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Gender inequality in the united states essay
Gender roles in america throughout history
Gender roles in america throughout history
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In the year 1960, women’s opportunity and equality was extremely limited. A woman was expected to follow path in which she had to marry in her early 20’s, start a family, and quickly become a homemaker within her conforming community. “They were legally subject to their husbands via ‘head and master laws,’ and they had no legal right to any of their husbands' earnings or property, aside from a limited right to ‘proper support’; husbands, however, would control their wives' property and earnings” (American Feminist Movement, 2017). Women were treated more as their husband’s keeper that cares for the children and the house rather than being treated with respect and equality. Women were oftentimes limited to jobs that would only express “homemaker” abilities, such as a teacher or nurse. Along with having limited job opportunities, women were paid lower salaries than men because the employer assumed women don’t have a family to support, unlike men. These limited opportunities for women results in the “second wave” of the American feminist movement. The first wave gave women the right to vote. The second …show more content…
These teenagers represented a large force in America’s population; they began to start college and reject the conformity lifestyle and values that their parents had set in place and cherished. Even if the entirety of the baby boomers were seen as rebellious, only about ten percent of the baby boomer population displayed the strong counterculture. While many of the baby boomers were focused on education or the war in Vietnam, the counterculture displayed such a powerful contrast of the previous decade. Although this counterculture was such a small portion of the population, the sociopolitical disparity of the counterculture was widely talked about and displayed through the media. These rebellious teens embarked on a lifestyle full of drugs, sex, fashion, and music innovation (“Flower Power,”
“The women know that life must go on and that the needs of life must be met and it is their courage and determination which, time and again, have pulled us through worse crisis than the present one.” This famous quote, said by Eleanor Roosevelt states how powerful women are especially in the time of need (Ware). Eleanor Roosevelt said this during the time of the Great Depression at an all woman's press conference which is a very big deal during this time era. The role of women changed in many ways during the 1930’s.
Like any important political movement, goals change based on situational urgency. In the 1920’s through the 1930’s, feminist women were suffragettes who fought for their right to vote. Alongside voting rights, feminists at this time were advocating for a shift in perspective, specifically a shift in the perspective of women’s roles in society. This ideological shift was as follows: “Women could be both a happy wife and mother and a successful contributor to the household economy”(Nicholson, 53). This ideological shift was necessary because America needed a female workforce while the males fought World War II. This period is known as first wave feminism, or as I will refer to it “first storm feminism”. Later on, feminist’s strived for more
In 1960, American women were limited in life and in the workplace. They were only allowed to "marry" young, start a family and commit her life to "homemaking" (Par. 1). Women had no rights to their husband's property or earnings. However, the women's husband would control their marriage, their property and earnings. Also, it was complicated for women to divorce their husband because women had to show evidence of their husband's injustice. Furthermore, as time progressed women became more independent, powerful and aggressive; providing their own income and waiting to get married and have children. In After the Death of the Father, Mary Daly demonstrates women's freedom is challenging the Christian views.
In the nineteenth century, in American society women were viewed as the safeguard of the home. Limited to the domestic sphere, women were considered to be dependent on men, emotional, with limited knowledge tending to deal with petty problems such as marriage and socialising. Their job was to look after the home and bear children. Men on the other hand, were citizen producers, family providers, rational, and were the owners of property. However throughout the 20th century this view was challenge by several significant forces, social, economic and most significantly political, which overtime has led to an immense change in women’s roles in society. A trend of women moving out of the domestic sphere has meant that women’s roles have been defined by things other than ‘domestic drudgery’. Between 1900 and the 1950’s women’s rights changes. This means that over all there was
Even after the “first wave of feminism” movement in the early twentieth century, women demanded a change in their roles in American society. Suffragists fought for the passage of The 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote in 1920, but later generations still sought for more. These women, who were the decedents of the original suffragists, would go on to create the “second wave of feminism” throughout the 1960’s and 70’s. This wave would go on to not only gain more equality for women, but shifted gender roles dramatically, in areas including the government, the workforce, and popular culture.
Woman in the 1930’s were treated very differently to how they are treated today. Unlike modern day, they were thought to be the perfect housewife, mother and carer and it was not easy for them to get a decent job. If they did manage to get a job they were frowned upon because they were ‘taking jobs from men.’ Which shows even though they were legally ‘equal’ due to them being allowed to vote. They were still seen as ‘inferior’ to men. Their expectations were to do the housework, bring up the children, cater to their husband’s every need and have all the responsibilities of home life rested on their shoulders, without the man’s
For decades now, women have been fighting to earn rights for political, social and economic equality to men. What made the diversity change many of the rights against women after decades of being treated unequally? The second wave of feminism started to evolve near the end of the second World War. More women were starting to achieve degrees to pursue a career which will provide them wealth and joy. The second movement mainly focused on gender equality such as voting rights, reproductive rights and political rights. Due to the feminism wave, women earned respect world wide by standing up to achieve legal rights and equality to men. Therefore, the second wave of feminism that took place in the United States during the 1960s helped bring equality for women in the areas of education, work and pay, reduced violence against women, and helped gain rights in their reproductive and political lives.
The 1920’s were an age of dramatic social and political change (“The Roaring Twenties”). For many years women weren’t allowed to fulfill many roles until the 1920’s came to be. For one thing, women earned the right to vote with the 19th amendment. However, another different topic, one of supposed fashion, was also popular. Women focused on the image of a flapper, where they wore short skirts, cut their hair into a bobbed style, and smoked, while leading a new lifestyle. Overall three topics that show the importance of the 1920’s are influential women, the 19th Amendment, and women’s life. All these topics explain how women took on new roles and influence that age.
Kuttner also agrees, “a lot of ugly realities were concealed by “traditional values”; the legal and economic emancipation of women was long overdue, and the task now is to reconcile gender equality with the healthy raising of the next generation.” (124). Before the 1890s, females had no other options but to live with their parents before marriage and with their husband after marriage. They couldn’t work and if they did, their wages were way lower than men.
As we look around at our women in today’s era, we might ask how did she become so independent, successful, and confidant? Even when I look at my own my mom, she was hired as the first woman to work as a manager at a fortune 500 business, and then created her own business. As well as my friends’ mom, who also has her own business in psychology; accomplishments like these must have originated from somewhere. The answer lies in the 1920’s. A couple years earlier, World War I was waging havoc, killing many men, while allowing women more freedom. The effects of World War I gave birth to the new women, also known as the Flappers, and inspiration for the 19th amendment. The flappers stirred up traditions and launched a new way of living. It soon became very apparent that the new women of the 1920’s helped redefine the social norms of society.
In the 1960’s women were still seen as trophies and were beginning to be accepted into the work industry. They were still homemakers, raised the family, and made sure their husbands were happy. That was the social norms for women during that time period. They were not held to high work expectations like men were. But something amazing happened that would change women 's lives for centuries; it was the 1970’s. The 60’s put the equality movement in motion but 70’s was a time of reform where women were finally able to control their own paths. Not only was the 70’s a historical marker for the fiftieth anniversary for women suffrage, it was also a marker for the drastic change of different social norms, the changes of the American Dream, and the
Back then women were not allowed to go to work. Most all women would end up staying home and taking care of their kids. In the article “5 things women couldn't do in the 1960s” by Katie McLaughlin, CNN says that “We want to be sure that women are used as effectively as they can to provide a better life for our people, in addition to meeting their primary obligations, which is in the home." Today women are allowed to get an education and a job of their yearning. As they get an high education they intend to work as good as men or even sometimes superior than
Imagine a woman's life during the 1960’s, being trapped in a house, stripped from their rights, and working behind a hot stove preparing meals for her family. In the 1960’s women were denied from all rights and restricted to receive the same amount of pay as a man because of their gender. The impact of the women’s movement in today’s society has played a role to women’s rights by allowing them to achieve their goals and dreams by receiving the authority to vote, and to receive the same responsibilities such as working, receiving education, and most of all to be seen as strong independent individuals.
Women were drawn into the work place in the 1960's when the economy expanded and rising consumer aspirations fueled the desire of many families for a second income. By 1960, 30.5 percent of all wives worked and the number of women graduating from college grew. (Echols, 400) Women soon found they were being treated differently and paid less then their male co-workers.
Society has always given more power to men than to women. Before the 19th amendment was ratified on August 18, 1920, only men had the right to vote. Before this, women were seen as the property of either her husband or her father and not her own person. They had to follow laws they couldn’t vote for, pay taxes on property they had no rights to, and could not get a college education. They were very limited on occupations, and what jobs they could work paid very little. Because of their limited opportunities and the gender roles of that time, many ended up as housewives. They were expected to do all the housework, cooking, and care for the children. If she did something that displeased her husband, he could beat or imprison her without any legal consequences (the National Women’s History Project, 1998).