Women's Roles In The United States During The Twentieth Century

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Moving Forward Michelle Oliveira HIS 204 George Aleman 10/19/2012 For centuries in America women were thought to be inadequate to that of men. Women were in charge of the cooking, the cleaning, raising children among other less than appealing tasks. Still today, many of these views have not completely changed from our society, but in the United States during the twentieth century, many of the roles that Americans had become familiar with began to change radically. Women wanted equality and fought for it not only at home but in the work place, in education and the military and in other areas as well. During the nineteenth century, when the Women’s Movement was beginning, many schools were established…show more content…
Before the war, in 1940 about 30% of the women workers were married. By the 1945, after the war, 50% of women workers were married. The ban placed by society on married women workers were lifted. After the war was over and men began to return home, the United States government started another adverting campaign but it was focused at having women returning to their pre-war status of working in the home. The government quickly gave up; women did not want to return to working in the home for two reasons: First, women would were underprivileged had to remain in the workforce to survive. Second, America became infatuated with buying more than the necessities. Women who did go back to domestic life went back to taking care of the children and home. Around this same time the television was introduced to into American homes. The whole family would gather around the television and watch, even the commercials were watched with great importance. Most American families could not afford the merchandise that was considered necessary by the television with one paycheck. Many families wanted to live according to the “American standard of living” so many women returned to the…show more content…
The draft being lifted and the Equal Rights Amendment focused attention on the topic of women’s equality in the military. Through out the 1970’s many barriers that stood in the way for women slowly began to fall. The Department of Defense increased their recruiting goals for women due the end of the draft. “In 1972, one in every 30 recruits was a woman. By 1976, one in every 13 recruits was a woman.”(History and Collections, n.d) Gender discrimination was a problem in the military and the Department of Defense knew that something had to be done due to the public presence of the Equal Rights issue. The Department of Defense decided to make weapon training mandatory. The Navy and Army decided to let women enter the pilot training in 1972. “Six women earned their wings and the designation of Naval Aviator in 1973.”(History and Collections, n.d) The Air force started allowing women in training in 1976, when men and women shared some co-ed classes. By 1978, the number of women in the Reserve and National Guard

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