What Is The Role Of Women In The 1920s

Generations of women fought courageously for equality for decades. The ratification of the Nineteenth amendment was vindication for so many women across the country. After having spent so many years oppressed and unable to make way for themselves, women everywhere were growing tired of being unable to own property, keep their wages and the independence that an academic education gave them. The decades that ensued brought with them various female activists, men that supported them and a division of its own within the movement. The women’s suffrage movement lasted 71 years and cam with great discourse to the lives of many women who fought for the cause.

The entire Women’s Movement in the United States has been quite extensive. It can be traced back to 1848, when the first women’s rights convention was held in Seneca Falls, New York. After two days of discussions, 100 men and women signed the Declaration of Sentiments. Drafted by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, this document called for equal treatment of women and men under the law and voting rights for women. This gathering set the agenda for the rest of the Women’s Movement long ago (Imbornoni). Over the next 100 years, many women played a part in supporting equal treatment for women, most notably leading to the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, which allowed women the right to vote.

Women in the 1920s started to earn more respect and equality in society, mostly the right to vote. During this time, women had the opportunity to access higher education, minimum wage, better domestic living, and better healthcare. But women are still coming across challenges where they are submissive to men. Fredrick Lewis Allen introduces women as“... the guardians of morality; they were made of finer stuff than men and were expected to act accordingly” (Allen 129). Clearly, women were expected of something, but men were able to do whatever they so please to do whether it would be to hang out late at night at bars, drinking with friends, or being the one to have a house under his name and making his own money. According to Allen,

It was not until after the Civil War that these ideas started to change in America. “Dozens of women’s colleges were founded after the Civil War, and many formerly all-male colleges began admitting women.” (Shi and Tindall, pg. 569) By 1900 nearly one-third of college students were women (pg.569) In the early 1900’s women began to liberate themselves from the home, their social roles, and even some of their character traits. New public venues for female interaction were created, from charitable associations to women’s clubs. The increase of female interaction brought a means to change the lack of female influence in government. In 1869 the National Woman Suffrage Association was founded by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, which not only campaigned for woman suffrage, but also for new laws to make an abused wife get a divorce easier and for female workers to get higher pay (pg. 712-714) It was not until the spring of 1919 after WWI that the Nineteenth Amendment was passed giving women a Constitutional guarantee of their right to vote (pg. 775). Women gaining the right to vote was one of the greatest social developments that happened in America because since women made up forty percent of the electorate they had the capability to change the course of politics (pg.

Looking back with a historical lens, it’s evident that the fight for women’s rights has progressed in a step wise process. The nineteenth amendment opened a new door of opportunities for women to take advantage of. In modern times, the continued push for equal rights is evident through the fight for reproductive rights and equal pay. Even with the right to vote, women are still being under represented and out of control when it comes to their reproductive rights and in the workplace. Opposing beliefs regarding feminism have prevented the progression of more gender equality in the United States. What originally started as a plea for a political voice helped to shape the history of the nation. Women’s suffrage paved the way for countless groups and further feminist

In the late 1800’s to the early 1900’s, women played a significant role in social reforms. During this time, women fought for women’s voting rights. It took almost two years for the 19th amendment, women’s voting rights, to get passed. The 19th amendment was later passed in 1920. Once the amendment was passed, it unified suffrage laws across the United States. Because these women fought for what they wanted and stood up for what they believed in, they made history.

Up until the 1920s, women’s struggle for their right to vote seemed to be a futile one. They had been fighting for their suffrage for a long time, starting numerous women's rights movements and abolitionist activists groups to achieve their goal. “The campaign for women’s suffrage began in earnest in the decades before the Civil War. During the 1820s and 30s, most states had enfranchised almost all white males (“The Fight for Women's Suffrage” ). This sparked women to play a more emphatic role in society. They began to participate in anti-slavery organizations, religious movements, and even meetings where they discussed that when the Constitution states "that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain

The 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution granted American women the right to vote a right known as woman suffrage. At the time the U.S. was founded, its female citizens did not share all the same rights as men, including the right to vote. It was not until 1848 that the movement for women’s rights launched on a national level with a convention in Seneca Falls, New York, organized by abolitionists Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott. On Election Day in 1920, millions of American women exercised their right to vote for the first time. It took activists and reformers nearly 100 years to win that right, and the campaign was not easy: Disagreements over strategy threatened to cripple the movement more than once. But on August 26, 1920, the 19th Amendment to the Constitution was finally ratified, enfranchising all American women and declaring for the first time that they, like men, deserve all the rights and responsibilities of citizenship.

On the 18 of August, 1920, the 19th Amendment went through. The U.S. Constitution permitted American women to vote. Before the U.S. made these changes women had to suffer plenty to get the rights they have now a days. One of the biggest struggle was having the freedom to have a voice in the United States of America. This part of history is known as woman suffrage. The women in the U.S. did everything possible to obtain the rights they deserve.

Work Book 2002 states “Women’s group have changed many people’s views about male and female roles. These changes have affected the workplace, the family, and the way women live their lives. Through the vote, women’s groups have influenced election results and government.” (Donald 387). After gaining women’s suffrage, the National American Woman Suffrage Association became the League of Women Voters, which educated women voters about current political issues. Although the women’s movement died down after the 19th Amendment, it thrived once again in the 1960’s to combat against what was the considered the traditional house-wife’s role and fight gender discrimination. Two types of women’s, women’s liberation groups and women’s rights group, worked to fight against sexism in society. Women’s liberation groups were small, leaderless, and informal, focusing on self- awareness, equality in marriage, education, and employment. Women’s rights groups, on the other hand, were larger formal organizations compared to women’s liberation groups and sought the creation and enforcement of laws that promoted equal rights. The Women’s Equity Action League, a women’s rights group founded in 1968, discovered an environment where female students were often discouraged from participating in class, labeled the “chilly

The thought of independence became more intriguing. Being able to decide when you wanted to become a mother was now being looked at as a right. Birth control was first initiated in the 1920's by a public health nurse, Margaret Sanger. Margaret Sanger also contributed to women's emancipation. Although a lot of controversial opinions were originated, women still pushed for that right to give birth on their own terms. Despite the criticism the first birth control clinic was opened in Brownsville, Brooklyn. Sanger also wrote a book titled Woman and the New Race. The novel stated "No woman can call themselves free who does not own and control their own body". The option of birth control allowed women to be more in control of their lives which went along with the

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

birth control to keep the woman at work instead of in the home watching the children. However through the nineteen twenties the role of women change drastically, allowing women to think for themselves. Moreover, marriage was a thing of the past, most women stayed single, and after the man returned from war, the women were so used to their independence divorce rates went up.

War and revolutions demonstrated the centrality of the masses to modern life. With the collapse of autocratic governments from China to Germany, the sense of democratic potential based on mass participation grew. The condition of women came to symbolize the strength of the masses, which was reflected in the extension of the vote to many Western women during the 1920s. Modernizing the economy, while modern technology provided mass entertainment and news across the globe. For example, during the war, Japanese output of industrial goods such as ships and mental grew some 40 percent because the Western powers outsourced their wartime needs for such products. As Japan took shipping, financial, and other business from Britain and France, its prosperity

In the 19th century, women were considered mothers and wives. Women have struggled since the early ages trying to advance in knowledge. “For many people today the word Victorian continues to carry a connotation of prudery and sexual repression; it was an age that un questionably preceded the onset of “the permissive society”( Arnstein 596). Tracy Chevalier has examples of how women struggled in her novel Remarkable Creatures reflecting women. Woman in the Victorian Era were not recognized for their intellect; they wanted freedom, gender equality, and further education.