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NATIONAL HISTORY DAY 2016
Immigrant Women and the
American Experience
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Elizabeth L. Maurer, Director of Programs, National Women’s History Museum
n the day Ellis Island opened on January 1, 1892, an Irish girl named Annie Moore became the very first person to be
processed through what became the world-famous immigration center. After joining her parents in New York, Annie
married Joseph Augustus Schayer, a young German-American who worked at the Fulton Fish Market. She bore 11 children, six
of whom died before adulthood; she died at age 50 in 1924. She never left New York’s Lower East Side, living the rest of her
life in a few square blocks that is today remembered as a notorious immigrant slum. Though Annie would not be remembered
if not for being a first, her story nonetheless offers insights into the American experience precisely because she was so
very typical.
From 1892 to 1954 more than 12 million men, women, and children entered the United States through Ellis Island and began
new lives in the United States.1 A little less than half of them were women and girls, most traveling with family members
but many arriving alone. They were part of a wave of immigration that transformed America culturally, economically, and
politically. Today one-third of Americans can trace their families back to an Ellis Island relative.2 Of course, Ellis Island was not
the only entry point into the United States, and migration had long been an established pattern, from the seventeenth century
to the present. New people coming to the United States over hundreds of years, exploring new places, encountering new people
and ideas, and transacting cultural exchanges created the national culture we know today.
Though women were integral to the chronicle, immigration is rarely thought of as a women’s story. Women have historically
accounted for almost 50 percent of immigrants and currently exceed that.3 While the “typical” immigrant’s nationality has
varied by time period, a consistent assumption has been that economic opportunity was a key factor behind immigration. In
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reality, motivations for migration have been more varied and complex. Gender has influenced women’s choice to immigrate as
well as their opportunities and challenges upon arrival.
mmigration is often characterized as the experience of assimilation. Successful waves of ethnic groups from around the
world travel to the United States. They start out as separate and apart from the dominant American culture, and then
within a generation or two are absorbed into the standard culture. This theory assumes a monolithic model in which culture
is unchanging and the new additions become indistinguishable from the old. In reality, American society and culture have
evolved significantly as a result of immigration.
The history of women and immigration is relevant to the theme of Exploration, Encounter, Exchange in History because
immigration involves crossing borders. Borders are lines of distinction. They can be physical, geographic, emotional, or virtual.
Crossing a border is an act of exploration. Once over a border, explorers encounter new people, ideas, or places. In some cases,
encounters result in exchanges, where new ideas, methodologies, or attitudes are adopted. In coming to America, women from
around the world over successive generations have explored what it means to be both American and their native identity.
While they have encountered obstacles and opportunities, their individual and collective contributions