Compare And Contrast The Treatment Of Women In The United States During The 1930's

Gender defined roles are continuously adapting to the new societal norms of the era. There is a surplus of historical events that have reimagined the traditional expectations of a man or women.

How would you feel if you were a woman that lived in the harsh 1930’s? A woman’s life was very hard, and some people wanted it to change in real life and the book. Scout and the married women in To Kill a Mockingbird are pushed by the men to work hard everywhere without a reward. Women had many responsibilities at home and also when they were working. Women were expected to be a housewife and working parent. Women believed they were betting treated unfairly in many different ways from how much they get paid to what they can do in the “Real World” in the 1930’s south and in To Kill a Mockingbird. The women were not treated fairly and they were limited on what they could do.

In the 1930 's, the roles of men and women varied greatly. From the workplace to the home, the expectancies were different. Their behaviors were night and day. The views of both genders were also very different.

During the 1930s women is not treated equal with men and they are very different with each other. The amount of women actually getting jobs are less likely to men getting jobs. Fashion is also very different, women are in plain dresses while men are in blue denim jackets. Women during the Great Depression are actually depressed because they can not get jobs and their wages are half as as much as men. Men gets good jobs and amazing wages but at least both still got their fashion.

During the first World War I women were left at home to try and figure out how they were going to care for their families. Their husband, father, and brothers were sent off to war. Many companies around the United States were left with production needs and little to no employees to do the job. In a time period, where women are expected to be confident and independent, they had to also realize they had little to no power in society. They had societal rules that they must stay at home to cook, clean, and care for the children. With the men who were prominent in their lives coming and going from war. These factors caused the birth of a new era. This is the era where women were emerging. Women were changing by being more independent sexually and expressing their emotions through music, poetry, and movies.

The 1920s was a period of changes exactly as the Progressive Era. Everything was developing very fast. The economic boom caused a high living standard, therefore, people earned more money and wanted to live a modern life, in view of the fact that, they could afford it, especially in the cities which offered more stores, job opportunities, and saloons and bars for entertainment. People wanted to have fun after World War I, take a rest and just hang out together, for that reason it caused a moral decline, the enormous consumption of alcohol caused a lot of crime and women had a new way of living. The two biggest changes were the rights for women and prohibition.

“We need to reshape our own perception of how we view ourselves. We have to step up as women and take the lead.” This quote was said by Beyoncé, a famous female singer who embraces the woman she is. Even though gender inequality is present for women in both societies, there are many differences between the expectations of females in the 1930’s to females today.

Women weren’t treated greatly at all; they had hardly any rights where as men had many that women had no say in. One rule that was truly unfair was that a man could order any women to do anything he wanted. Women could not get an education because Confucius thought women didn’t need it. All they needed to know was how to cook clean and look after kids. They basically had no rights or privileges; they didn’t even get choice on who they would be spending the rest of their life with. There were some strict rules regarding marriage. Firstly Women didn’t get a say in who the married because it was worked our by a family member of the spouse, they had to marry a guy who was at least a few years older than him and they had to know less than him,

The 1920s had a big impact on American life all around; however, one of the biggest changes during this time period was in the roles of women. During this time period, women started dressing different, leaving the house, getting jobs, and gaining rights. On top of all of that, they had a bigger role in education, they began taking parts in politics, and divorce became more of a common thing. This may not seem like a big deal to people today, but this was very important at the time. Prior, women had next to no rights. They lived to wait on and please their husbands. Women rarely even left the house. This time period could be said to have paved the way for modern day feminism and women’s roles. This was the time period when they began to be free and stop worrying about how society thought they should live. However, the question still remains: Did the changing roles of women in the 1920s really have a significant effect on women’s roles today? In the next few pages, one will be given examples of women’s role before, during, and after the 1920s. In each paragraph, the roles, rights, impacts, and more that women had at these times will be explained. To conclude, a comparison on how women were thought to act in these different time periods will be made in order to come up with an answer for the question stated above.

Now in this precise year and day, you may view women as a strong and powerful person but was it always like that? In the 1920s, was the year women finally got the right to vote after all the campaigns made and reforms performed. In all some were still housewives while some felt the need to work in order to provide money for the family or themselves. Not all were married and had a husband to provide for them. Many obstacles had to be faced in order to be where we are today. Females faced inequality with men, but that did not stop them from accomplishing what they desired. Jobs and education in the 1920s were limited to women.

In the 1930’s women’s salaries were half that of a man’s. That would not be accepted in today’s society. Women were treated with very little respect and were not considered equal to men. For example, this treatment is the same with jobs. Women had less opportunity for work and were encouraged to be housewives. Many factory type jobs like, manufacturing was considered to be a “man’s job”. The roles of women correlated with their home life, job, and treatment. Modern women today differ greatly from the women of the 1930’s.

Women in the early 1900s did not have any rights and were oppressed and held against their will to many things, such as housecleaning or taking care of the children, however, they started to protest for, and eventually gain, the rights that were due long ago. Due to the traditional family structure, prevalent throughout the 20th century, women were oppressed and not considered full, independent human beings. Furthermore, the existing literature suggests that all of these accusations held against the government were true and woman were, in fact, oppressed. They protested for their simple rights such as, the right to vote or the right to work. Back then, it was known men held a higher position on the social scale rather than women, however,

American life prior to World War II may have not been the best from 1931-1939. Already in the Great Depression that started in 1929 people were left very discouraged and hopeless. In 1932 the economy was the worst it had ever been, it had hit rock bottom (p. 850). Many had lost their jobs and over 11 million Americans could not find work (p. 850). America was at its worst and people were hungry, suicide rates had risen and people were having less children than ever before. People’s reaction to the

1. The second wave is characterized by the issues of the Women’s Strike for equality which was a change to a world full of oppression. During this wave, women have gained the right to voting in 1920, and they could make up to the same pay as their husbands. Married women received the privilege to own a credit card without asking their husband for permission. The difference between this issue is that in the first wave the women were wanted everything to be gender neutral because they wanted to be equal just like men.The similarities in these issues are that the women got what they ask for especially with being intersectional and allowing men to expect them how who they

Change of Attitudes Toward the Role and Status of Women During the 1920's and 1930's