Women went back to working at home and jobs were taken over by men again. They say that World War One did very little to change the position of women in Britain. The truth is that World War One did change the lives of women but the extent was limited and their role in society was never the same as it had been before 1914. It is important to remember that if it wasn’t for their protest and demonstration before, women’s rights wouldn’t have been on the agenda of the government and change would have taken much longer. With so many young men enlisted in the army, the role women played was crucial, not only to the war
1 Women’s lives after the two world wars changed, but there is some debate as to how much it changed. Their lives changed politically, with women gaining the vote, they changed in terms of employment, as they were now permitted to join certain professions and they also changed socially as a better way of living was set out for them. It is argued that women were given greater opportunities after the wars due to their exceptional participation on the home front. However, many historians believe that this change in women’s lives was simply due to the changing times and the progression in society. The historical debate surrounding this topic is wether women’s lives really did change greatly after the two world wars, or wether their lives simply went back to the way they were before the war started.
When the war broke out in August 1914, thousands of women lost their jobs in dressmaking, millenary and jewellery making. Many were in the search for work and wanted to help in the war effort. The introduction of conscription in 1916 led to an increase in the number of women employed in all sectors of the economy. Women gained access to a whole range of jobs that had been previously preserved for men and many questioned whether women were fit to do the work. Although women proved themselves to be hard working and just as capable of doing work as the opposite gender, many also struggled due to the work being dangerous and the poor safety regulations at the time, as source A8 shows.
Many middle class women were unhappy about this, and after the freedoms and empowerment of women during Weimar they did not like the new constrictions – it seemed almost like a step back for them. However, financial incentives were given to women to stay home and have children, and awards were granted depending on how many children a woman had – the more children, the higher ranking the award. They were told that it was their responsibility to provide soldiers for the future. As a result of this, many more women became mothers than might have down normally. Married couples were encouraged to divorce if their partner was infertile and many women joined Nazi women’s organisations.
In a way this moral and legal discrimination is equally a big issue in the 21st century. Often it is harder for woman to find a job than a man and there is still a big issue with woman experiencing the ‘glass ceiling’. This shows that even the changes done in the Victorian era to help woman are still not enough and that adjustments need to be made. Although I do believe that the new laws had great impact in helping woman be considered more human and were very beneficial. The changes included that in 1857 if men were violent, wives could divorce; in 1870 woman could keep their own money; in 1891 wives were no longer forced to stay with their husband as they
Women were able, furthermore, to stand as candidates in local elections by 1888, enabling women to challenge opposition views that had always denied them their rights, and the increasing roles of women in society indicated greater social acceptance. However, limitations persisted in that these responsibilities were seen as ‘domestic’ and women were still openly denied the parliamentary franchise. In addition, these crucial changes remained restricted to only middle class women, thus losing crucial support from working class women who had already established highly developed unions. Hence, the Radical Suffragist Party focused on working class women thus ‘radical’ for these views. These contributed to social reform through peaceful means and set up successful women’s trade unions which created equal rights for women in payment and working hours.
Kaitlyn Mann, Allie Vincent, and Kyleigh Sikora Where Flappers Really That Different? The twenties brought many changes to the American way of life. Black people started to fight for equal rights, new technology was making it easier on the everyday house wife, and the fashions were also changing. Along with all of those changes the society changed also. But one of the biggest changes was the way women were viewed and the way they had changed.
The Women’s Right Movement changed the lives of the American Women for the better, due to gaining the right to vote, access to higher education, and the opportunity to enter the workforce. Before the reform movements of Women’s right, the American women were discriminated in society, home life, education, and the workforce. Women in the 1800s could not only vote, but they also were forbidden to speak in public. They were voiceless and had no self-confidence, they dependent men, since they had little to no rights (Bonnie and Ruthsdotter). Before the reform movement, the American Women were voiceless, they had no say in society, however the reform movement will soon change that.
Many women writers blossomed after 1950. They started captivating a new status among the society they lived. We may not say that they had got all the rights equal to men but the thing is they started to give voice for getting their rights. The condition of subaltern and women was being such, we must think of the condition of a subaltern woman. They were suppressed not only because of gender but also of their low rank.
However after 1920 the role of women changed. After the 1920s women were given much more freedom. They were allowed to go out alone, work, were trousers ect. Flappers were introduced which showed that women were actually allowed more freedom. Flappers were outrageous party girls.