Women in the Work Force- 1960s

It was very hard to get a divorce. The women who did work in that era were mainly secretaries and were not welcome in the workforce. The few that made it as doctors, lawyers, or engineers were paid a much lower wage compared to her male counterpart. After World War II jobs were overflowing making it necessary for women to join the workforce. It was the economy that forced women to be accepted.

Bradley declared, "The paramount destiny and mission of women are to fulfill the noble and benign offices of wife and mother -- this is the law of the Creator" . While many women may agree that the role of wife and mother is a noble one, most would certainly not agree this position would define their destiny. As many women took on a domestic role during this era, by the turn of the century women were certainly not strangers to the work force. As the developing American nation altered the lives of its citizens, both men and women found themselves struggling economically and migrated into cities to find work in the emerging industrialized labor movement . Ho... ... middle of paper ... ...ov/rori/index.htm, 2011 Santoro, Gene., Top Secret Rosies: The Female Computers of WWII.

The employment opportunities for women enlarged and women began to slowly gain their rights as full citizens, finally receiving the right to vote in 1920. The attitudes of the women in the work force also changed as time progressed. At first, they struggled for even the opportunity to work. As the century progressed, they became more active in union activities and, as newspapers from the period demonstrate, they fought to achieve better working conditions and better wages. By 1900, many poor and working-class young women, mostly of Northern white extraction, were leaving the confines and moral structures of their families and elders and venturing forth to the large industrial cities such as New York (Lunbeck 781).

The women fought so zealously for their rights it would be impossible for them not to achieve their goals. The sacrifices, suffering, and criticism that the women activist made would be so that the future generations would benefit the future generations. The oppression and discrimination the women felt in this era launched the women into create the women’s right movement. The economic growth in the market economy women opportunity to work was very low Lucy Stone explained that the same society that pushes men forward keeps woman at home (Doc. H).

Women in the 1970s began to challenge those established gender roles and deconstruct the engrained stereotypes of a male dominated society. According to the text “As more and more women took jobs, the importance of their paid work to the economy and their families belied the idea of women as dependent, domestic beings and awakened many women workers, especially labor union women, to the inferior conditions of their employment”( The American Promise2). From this excerpt we can analyze that women stepped over the perception that they were only useful for house hold duties and child rearing and actually took on the jobs that their husbands did. The women responsible for the enthusiastic alteration of policy reside in that of Esther Peterson, Betty Friedan, Pauli Murray, Mary King, Casey Hayden, as well as others very inspiring women. In regards to Esther Peterson, she was “Assistant Secretary of Labor... ... middle of paper ... ...on, it took the hard work of dedicated women to bring about a change in the American government when it came to sexual equality.

Before 1939, women were looked at as weak, incompetent and incapable of doing a man’s job. However, when World War II broke out, women were called to maintain the jobs that the men once occupied and t became evident that America’s best chance for success in World War II would have to include the efforts of American females. Women played a key role during World War II in the U.S. More than six million women took wartime jobs in factories, three million volunteered with the Red Cross, and over 200,000 served in the military. Through these jobs women were able to show society that they were capable of doing bigger and better things. Women also realized that they enjoyed this taste of freedom and wanted to continue this lifestyle even after the war.

The "glass ceiling" has held women back from certain positions and opportunities in the workplace. Women are stereotyped as part-time, lower-grade workers with limited opportunities for training and advancement because of this "glass ceiling". How have women managed their careers when confronted by this glass ceiling? It has been difficult; American women have struggled for their role in society since 1848. Women’s roles have changed significantly throughout the past centuries because of their willingness and persistence.

In the mid 1960’s, the seeds of oppression (which spread from earlier civil movements) were scattered and sown among other dissatisfied women. These seeds began to take root, and grow dramatically, initially within the context of the growth of more general and widespread left radicalism in Western societies. As a result, beginning about 1965, the second wave of women’s rights activists began to emerge with an autonomous agenda for female liberation. The movement’s objective was to secure equal economic, political, and social rights for women. The women’s liberation movement was composed of an association of women working together in a common cause.

This burning desire, to become free, emancipated, liberal, and to be able to speak freely of their thoughts was unsettling to many, and this resulted in several feminist movements, one being the Seneca Falls Convention which was the revolution of Women’s Conferences which then lead to female independence. “The Awakening” by Kate Chopin, connects with feminist literature because the author is trying to portray the life style Edna has made for her self and how she realizes her independence after she succumbs to the tradition of marriage. Chopin examines the principals of the female characters in their work and household duties and how they exemplify their lives around the issues women faced during the Victorian period. To put it simply, women in the Victorian period grew up with just one mind set, with only one view. This view pertained to being a good housewife and above all a noble mother.

Stanton is saying that even the scum of the earth had more rights than highly cultured women. In many aspects of life, women's rights were dramatically less than those of men. Women were not allowed to vote; yet they had to pay taxes. Women were subjects of their husbands, and expected to do all of the housework. Many women helped in the fight for women's suffrage.