Good Housekeeping: Governor Adlai Stevenson Tells College Women

The economic “market revolution” and the religious “Second Great Awakening” shaped American society after 1815. Both of these developments affected women significantly, and contributed to their changing status both inside and outside the home. Throughout time, women’s roles and opportunities in the family, workplace, and society have greatly evolved.

Beginning in the late 1800’s, the daily life of a woman was very crucial and consistent. Starting from early morning until dusk, the women would care for children, clean the house, and provide any other services they could. Throughout the late 1800’s, women were treated unfairly due to the women assisting their families, caring for children, and being an American housewife.

The treatment of the male gender role is altogether different from that of the female gender role, and this issue has turned out to be important. Gender roles were extraordinarily changed in the 1950s, with the men returning from war and taking their occupations back. Females had, throughout World War II, taken men’s occupations while they had been away at war. After the war, numerous women needed to keep their occupations. Instead, a considerable amount of them got to be spouses and moms as the men returned from the war. For example, the male spouses were away at work for most the day while the wives would need to do a decent measure of the manual work around the house. The type of chores could have been cleaning, cooking, or other tasks the female spouses handled. These adjustments in the home might not have been viewed as positive but rather they were for women. Ladies truly advanced in the fifties with finding new openings for work and discovering their place in the world. Therefore, two articles explain further in detail about the

Essay: How Life Changed - Women From the late 1800’s to the 21st century, the life, position, and experiences of women in the United States have changed dramatically. A century and a half ago, women were seen as inferior and incapable of doing many of the things seen as to be done by men. One of the biggest changes seen is in a woman’s ability to have the social stance of providing economically for herself and her family. Before the 21st century, women did not receive as much education as men, generally stopping before high school to learn how to keep a home.

During the 1950s and 1960s, there was a period of unhappiness that affected American housewives across the nation. For years leading up to this, women had been conditioned to find academic careers unfulfilling and were instead taught to find happiness in becoming committed housewives who were heavily involved in their community. If a woman had a problem, she assumed it had something to do with her marriage or herself. Women were told that they should be grateful and just accept their role as a submissive housewife. These women felt unfulfilled by their lives, which manifested in deep dissatisfaction.

Before 1939, the “ideal woman” was the devoted housewives whose sole purposes in life was to be devoted to her husband, raise the children, and keep a tidy house. However, all

So, with the struggle of the American dream at hand, the role of a female in America changed for the better. The new young American woman was no longer rushed to get married. “Between 1880 and 1930, a bachelor

The post-war era had shaped society into conforming gender roles, where the normal family consisted of men that worked and women staying at home. It was not until 1963 when Betty Friedan’s book, The Feminist Mystique, started a new wave of feminism and women’s liberation from the suburban housewife role. Friedan was very critical about women and professional work, as she states in her book, “In the late fifties, a sociological phenomenon was suddenly remarked: a third of American women now worked. But most were no longer young and very few were pursuing careers. They were married women who held part-time jobs, selling or secretarial, to put their husbands through school, their sons

In the 1800’s, the women responsibilities were to maintain order in the house, protect and discipline the students. In the 21st century, now women are not just responsible for cleaning, cooking and discipling children, instead women can now work and impose some of those tasks on their husbands. In the story “Our Deportment, or the Manners, Conduct, and Dress of Refined Society”, as the home is considered the “woman’s kingdom” and that it is the women responsibility to “make the lives of her husband and the dear ones committed to her trust, is the honored task which it is the wife’s province” (Gutenberg 1), most of their time is spent in the home making sure the home is kept under control and ready to serve her husbands and children. In reference to the speech by Emma Watson, she states that “we need to end gender inequality” (Watson 1), which in the 21st century it is coming closer to reality. Women now don’t have to remain at home all day, they can now work just like men and provide for their families the same way men do.

Maria strongly supported female education. Maria believed that men and women are equal, and should be treated that way. Maria Mitchell grew up in a Quaker family, and they believe in education for both genders. So, Maria’s parents also strongly supported equal education. Maria’s father worked at a school, and then founded his own school. Maria Mitchell wanted to prove to women that their gender doesn’t stop them. She never used the excuse that she was a woman, and never assumed that she was not capable of doing something. The Nantucket Scrap Basket, a book about people from Nantucket by William Macy, said that once “A gentleman who still cherished the theory of woman’s incapacity for any attainment not purely domestic, once asked Prof. Mitchell if she did not think that the delicate organization of woman unfitted her for the irregular hours which the night work in astronomy necessitated. “Sir,” Miss Mitchell replied, in her deep masculine voice, “my mother had more night work than astronomy will ever demand of any woman. She brought up eight children” (Macey). Maria was recognized as being hard-working and determined, and therefore went on to be the first women elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Philosophical Society, and the first professor hired at Vassar College. This proved to women that females have the capability and capacity to do the same as men. “Do let us have equal rights for

Judy Brady, talks about how the perfect wife for a man need to be. Although, the times changed and now is more equality between the women and the men. There are still men who follow the customs of their parents, so they will in the same way at the women. For example, in some cases the woman is still the one who cleans the house, take care of the children, and take care for the husband. all this happens because the man makes it appear that the woman has less right them. Society has changed the way of thinking about equality, but it still remains a problem when it comes to taking roles. Now some of the women have made their way to the same level as the men because it has been seen that in some cases the woman is the one who gives the money to

In an essay by Judy Brady titled “I Want a Wife”, Brady discusses the typical gender dynamics of her time period (the 1970s) and challenges them. She essentially says that women are treated like they are inferior to men and so she says that she wishes or wants someone to fulfill her duties for her just like she does for her husband. This essay shows the struggle to gain equality in this time period and also represents the thoughts that a woman in this time period might have. Not only is the meaning behind this essay significant, but the way in which Brady presents it is also significant and it amplifies and strengthens the argument. This is proven by textual evidence found in the essay itself.

In this satirical article, Brady expresses the difference between the roles of women and men in the 1970’s by stating men’s point of view on women and women’s roles in society. Throughout her article, Brady emphasizes the roles of women. For example, women could now “work and...takes care of the children when they are sick”. Comparing the 1880’s to the 1970’s, there has been a big improvement. Many women had jobs outside their home, but still were responsible for most housework and childcare while their husband’s only responsibility in a marriage was to go to work and earn money to support the family. Society’s expectations allowed women to work outside the home to support college education for husbands; however,women had to know how to balance their time between their children and their jobs, making sure that their husbands “cannot miss classes at school.” During the 1970’s, women were still oppressed in many ways and had to follow society's expectations in order to live up to the men’s view of women’s roles in society. Even though society’s expectations of women had improved since The Awakening, most of women’s roles had stayed the same. In the article, Brady specifies how once a husband is “through with school and has a job, [he expects the] wife to quit working and remain at home so that [she] can more fully and completely take

Throughout history the roles of women have changed dramatically. Since the 1950’s, women have slowly but surely evolved into the individuals one sees today in public offices, law firms or even the five o’ clock news. However, this evolution did not occur over night. Although women in the 1950’s and today have dealt with similar stereotypes, today life has greatly improved because women aren’t as pressured to get married, are taken more seriously in the business world, and are even making as much or more money as men.

If one were to look in to the trend of working women in America, it would be flabbergasting to see how far they have come since the 19th century. Working women have become a dominant force in the workplace. According to recent analysts, women now control 50 percent of the paid workforce (Pollitt). It is no surprise then that divorce rates have been steadily increasing directly proportional to the divorce rate. There is a clear relationship between the success of women in America and their ability to live independently. Due to this newfound independence, many women no longer feel trapped in marriages that they are not happy in or that they are being either physically or verbally abused. With nearly “80 percent [of women] contributing a major chunk of family income” (Pollitt), it is clear that women have now set the benchmark in equality. They are no longer