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Feminism
The feminist movement has influenced many changes in today’s society, including women’s suffrage, equal pay for equal work, and the right of women to make individual decisions. Since early times, women have had fewer legal rights and career opportunities than men. Women have been regarded mainly as a source of procreation.
The traditional view of women in society was to stay at home, clean, raise children, and to help with the family farm. Women’s suffrage is the right of women to vote. With e few exceptions, women today have the same voting rights as men. However, this was not always the case. In the 1820’s, men were in power. It was accepted that women were possessions of their husbands, and there for they had to agree with everything they said. It was believed that most women were uneducated, or stupid, so women were automatically assumed to be incapable of voting for president. It was also believed that because women were unschooled and ignorant, their say was unimportant. These are just a few reasons why women suffrage took so long to obtain. Only when the labor of women was needed in war time, did the federal government act on considering suffrage for women. Even though the suffrage movement progressed slowly, their efforts eventually had an effect on the government. “The movement brought the inequality of voting restrictions to public attention. This public attention combined with the heroic service of women in industry during World War 1 resulted in the passage of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, in 1920. The 19th Amendment provides men and women with equal voting rights” (Scott 2). After 90 years, the goal of suffrage was achieved.
Women have long been considered naturally weaker then men, and unable to perform work requiring muscular or intellectual development. In both World Wars, man power shortages brought women into occupations traditionally held by men. Ranging from...