Women were, essentially, wives and mothers to their children. Some of their responsibilities included preparing meals, cleaning, entertaining, having and nurturing children, and keep the home in order. Women were thought to be useful if they could bear a child, more likely a son. If the child were, instead, a daughter, they were a disappointment. A daughter could do nothing for her family for she was not physically powerful.
Some of the rights and opportunities that wanted was to re-educate men and women into a different way of perceiving women’s place and role in society. They aimed to promote better educational opportunities for women. They wanted an end to discrimination. They wanted an end to sexism and the exploitation of women. They wanted equality for women in the workplace, in society generally and at home.
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 downside is that the economy could not sustain having jobs available for both these men and women once the men arrived back home from the war. The view on women at this time made sure to put these women back were most believed they should be, which was at home, working as a waitress, or some type of cleaning
As we might say today, women’s ‘public image’ changed and improved,” says Constance Rover, a historian. Part of the reason why the war was key to women gaining the vote in 1918, was because of changing opinions towards women. “Surely a land fit for heroes to live in might include a place for a few heroines as well?” says Constance Rover. Women had proved themselves useful which was leading to greater equality with men. It would have been simply unreasonable to deny women the right to vote, especially now that women had more of a presence in society.
This provides your essay with a clear, structured argument. In 1918, the Representation of the People Act gave women over 30 the vote, if they owned property or were married to a property owner. The major reason for women receiving the vote has been a fundamental source of debate amongst historians. Whilst traditional schools of thought argue that women’s work during WWI radically changed male ideas about their role in society with traditional historians such as Ray suggesting that giving women the vote in 1918 was almost a ‘thank you’ for their efforts, revisionist historians, however, find this analysis too simplistic. AJP Taylor, for example, argues that the war ‘smoothed the way for democracy’ and so there are other factors of significance, such as, suffrage campaign groups (WSPU & NUWSS) and growing equality with men.
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. As upper class and middle class women had little advantages to their life, lower class women often had none. They were married to poor farmers, with no education and often had to work just as hard as their husbands, maybe even harder as they had a responsibility of taking care of the house and children. In some parts of the Western Europe, lower class women had to work in textile mills or various workhouses parted away from their families, working many, many hours. Double burden was also common at the beginning of 1900’s as women worked to earn money but also had the responsibility for unpaid, domestic labor.
Before World War I, women had few rights. But their experience in the Great War changed that forever. Their views towards life changed or improved, and by the middle of the 19th century, women were demanding equality with men. They wanted the right to vote in elections and an equal chance to work and get educated. They also wanted the right to have their own possessions, to divorce their husbands, and to keep their children after divorce.
Many debates have happened whether or not these women approach feminism for their time period. The answer to that is ambiguous and depends on how the reader takes in their writings. One can say that even though Wollstonecraft is so obviously pining for co-education, and in that way to be equal to men, she is not promoting equality for anything else. By not wanting to be equal in anything else, how can she be approaching feminism? Pizan so obviously from the start of her writing, introduces how women should behave (from the perspective of a princess), so that her actions shall be beneficial to her and her husband.
We know this as Agnes is reliving the tension she has built up. We can see there is an absence of male as the sisters throughout the play stick together as a unit “We both do” gives us the impression of stability of the mundy sisters however from the quote ‘Paint the house’. Sweep the chimney. Cut the grass. Save the turf’ this shows us how the Mundy sisters are trying to envelope the fact that they are not stable as in that society it was patriarchal and needed a man to run the household as Jack is unwell they are unable to rely on him so he is more of burden on them .