
The movement didn’t completely shut down; there were still conventions being held and state organizations still withstood. The reason for the dormant state was that they were running low on resources and there was a disinterest with the movement, as proved with declining membership numbers. It was during this time that immigration had swelled, and the public’s and government attention was shifted from female rights to the growing number of people and the conflicts that presented themselves (Frost-Knappman Cullen-Dupont,1992).

There were many female organizational groups that also shifted their attention from the fight for women’s rights to the growing conflicts being brought as it seemed from overseas. There was the internal conflicts of racial tension as well as the tensions of the incoming