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
Women were expected to marry, have children and financially they were expected to be fully dependent on their husbands. Women rarely had careers and most professions refused entry to women. However, between the years 1850 and 1901 women’s role in society began to be challenged. There were a number of reasons for this,
Women’s Roles Throughout the history of the United States, women have held many different roles in social, political and economic classes. Before the Civil War, a woman had a traditional role in the home, working as a housewife. The fight for equal and voting rights started but was unfortunately not continued until after the war. With new technology and industrial advances, women’s roles in the work force increased immensely and obtained many new opportunities. Although before the Civil War, women rarely took a part in society, the war significantly changed women’s roles in many ways.
(3) A man was in constant control of a woman and she had to be dresses nicely, keep a clean and orderly home, and teachthe children, upholding finances as well as being there emotionally and physically. It wasn’t easy for a woman to live with no sort of control over her life, that of her offspring or how she felt, the turn of the century must have been an enlightened adjustment. (3) Women Past Lived Page 4 marriedyoung usually to some other family that had some sort of political status or looked good for her family. The girls on the cheap side of town were usually not married until their twenties for they where need to help out with the farm land and around the house. Women could not own Women Past Lived Page 5 Female’sslaves remained slaves forever and never had real security.
Women were not allowed to vote in Rome, and had almost absolutely no say in the Roman government. Some of the few exceptions of this were the wives of powerful rulers. This is very different from America, starting in the early 1900s, with Jeannette Rankin, the first woman elected to the house of representatives, and the first woman elected to hold public office. Also, the education of women in Rome was extremely limited, especially nearer to the beginning of Rome. The opposite however, is seen in America, where there is almost no discrimination relating to education.
A woman’s role was looking after the home, and being a mother to her children. It was around this time when women began to rebel against the way they were treated in society. 2 – What metods did S. use? For over ten years the Suffragettes tried to get Parliament to change the law and allow women to get the vote. At the start of their campaign they held large meetings, shouted at politicians and wrote petitions to Parliament.
Women carry out the triple burden in the household; the domestic labour, emotional labour, and paid labour. As shown in the item most of this work is ‘unpaid and hardly recognised work at all’. Oakley argues the only way women will gain independence and freedom in society is for the role of the housewife to be removed aswell as the present structure of the family. Wilmott and Young believed the family is symmetrical and that both husband and wife have joint conjugal roles making the family a functional institution and their research showed that men do help women with housework. Radical feminists such as Dobash and Dobash also disagree with Willmott and Young’s theory that the family is symmetrical.
A widespread attitude was that women’s roles and men’s roles did not overlap. This idea of “separate spheres” held that women should concern themselves with home, children, and religion, while men took care of business and politics. A little before the 1920s women were strictly home ridden. They were to focus on the house. For instance they had to maintain dinner, cleaning, and maintaining of the children.
They were also anticipated to marry into a good family with money, most likely arranged ahead of time by the parents. Upper class women were forbidden from work and were strictly protected by their spouse. Middle class women in the same region during the same period were frequently housewives with no probable education. They were often the wives of mill operators and merchants. Depending on the lower or upper level of the middle class, women were able to be work as school mistresses, or not work at all and only take care of the house.
Over one hundred years ago, many people believed that a woman’s place was in the home, cooking, cleaning, and raising kids. Things have changed tremendously in America since the 19th century. Women now have rights that they didn’t have before. There are now plenty more opportunities available for women to succeed, unlike the 19th Century when women weren’t given any opportunities to do so. In the 19th century, women weren’t allowed to vote or run for office.