The Opportunities And Confrontations Of Women

During the early half of the twentieth century, the United States went through a period of financial crisis which became known as the Great Depression. To get the country out of this depression, the federal government under the leadership of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt devised the New Deal. This program provided economic aid in the form of job creation and training, as well as financial aid by creating federal programs such as Social Security and by providing accountability for the national bank system. Many people were saved from starvation because of the opportunities they were given through the New Deal. This included new chances for women to move beyond their socially-dictated roles and become individuals outside their married lives.

As the United States was continuing recovering from the Civil War and embracing the expansion of the West, industrialization, immigration and the growth of cities, women’s roles in America were changing by the transformation of this new society. During the period of 1865-1912, women found themselves challenging to break the political structure, power holders, cultural practices and beliefs in their “male” dominated world.

Through Women’s Eyes by Ellen Carol DuBois and Lynn Dumenil addresses American History from 1865 until present day. The third edition of this textbook includes visual and primary sources over several centuries. I used this textbook in a history course, “Women in the United States, 1890 – Present;” I found the textbook to be engaging, helpful, and useful throughout the course. The way in which in the information was presented allowed me to learn, assess, and analyze the difficulties women faced.

During the late 19th century and early 20th century, many American women began to feel a sense of hope that one day, they would achieve the same freedom as men had. However, women quickly realized that in order to gain the freedom they desire, they would have to change the social expectations of their time. History played a major part in helping change the social expectations, especially during World War 1 and World War 2, when women went to work and took on the jobs previously performed by American men who were fighting overseas. Many factors have contributed to the changes of social expectations concerning women’s roles in society due to the personal efforts of individual woman and groups of women who band together to fight for their independence

In the 1890s, American women emerged as a major force for social reform. Millions joined civic organizations and extended their roles from domestic duties to concerns about their communities and environments. These years, between 1890 and 1920, were a time of many social changes that later became known as the Progressive Era. In this time era, millions of Americans organized associations to come up with solutions to the many problems that society was facing, and many of these problems were staring American women right in the face.

The number of workingwomen increased by 25%. Perhaps the most iconic figure of the 1920s, the flapper became the symbol of a youth movement that championed new ideas about womanhood and appropriate female behavior. After the Great War, young women were unwilling to return to traditional female roles. Unfortunately, great numbers of married women still did not hold jobs, and roughly 10% of them worked outside of their homes. Among single women, there was a large increase in employment during this era. Some of the occupations that had always been weighted towards women were teaching, social workers, nurses, and librarians. Women who were working-class could find textile mills to be one example of factory where jobs could be found. On the farm, women helped out in a countless amount of ways, as they traditionally had.

The quest for equal rights is usually put into two different waves: the first wave being considered women’s suffrage and the second being the equal right movement. One big uprising in feminism happened alongside the abolitionist movement. Many women started to realize that, as they were fighting to get African Americans out of their version of perdition at the hands of their slave owners, that they themselves were slaves to the will of the men in society. Since many women petitioned for antislavery, the Congress in session at the time put forth the gag rule, which placed many of these petitions off to the side for “consideration.”

This article explains the history of ERA and all the consequences and effects that it had on the genders and their equalities. This article goes over the struggles with women’s rights throughout the 19th century, leading towards the victory for woman suffrage. Afterwards, the article transits to the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) and goes into depth as it describes how gender equality was nationally accepted more as time went by. This source maintains on the objective side, as it uses only facts that are acquired through the history of the ERA and just goes on describing how it affected the gender roles. This source is different from the rest of the articles because this article has good solid facts over one topic in history while some other articles are focused on the present statistics. I learned a good amount of history behind the whole ERA and the causes and effects of this amendment that soon impacted the nation.

The women’s rights movement was a huge turning point for women because they had succeeded in the altering of their status as a group and changing their lives of countless men and women. Gender, Ideology, and Historical Change: Explaining the Women’s Movement was a great chapter because it explained and analyzed the change and causes of the women’s movement. Elaine Tyler May’s essay, Cold War Ideology and the Rise of Feminism and Women’s Liberation and Sixties Radicalism by Alice Echols both gave important but different opinions and ideas about the women’s movement. Also, the primary sources reflect a number of economic, cultural, political, and demographic influences on the women’s movement. This chapter

The Equal Rights Amendment was a proposed amendment that guaranteed equal rights for women. It was originally writen by Alice Paul and Crystal Eastman in the late 1800's and early 1900's and in 1923 it was intorduced in the Congress for the first time. This proposed amendment divided many feminists on the meaning of women's equality. Most feminist who opposed the amendment thought that women weren't capiable of being seen on the same level as men and that they needed the certain benefits that were given to them through protective legislation. Women who believed in the Equal Rights Amendments believed that they were capible of being seen as equal members of society even if it ment losing protective legislation.

During the historical period commonly regarded as the Progressive Era in the 1900s, began with the First World War in which women joined the political field in extraordinary amounts. Women were incorporated in leading positions in an array of social reform endeavors, comprising of suffrage, equality, child welfare, and nonviolence (Haman, 2009). Women in the ear started to establish conferences; spoke at gatherings, petitioned government representatives, led marches and protests. Women were also involved in a multiple policies that, for the first time in U.S. history, provided them with a visible presence on the political arena (Haman, 2009). The lines that divided women’s household and public existence became distorted as women joined the

In 1917 to 1918, there was World War I, and the chapter talks how women became important to the world. In 1919, the chapter tells about how the formation of organization of women voters was formed. In 1920, the chapter shows how women finally have their rights to vote like men, and how congress ratified the law for them. All these three chapters are the most significant period of revolution for women position in the United States.

America is the land of opportunity. It is a place of rebirth, hope, and freedom. However, it was not always like that for women. Many times in history women were oppressed, belittled, and deprived of the opportunity to learn and work in their desired profession. Instead, their life was confined to the home and family. While this was a noble role, many females felt that they were being restricted and therefore desired more independence. In America, women started to break the mold in 1848 and continued to push for social, political, educational, and career freedom. By the 1920s, women had experienced significant “liberation”, as they were then allowed to vote, hold public office, gain a higher education, obtain new jobs, drastically change

Looking at American history, society has generated many ideas and values within their own generation. Each decade has contributed and shaped America into what it is now. It is obvious that 2016s generation is not perfect, and the constant debate whether America needs the revival of the 1950s “golden time” or 1960s “hippie movement” is highly argued. However, the 1960’s offered an opportunity for Americans to be able to express themselves freely with individuality and break away from the traditional “squares”. Women were able to fight against the 1950s stigma that women should be “stay home moms” and “obey their husbands”. Instead, in the 1960s women were able to empower themselves and seek a world with less sexism, and more independence. The 1960s also pursued a world with less environmental damage and more community –like the early Romantics –who emphasized on a world with its natural beauty and protection for its land.

The 1920s have long been touted as an age of female enlightenment, as women set a course of equality and cracked the foundations of women's sphere. Portraits were drawn of stereotypical '20s femmes; crimson-lipped, bob-haired and befringed flappers peering down their ivory cigarette holders at restrictive Victorian mores; stalwart, placard-toting suffragettes proclaiming the need for female political activism; fresh-faced college coeds donning crisp shirtwaists to tap out office memos on shiny modern typewriters. American women contested traditional views of the female as moral guardian and domestic servant and challenged the nation to accept their egalitarian beliefs.