Pat Barker Regeneration Analysis

and his comrades cannot. He says to Graves as he is seeing him off at

Regeneration by Pat Barker The war in 'Regeneration' is explored 'back home'. Rather than portraying the war in terms of fighting on the frontline in the battlefields of France, Barker demonstrates the effects on the soldiers 'back home', both physically and mentally. The soldiers are those who have been injured, shell-shocked, or had a breakdown and are being treated with the intention of sending those who are able, back to France or at least resuming some kind of war duties. The war is explored, essentially in terms of the psychological effects of those who fought it.

When manufacturing plants started booming, they found business. Women became valuable factory workers because of their ability to complete complex tasks in the work place. Also, having willingness to labor for an inexpensive pay rate because they were in need boosted their chances of employment. In fact, employers needed them and were happy at the fact that they weren 't too costly to hire. In the document, Morals of Manufactures (1837), it states, “Many of the girls are in the factories because they have too much pride for domestic service.”(Chapter 9 Page 223) As stated before, women were looked over as far being capable of anything else other than a house wife and or mother. Some women worked for pay, as well as to prove that they were more than what society labeled them. This allowed women to make their own money and not be forced to completely live off their husbands. Also, this gave women a freedom and sensibility to become more independent.

Most of the women who did have jobs were in working in factories or other low paying jobs. They also had to get a full education just to be equal with a man who only graduated from elementary school. Women could do the same job as a man and work just as hard but would still only get about half as much of a pay as a male. Even though women could be just as good at there job or sometimes even better at their job they would never be payed the same amount. Women and men were not treated equally in the workplace.

According to statistics, there are disparities with pay in the workplace. Men are paid more in wages, comprehensive packages, and benefits than women who performed the same job responsibilities and roles in the workplace. The big question is why are women being unvalued? Since, this is a common practice in the workplace, is this fair to both genders and is this the most favorable outcome for the greatest number affected by this business practice? The Equal Pay Act of 1963 was passed to eliminate this type of discrimination based on sex with paying wages to employees, in such establishment at a rate less than the rate at which pays, wages to employees of the opposite sex for equal work on jobs the performance of which requires equal skill, effort, and responsibility, and which are performed under similar working conditions.

Ninety-five years ago the nineteenth amendment was passed giving women in America the right to vote (America’s Historical Documents), this was a pivotal step for women rights. Since then women’s rights have increasingly advanced throughout America: in politics and in the workforce. In fact “women today make up almost half of all worker in the United States” (The State of Women in America). Sadly though, women are paid less than males in the workforce. "Women in the United States are paid only 77 cents for every dollar a man makes" (The State of Women in America). One question that derives from this topic is: why are women still not getting paid as much as men? Women should get paid as equally as men do. A fair argument to make against the topic is the difference in the types of work a woman and a man does (Debate). For example in construction men are tasked with most of the heavy lifting as opposed to a women that do not have as much

An example of one instance when women were working in factories was in WWI where many of the men went to war. During WWI, women had the opportunity to work in factories making munitions for the war. At first, it actually gave women the feeling of freedom and made the push for equality for women to have the same rights as men move forward, although the push to have more women in the workforce really started after the war ended. At that time, many of the women were sent back into the home setting. This action of taking away women's freedom upset many hard-working women who did not want to leave the manufacturing work environment. Even today, equal rights for women in the workforce is still a very heated topic for those who believe that women are still not treated

Even though women had same jobs as men, they did not receive equal salaries in the 1940s’. In these times employed women have traditionally fought for higher wages and better working conditions without the support of the trade-union movement. The campaigns of female workers led to the passage of the Equal Pay Act in 1970, which applied to the public and private sectors where men and women were engaged in the same or broadly similar work. As women have increased their participation in the labour market, their earnings have also increased. Median wage and salary income in 2010 dollars increased steadily for women in the U.S., from $7,352 in 1940 to $21,323 in 2008 (Appendix 1). In contrast, men's earnings peaked in 1970 at approximately $35.000;

"Regeneration" was written by Pat Barker, a university-trained historian and this is confirmed by the presence of very reliable sources in the "Author's Notes", at the end of the novel. It was written the 1980's which has enabled her to gather a lot of information about the war. Pat's grandfather had been bayoneted during the war, and Pat would see his scars when he went to the sink to wash. His experiences in the war made influenced Barker's understanding of the period, making the effect of the war more immediate and personal. She attributes her immediate inspiration for "Regeneration" to her husband, a neurologist, who was familiar with Dr. Rivers's experiments on nerve "Regeneration" in the early twentieth century, yet she chooses not

By the late 19th century and early 20th century women were more involved in the workforce. They were doing domestic service, working in factories, workshops, tin and coal mines, farms, etc. Many of the jobs that women were doing required a lot of physical labor, and even though they still wanted or needed to have these jobs they weren’t compensated with a proportional wage. What they received was looked as a second earning for the household and the men of the house whom had far more “skillful” jobs required a higher pay. Truth is, women were the ones doing the difficult jobs and working more than the men were but that was of no importance but to women themselves.

Despite doing the same jobs as men, they were still paid considerably less. In 1917, over four hundred women who worked in munition factories died from overexposure to trinitroluene, a chemical compound that is used in explosive weapons. Their skin turned yellow from this chemical as a result of not being provided with proper safety equipment and clothing. Working in munition factories put their lives in danger, however, women still excelled while making weapons for war. Their success gave them the opportunity to show their contributions to their

Although the Equal Pay Act has paved the way for many successful businesswomen, the majority of women still do not earn equal pay for equal work. The Equal Pay Act of 1963 has done

A boost in economic benefits wasn’t the only effect of the industrial revolution, it also brought about social changes. Before factories and machines, women weren’t viewed as being able to do the same job as men. They were seen as housewives and this assumption remained the same until the rise of factories and industry. For the first time, women were able to work in the same factories as men. However, women were paid less than men because society at that time still viewed them as inferior to men. Although you could still see this policy in some societies today, women are now able to work in the same positions as men because of the circumstances that were brought by the rise of industrialization and factories. Also, thanks to mass production in factories, the rule of supply and demand allowed people to afford new things as stated before. Such an effect is shown in Document 7 in an excerpt from The Working Man’s Companion published in 1831. It states how people are surrounded with an infinite number of comforts and

Women were not immune to this type of unfairness. Many women went to work in textile factories or domestic services. Having women work and still being expected to raise a family had a very negative impact on the growing families. Because women were still less than men during this time, no matter what job a women was put in, she would receive less pay than a man. This inequality led to many members of the household going into work as soon as possible to help support the

”My own mother always taught me that fairness was a family value - I think equal pay is about fairness for everyone” (Honda). For years women and men alike have been fighting for equal rights. Lately in society, the issue of equal pay has gained popularity, and rightly so. For every 41-44 hours of work a week, women only earn 84.6% of what their men coworkers earn for the same amount of work. My family experienced this firsthand when my mother worked at Phoenix Technologies as a Purchasing Agent. She worked 50-60 hours a week and earned an estimate of 20% less than the men working the same