20th Century Feminism

Women entered the workforce to compensate for the lost man-power due to the draft which was the catalyst of female emancipation. Women had their right to independence and freedom by entering the workforce despite the limitation of economic freedom, wage gap discrimination, and exclusion from a multitude of jobs. By 1920, 8 million women entered the workforce and were obtaining wages while a quarter of women remained housewives (700 Foner). Women were considered tolerant, meticulous and calm, having a woman at an office would make work more pleasant and satisfactory. Post war, women were encouraged to bear and raise children, be full-time housewives, and leave their full-time jobs for the war veterans. However, women of the 1930’s did not have free will or choice - their future was already defined: going to university to prepare for marriage and meet a man that would suit their family, get married, get a house, and have children. Women were not only responsible for the family’s wellbeing and for domestic organization, but their contribution to society expanded beyond house limits. Women’s role at the time should not only be seen as housewives and perfect mothers, but also as active individuals who played a crucial part in the construction of cultural life and of social activism in the thirties. One of the main transformations experienced by working women was the new image that they had of themselves. They saw that they could be independent and that made them increasingly confident in their capacities as women and as

When you think about women in the work field today, what do you see? A successful lawyer, a doctor, perhaps. That’s true. In fact, there have been more females holding high employment positions in the late 20th and 21st century than ever before. According to Donald M. Fisk in “Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2003”, 60% of working-age women worked in the labor force in 1999. That’s 41% more than that of 1900, where only 19% of women worked in the labor force. Among these women, a vast majority have seen their salaries sky-rocket in the past two decades, almost surpassing those of male workers. However, it is not always this way.

The period 1940-1975 represented a time of trouble within the United States and overseas. As World War II ended in 1945, many Cold war conflicts erupted shortly after that, increasing social controversy among teenagers, minorities and especially women. During this time period, gender inequality was ongoing in many aspects of life. Women were tired of constantly staying home engaging in domestic activities and were dissatisfied in their roles as “housewives”. The rise of the women’s rights movement was spurred by the growth of women joining the workforce, resentment of being treated as inferior to men, and the rise of unity among women.

The role of women in society in the United States has undergone dramatic changes over the past several decades. For instance, an increasing number of women have taken on new responsibilities besides the traditional ones at home and taken up paying work. Besides making up a lot more of the work force than before, more women are also taking up leadership roles and have also made great progress on health issues affecting women. While World War II and the feminist revolution of the Sixties did a lot to redefine gender roles in American society, equality has not yet been fully realized for women in America.

Even though it was hard for women to receive good paying jobs, in the book The American Promise is stated that “1/3 of all American Women held jobs by the end of the 1950s. However, full-time women workers earned only 60% of what the average male worker made.” (Roark 725) Generally people preferred traditional gender roles and the family life. Not many women challenged this preference society

Introduction Women play a humongous role in today’s society, but 100 years ago that was not the case. The evolution of women in the workplace, and society in general continues to change daily. Women started joining the workforce during World War 2 (the 1940s) to fill the positions of men who were deployed in the war overseas. Women were not seen as workers before World War 2; they were seen as stay at home mothers. Women were “supposed” to stay at home cooking and cleaning.

Feminism in the 1960’s-1980’s is a very different concept than Feminism in the 21st century. Back in the 60’s, feminism meant to fight for equal rights. Now, modern feminism means women-dominance. While the dictionary definition of feminism is “a range of political movements, ideologies and social movements that share a common goal: to define, establish, and achieve equal political, economic, cultural, personal, and social rights for women”, many modern feminists take this to the point of fighting for the “right” for women to dominate men. Many modern feminists support female superiority, rudeness, and demonizing men.

On the day June 10th, 1963 Former President John F. Kennedy had passed the equal rights law. One of the many reasons why he had passed this law is because; many of the women that were working were mothers. “At the time, one in three American workers was a woman–25 million women in all–many of whom were working mothers and/or the sole breadwinner in their family.” (History) Another reason is because of how men made more money because in the 1960s many people were against women getting equal pay because they are sexist. Many of the women who did work barely made and money to support their families.

When it comes to women and their rights many people do not know what they had to endure and fight vigorously for. With that in mind it reflects how people think about women and their rights, which is not very highly. The twentieth century was a vital period for the progress of U.S. women and how they are treated today. The part of the twentieth century that will be covered today ranges from the 1900s to the 1950s. I will discuss the employment of women in the early 1900s and speak about the conditions, pay, treatment, and other major obstacles that women faced. Along with that, I will discuss career mothers of the 1950s and how people perceived them. In closing we will discuss how women have made progress but equality has still not been presented fully to the women of the twenty-first century.

Through countless decades women have been struggling to be equal to men, both at home, politics and the work place. Starting back from the 1800s to mid-1900s, numerous women took time out of their day to step out and fight for what they believed in and that was women’s rights.  Women were gaining incredible ground amid the 1840s and 50s. They were currently permitted to make legal agreements, own property, control legitimate profit and have joint authority of kids. New laws supported widowed, forsook, and abused ladies. Women additionally framed numerous gatherings, which were the start of womens ' rights development. Women’s occupation by the mid-1950s, surpassed the peek accomplished in War World II.  Taking after this development of women’s ' work, a capable women 's activist development ascended in the 1960s and 1970s. The contemporary women 's activist development looked for and won more noteworthy lawful insurance for equivalent pay, more prominent assurance from abusive behavior at home, and a lawful acknowledgment of the privilege to a premature birth. Sexual standards casual as sexuality was all the more transparently communicated in film and famous entertainment. Linda K. Kerber (1988) quotes, “the ideology of republican womanhood recognized that women’s choices and women’s work did serve large social and political

The traditional “household” women were starting to become more of “factory” women, these women including young, single, white women. Women were the ultimate reason as to why the country ran so smoothly in the nineteenth century. With their efforts inside the home, including child-bearing and normal housework, to their work in industrial and agriculture economies, women helped the economy in extremely productive ways. Soon, the home would no longer be known as the economic center of America, and women would begin to go into their own “private sphere” of their world.

Throughout history the role of women has changed and become more unique. There have been women running for president when before women were told to stay at home. America has come a long way from what we have started at. There are many spectacular changes that have arrived before women. There are more opportunities and more changes in what women want. There have been many over time and most ideas ran wild in the stories over many periods, but three come to mind: Realism, Modernism, and the Contemporary Periods. Many believe in what was actually done to help women. There are many who believe that suffrage was enough. There are; however, the way books were written in the said periods. In Realism there are two stories “A New England Nun,” and

Throughout history there have been many movements in order to gain equal rights and equal pay for women. In 1903 the National Women’s Trade Union League was established to advocate for improved wages and working conditions, in 1920 the Women’s Bureau of the Department of Labor was formed in order to collect information about women in the workforce and in order to safeguard good working conditions for women, in 1961 improvements like fair hiring practices, paid maternity leave and affordable child care were recommended, and many more. Although women have achieved a great number of things there are still some problems in the workplace and at home. While women have been increasing their participation in the labor force they continue to be the

Did you know that women have been treated unfairly for centuries? According to the article, “Feminism Debate” by Issitt Flynn, the earliest documented women’s movement originated in the Roman Republic in the years 500-20 BCE. This fact matters because it proves that women have been treated unfairly for a long time. Men and women are equal and should be treated as such.

Christina Cauterucci (2016) introduced shocking findings related to current gender norms in America from a recent study that was published by Indiana University researchers. These findings indicated that rigid gender expectations related to household labor continue to persist in American families. These findings may have come as no surprise during the 1950’s. However, since the 1950’s social movements and organizations have emerged and focused much of their time on the unequal division of household labor in American households. For example, Lamanna et al. (2012) explained how the feminist movement developed in the 1960’s and made strides towards abolishing inequality between males and females in American households (p. 41). This movement was inspired by an interest in adopting elements from Karl Marx’s conflict theory to explain the inequalities of the American family. From here, feminist theory arose and was used to address power differentials between individuals of American families. Overall, the theory has largely focused on gender related issues that are rooted in the idea that American society is, in fact, a male dominated patriarchy.