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Essay paper about womens suffrage
Essay paper about womens suffrage
Essay paper about womens suffrage
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When one thinks of flappers, the first thing that pops to mind is the image of a woman dressed much like Carey Mulligan in The Great Gatsby (2013), bobbed hair, white fringe low-waisted dress, flat-chested and highly made up face. In the 1920’s, after the first world war, women’s roles in society began to change because they became more independent, both in clothing and actions. They defied the well-known appropriate feminine behavior and along with those actions came new fashions. They refused to live up to any rules, whether from their husbands or their society. Today’s modern women are the reflection of the 1920’s women. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald appraises the changing attitudes of women in the 1920s in his depiction of America’s first stubborn and fashionable new wave of women, flappers.
Before World War I, a woman’s life was centered around her family, home, and children. According to Bryant Joyce, in his article How War Changed the Role of Women in the United States, a woman was known as a housewife. She was known to clean the house, take care of the children, cook for her husband, make utensils for the house, mainly the kitchen and be extremely dependent on her husband good’s will. Most women ran home bakeries, became nurses, unlicensed physicians and midwives. They weren’t pay for their continuous works, only the men receive money for their outside jobs (Bryant).
Although they were denied political powers, many women served as coworkers helping their husbands. According to Louise Bennet, in her article Women in the 1920s in North Carolina, women accepted the division of political labor without question. Family has always been a women’s primary concern. To serve their husbands and elders, they were dressed ...
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...attitudes of the women in The Great Gatsby. Through flappers, women today are easily fit into society. Flappers inspired us, and it’s our duty to carry on the silent endless work of our freedom.
Works Cited
Bryant, Joyce. "How War Changed the Role of Women in the United States." Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute. N.p., 23 Aug. 2013. Web. 05 Mar. 2014.
Fitzgerald, F. Scott, and Matthew J. Bruccoli. The Great Gatsby. New York, NY: Scribner, 1996. Print.
Kim, Tae H. "Seattle General Strike: Where Women Worked During World War I." Seattle General Strike: Where Women Worked During World War I, 2003. Web. 26 Feb. 2014.
McCarthy, Ellen. "Book Review: ‘Flappers: Six Women of a Dangerous Generation’ by Judith Mackrell." Washington Post. The Washington Post, 18 Jan. 2014. Web. 26 Feb. 2014.
"The Roaring Twenties." BBC News. Modern World History, BBC, Web. 24 Feb. 2014.
“There was much more to women’s work during World War Two than make, do, and mend. Women built tanks, worked with rescue teams, and operated behind enemy lines” (Carol Harris). Have you ever thought that women could have such an important role during a war? In 1939 to 1945 for many women, World War II brought not only sacrifices, but also a new style of life including more jobs, opportunities and the development of new skills. They were considered as America’s “secret weapon” by the government. Women allowed getting over every challenge that was imposed by a devastating war. It is necessary to recognize that women during this period brought a legacy that produced major changes in social norms and work in America.
Before WWII, women knew their place. Carol Harris of BBC News says, “In the 1930s, social roles were clearly defined. A woman's place was in the home, a man's place was out at work. With the onset of war, everything changed”(8). While there were women in the workplace before WWII, their options were limited. With the absence of a large percentage of the young men, these options opened considerably. Despite the expansion of opportunities for women, women were still seen as disobeying social norms by working in factories or joining the Armed Forces.
Koussoudji, Sherrie A. and Laura J. Dresser. “Working class Rosies: Women Industrial Workers During World War II” The Journal of Economic History 51.2 (June 1992): 431-446
Before the war, some women worked in their homes caring for their children and tending after their homes and gardens. Others did do some more labor, such as working in factories, being telephone operators and in rare cases nurses. These were the normal jobs at the time and they required little to some labor. When the war started up little did they know the women’s work industry was going to be forever changed and viewed differently. In 1914 women started making guns, ammunition, and more in the munitions factories. The munitions factories were huge buildings where hundreds of women would work and sweat all day. In the factories they filled various munitions such as cartridges, bombs, screening...
Overall, Fitzgerald does a fantastic job in reflecting the 1920s society onto The Great Gatsby. He mentions discrimination, women changing, war, industrial revolution, prohibition, and every important part that took place during that era. The significance of the “new women “ is that to this day women now have the same rights as men and are now treated equally. In conclusion, events that occurred during the 1920s greatly impacted and influenced our society to the modern world we live in.
During the 1920’s, the role women had under men was making a drastic change, and it is shown in The Great Gatsby by two of the main female characters: Daisy and Jordan. One was domesticated and immobile while the other was not. Both of them portray different and important characteristics of the normal woman growing up in the 1920’s. The image of the woman was changing along with morals. Females began to challenge the government and the society. Things like this upset people, especially the men. The men were upset because this showed that they were losing their long-term dominance over the female society.
During the 1920’s women were fervently depicted as inferior to men and incapable of the success. In the novel The Great Gatsby female characters are subject to gender based stereotypes and blindly follow culturally accepted norms which dictate their place and position within society. The expectations placed upon the female characters to comply with the norms of society limit their potential to become successful in comparison to the male characters, who are successful in the 1920’s. Within The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald illustrates the female characters as socially and economically limited and dependant, due to the strong implementation of patriarchal roles of men in society. Women are confined
The nineteen-twenties were characterized by vast changes in every facet of American life like the automobile and prohibition, but most notably the introduction of the modern woman, or flapper. She was independent, wore more revealing skirts, smoked cigarettes and cigars, and even condoned dishonesty in all its forms, symbolizing the massive shift in societal norms. This flapper was the original feminist, advocating for female empowerment from the home to the dance halls of Harlem. These forward-thinking and feminist quality traits are key aspects of Jordan Baker’s persona in The Great Gatsby, ultimately leading to the destruction of her relationship with Nick Carraway.
...owards more love stories. Essentially more forms of propaganda ensued to let women know what they should be doing. More domestic jobs became available such as being a maid, restaurant work, dishwashing and cleaning. However women who worked war jobs wanted their own maids now so they could pursue their own dreams. They felt inspired and accomplished. Lola Wiexl mentioned that although skills within the workforce were easily learned, within the household traditions still persisted. Lola herself said she'd go home cook, clean and do the laundry while her brother laid on the couch. She didn't question it before but she was angry about it for years after her war time experience. Thus patriarchal hegemonies still existed after the war and were perpetuated by the government and media as much as possible to solicit women who participated in activities outside of the home.
As Mark Twain once declared, “What would men be without women…” This quote is clearly illustrated in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s timeless masterpiece The Great Gatsby. The Great Gatsby is the tragic love story of a poor man who falls in love with a rich girl and spends the rest of his life getting rich to impress her; however, in the end he dies alone without his love fulfilled. Although Fitzgerald’s novel is mainly androcentric, he uses several females each unique in their personalities to highlight the male characters, and to show that although people may have different desires, motivations, and needs they are not that different from each other.
Throughout Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby,” the role of women can be examined to demonstrate anti-feminism. Initially, Daisy is viewed as an innocent, loving character, but once her true motives are revealed, it is clear that she is very corrupt, desiring only money and power. This is used to show the stereotypical female who lives under the man for his possessions, and lacks the self-respect to stand against the opposite gender. She is not the only female to act like this, there are many, but her case is the most important because it directly influences all of the main characters. Gatsby is also portrayed as a stereotype: the boy who wants his true love and will do anything and everything to get her, even be accused of murder. Once each character
However, when the war was over, and the men returned to their lives, society reverted back to as it had been not before the 1940s, but well before the 1900s. Women were expected to do nothing but please their husband. Women were not meant to have jobs or worry about anything that was occurring outside of their own household.... ... middle of paper ...
During the Great War and the huge amount of men that were deployed created the need to employ women in hospitals, factories, and offices. When the war ended the women would return home or do more traditional jobs such as teaching or shop work. “Also in the 1920s the number of women working raised by fifty percent.” They usually didn’t work if they were married because they were still sticking to the role of being stay at home moms while the husband worked and took care of the family financially. But among the single women there was a huge increase in employment. “Women were still not getting payed near as equally as men and were expected to quit their jobs if they married or pregnant.” Although women were still not getting payed as equally it was still a huge change for the women's
...minant society of The Great Gatsby but the chauvinistic psyche of the narrator and the author as well. While both the narrator and author are male, it is only natural for both members to not only conform, but to uphold the ideal, traditional standards of gender roles in a male-dominant society.