These historical events changed people's views and attitudes towards certain parts of their life, this included marriage, love, social class and women in general. In the 19th century marriage for women was based on wealth and social status as well as pressure from family to wed, women were also a sort of 'legal slave', they did whatever their husbands told them to do, all of their assets were given to them directly after marriage (they had no independent wealth) and their main role was to bear children. This
He warns women against vocations of preaching or politics, explaining that they can influence public opinion in their homes and communities.” They were strictly housewives and were destined to raise children. As the Industrial Revolution began, the women became more active in the labor force. The Industrial Revolution seemed to be a turning point for many women. Due to the Civil War and the start of the Industrial Revolution, women became involved in more labor-intensive jobs. Although the Industrial Revolution started before the war, with men leaving to fight for the Confederacy or the Union, women needed to start taking the places of men.
The Progressive Era The decades between 1890 and 1920 was a period of vital reform activity that historians have called, The Progressive Era. In this era millions of Americans organized in voluntary associations to come up with solutions to the many problems. Industrialization, with all its increase in productivity and the number of consumer goods, created unemployment and labor unrest, wasteful use of natural resources and abuses of corporate power. Growing cities added to the problems of African Americans versus The Social Sciences American segregation was a bitter part of American history. Even worse, though, are the securing reasons for the need of segregation and the defense of the institution.
Romantic authors were a diverse group of individuals, with a variation of backgrounds, religious beliefs and individual points of view. The Industrial Revolution in Britain saw the migration of rural citizens into towns and cities, causing overpopulation and poverty, as manufacturing developed because of new technology. The societal class structure was changing rapidly and a new wealthy class was beginning to emerge through trade. The French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars influenced writers during this era as they began to question societal values; choosing to explore ideas of liberty and equality. Austen's writing was arguably influenced by social and economic transformations during this time.
Anyone can get ahead: a member of the lower class can ascend to fellowship with his upper-class brothers, a poor immigrant can become wealthy and successful. This statement, however, is not entirely true. In 1902, the year in which Ragtime is set, class and gender are two barriers that must be overcome to achieve the American Dream of upward mobility. We see this in the economic opportunities provided to women in twentieth century America in the jobs to which they were assigned and the wages they were paid, which both reinforced the difference between the sexes. Furthermore, a woman’s sexual
However, what or who caused these reforms to happen? The 1800’s were a time of liberal reform in Britain. These reforms came as a result of two things: the French Revolution and the Industrial Revolution. Although the industrial revolution had made Britain the most powerful nation in the world; it also led to many workers working eighty hour weeks in terrible labor conditions. Before the reforms were passed by Parliament, Britain was controlled by wealthy landowners and aristocrats.
A victory party was held by suffragist societies at the Queen’s Hall in March 1918. However, there were women who still saw the act as a betrayal as it still classed them as second class citizens to men. The 1918 Representation of the People Act gave all men over the age of 21 the right to vote (and aged 19 if the men had been on active service in the armed forces). Therefore, politically women were still not the equal to men in Britain even after the 1918 act. Women achieved full equality regarding suffragein 1928.
In one of his most well known works “Letters concerning the English nation”, Voltaire contrasts the overbearing French government with the English government. He believed that the French government had more social barriers that kept the lower classes from ever moving up or getting rich through hard work. Instead, people were stuck in the class that they were born into. Voltaire could see that the government inherently favored the aristocracy and wrote "In general, the art of government consists in taking as much money as possible from one class of citizens to give to the other. "(Dictionnaire Philosophique) The French government did their best to keep Voltaire's writings out of the hands of the common people, however his views and philosophies became widely known in France.
‘The Tsar Liberator’ How valid is this description was this of Alexander II? In 1855 Russia was ruled by Alexander Romanov in the form of an autocracy in which the Tsar had absolute power. During this period the economic situation of the country was is ruins, due to the increasing size of the population in 1855 the population was 70 million and in 1900 it grew to 130 million, therefore the already limited 6% of ideal farming land throughout Russia was strained, by the vast amount of mouths to feed. In addition the Russian industry was considered backwards due to Britain leading the industrial revolution it was known as the workshop of the world. Furthermore the social climate fared no better with 80% of the population consisting of peasants, there was a huge divide between the rich and poor.
Conflicting Classes: The Strife Between the Working Class and the Wealthy in Great Expectations Friedrich Engels once said, “All history has been a history of class struggles between dominated classes at various stages of social development.” These words have proved themselves to be true time and again throughout the journey of civilization. Nearly all societies in history, from ancient Egypt to present day United States, are based upon a definite and binding order of social class. This harsh reality was certainly true for one of the most analyzed periods in history, Victorian Era England. It was during this age that author Charles Dickens chose to base his dramatic and groundbreaking novel Great Expectations. Considered a lasting classic, this story tells the tale of an orphaned boy named Pip, who after living a cruel and unfortunate childhood, comes suddenly into a magnificent fortune, and is embedded with the great expectations of leaving his lowly village, and becoming a high society gentleman.