The Sandra Bem Biography

After World War II, the nation was blooming. Everything was growing, people were going to college, and wealth grew. The idea of the perfect American life was developed, this included a husband that worked and a wife that stayed home and took care of the house and children. To look at how women are affected by this perfect life I am analyzing “Governor Adlai Stevenson Tells College Women about Their Place in Life, 1955” and “Good Housekeeping: Every Executive Needs a Perfect Wife, 1956”.

Women’s education in the United States made huge strides during the Progressive Era. However, along with those strides came negative reactions from not only men but women as well. These second generation women started moving away from their expected nurturing professions and instead started going into male dominated professions. Some of these professions were doctors and lawyers, just to name a few. Due to these career changes, women were required to have bachelor’s degrees and training.

Many women of the early 1900’s wanted to be treated fairly and equally to their male counterparts. For a long time, it was not even socially acceptable for a woman to work. As a woman’s job in society started involving be part of the work force, many

Many people think of education as a ladder of opportunity, a way for them to advance themselves and to escape their adversity. “Education” is a collection of stories that relays the educational experiences of the authors and their families in the 1940s-1960s, a time when education and certain career opportunities were not readily available for everyone. For some, bias and discrimination discouraged them from getting access to education. Women were restrained by the conventional view that women should confine to “traditional” careers such as teaching or nursing. Sandy Garrett recounts how young women in the 1950s and 1960s essentially had three choices upon high school graduation: nurse, teacher, or homemaker in “Strength of a Tall Oaktree.”

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.

An average, women during the 1960’s were held accountable for many responsibilities. Women led very different lives during this time period. Punctual, responsible, and reliable were just some of the many standards that were expected from society. At the age of twenty women were expected to be married; soon after they would become pregnant. Raising a family and devoting their lives to be the best housewives possible. Legally women made no earnings or any income for that matter. Child care and in vigorous chores were a part of their daily routine. Women had no say financially. Women had one duty, and that was to be a housewife. Men had all the control in marriages; after all they were the bread winners. Women were stuck in a vicious cycle of controlling and power hungry men. Comparing women from the 10960’s to the women in today’s generation is quite astonishing. The women’s rights movement fought for women to be free. Women no longer need to be chained to such degrading and depressing circumstances. Raising a family and having a husband is a beautiful goal most women dream of. However, we should also have the right to decide when we want to marry and to whom we believe is the right candidate. “Why I Want a Wife” written by Judy Brady raises a powerful message on women in the 1960’s. Judy touches upon the idea that women had constantly been expected to be in confined and submissive relationships. Brady perfectly depicts the

In the nineteenth century until the twentieth century, women lived under men’s shadows. In that time, inequality between genders was the most obvious thing that characterized the society. Women’s role was guided by men and was simply related to their domestic environment; nothing but a caring wife and a busy mother. Unlike now, men looked at women as machines that had to provide comfort and mind relax to their husbands even if their husbands did not provide that to them. To be specific, society in that time took the women’s right away from them; they cannot be what they want to be. However, in this Era, there were many writers, who wrote about this issue. On July 1, 1876, in Davenport, Iowa Susan Glaspell was born. Susan was one of those

If Elizabeth Cady Stanton was alive today, she would be definitely pleased to see the advancements of women’s rights, however, she would not be completely satisfied and probably disappointed to see that many of the issues she brought up during her time are still being dealt with today. Elizabeth Cady Stanton was highly critical of the sexual double standard and the lack of equal education for women. She believed that men should be placed at the same moral standard as women and that women should be given the same opportunity in education as men. Remarkably, women today have advanced far more in education than with the sexual double standard, however, the sexual double standard has come to collide with women’s education.

The first section of the WSCADV (n.d.) training discussed the background and history of the DV movement. This section began with an audio interview (Bell & Coontz, n.d.) with Stephanie Coontz, a professor of history at Evergreen State College. Coontz discussed the effect that women entering the workforce over the past century has had on the stability of marriages and families. In the fifties, the middle-class family in the United States was structured around women’s economic dependence on men. Women’s entrance into the workforce destabilized marriage for a time, but in the 1980’s, increasing divorce rates leveled off and began to decrease, and women in the workforce became (and continue to be) a marriage stabilizer. This finding, however, does not necessarily apply to low-income couples who experience more

Barbara Gaston was an old family/friend, who I didn’t have much history on. She grew up in Cincinnati, OH. She married at age 23 and defined herself primarily as a wife and mother for the next 20 years. She was a young mother and wife, which was not untypical during this time. She was the first born of four children, and later lived in a blended household. Her father worked in copper mines, logging, and road construction. While her mother on the other hand was a stay at home mom who took care of the children and did housekeeping. They lived on what her father earned, as credit was not yet established as a way to obtain personal object and things. She explained that if a woman were to work outside of the home at this time in history, they would have held traditional gender roles such as a school teacher, nurse or secretary. She came from a traditional religious background, as religious beliefs held their own expectations of being a woman, and how a woman ought to be, including sexuality. Her grandmother was also a stay at home mother, choosing not to go into the workforce.

As a woman myself, it is hard to imagine a time when I would not have been allowed to attend college, let alone be writing this paper. As children most of us heard stories from our grandparent’s about what life was like they were young. I can remember laughing at the thought of “walking up hill both ways” to get to school. With the liberties American Women have today, it is easy to take for granted everything the women before us fought so hard for. It is easy to forget the treatment they suffered in their struggle to bring us to today. In this paper we will examine the lives, struggles, and small victories of women that have led us to

Emilie Davis and Lillian Gilbreth may have been born approximately four decades apart and on opposite sides of the United States, yet these two courageous women established a method to succeed in a time when women were not viewed as equals to men. Although Davis and Gilbreth were influential female figures, they came from utterly different backgrounds and social classes. Not much is known about Emilie Davis and her upbringing. Davis was born in 1839 and the majority of her childhood was shaped by slavery. In May of 1878, Lillian Gilbreth was born in Oakland California to a social class very different than Emilie Davis’. In the 19th century and well into the 20th century, women were not treated equally and faced discrimination regularly.

Beginning with the college front Dorment brings to light that “nearly 60 percent of the bachelor’s degrees in this country today go to women. Same number for graduate degrees.” (Dorment, 698). Then transitioning into the corporate workplace Dorment claims that, “women earn only seventy-seven pennies for every dollar made by the average man” (Dorment 698). Dorment later states in the article that “60 percent of two-parent homes with kids under the age of eighteen are made up of dual-earning couples.”(Dorment, 702). Dorment then comments on Anne-Marie Slaughters’ article (Why Women Can’t Have It All). “Men have oppressed their wives and sisters and daughters for pretty much all of recorded history, and now women are supposed to trust us to share everything

With the rise of the modern age economic survival has become difficult for families based on a single income. This economic need along with modern attitudes toward gender equality has resulted in women being represented in the workforce in greater numbers. However, until the 1960’s women faced severe discrimination when trying to enter and maintain a position in the workforce. Often qualified women would be passed over for men with less experience and education. Employers were fearful that women were too emotional and were not equipped to handle the stress of the work environment. Also driving the decision to not hire or promote women was the concern over the additional health care expenses and leave time pregnant

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