Preview

American Women 1920-1960

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
2526 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
American Women 1920-1960
Throughout history, society has classified women and their roles and potential within a given society. There have been reasons in the past for this fact, which have included religious oppression and portraying of their role. The initial idea of a women’s place being in the home taking care of the children and looking after the home, this is still common in today’s society. Women now have a new found ability to fulfill their dreams and have achieved an independence that few would have perceived. Modern day society accepts the fact that sex should not determine your place within it, however, how did it get to this point? To find out, we will discuss some of the major events over time that have carved the modern day woman and the role that she plays in society.
Primarily, the progression of women’s place is in the home, to that of where it stands today was at a complete standstill and it would take numerous life changing moments in time to change this perception. While America grew over to the west, women’s roles began to change. From this point the homemaker perception of a woman’s place was still strong throughout the country. It was not until, “the pioneer women in the later part of the 19th century experienced a life in which they divided their time between farming and household” (Eisenmann, 2006). This also lead way for women to start providing for their family by producing goods such as clothing, cooking and cleaning other houses. This was a new unfounded land; the women that inhabited it had to be prepared for almost anything. With a moment’s notice, their husband could take ill and

she would be left to her own devices. This new found independence was a glimpse of the women’s potential future.
However, during the early 1900’s the United States was viewed as being one of the greatest and democratic powers in the world. There were problems that were concealed deep within its heart, “from the founding of the United States, women did not

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    As American women's roles evolved over time, women were confronted with contradictory messages about their place in society. Traditional ideals about women met new challenges with each generation, from outside forces like war and economic depression, and from the activity of women themselves. This caused many women to struggle with societal expectations that did not fit their reality, and with an identity that did not fit expectations. Colonial society delegated to women the job of protecting and sustaining the morality of the people, yet it refused them a public forum in which to do so; the nineteenth century ideology of domesticity presented a standard of maternal care that could not be universally achieved; the twentieth century offered women the opportunity for education, independence, and a place in the labor force, but expected her to return to her proper place in the home after marriage.…

    • 881 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The majority of the historical events that took place in the 1920’s, greatly influenced the way women dressed, as the automobile industry grew, so did female’s interest in cars. As they became drivers, women’s clothes were adjusted accordingly to their more liberated lifestyle, with sporty clothes becoming one of the leading fashion trends.…

    • 254 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    women in 1920s

    • 1317 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Women’s rights were important to them because they want to have freedom like men’s do. They just don’t want to stay home and take care of their family. They wants to works, rights to vote, gain education and etc. That’s why women’s rights were important to them lot.…

    • 1317 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Women In The Early 1940's

    • 933 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The early 1940’s were years full of unpleasant events. On December 7, 1941, Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. The next day Congress approved President Roosevelt’s petition to go to war with Japan. With the United States engaged in yet another great war, many men were required to avenge and protect their country. While President Roosevelt drafted men and shipped them overseas, women had a part of the war too.…

    • 933 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Women in the 1920's

    • 495 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Before World War II no one believed women had a place in the military, yet women overcame this and helped the United States reach victory. Women felt they needed and wanted to get involved in the war instead of sitting at home, taking care of the children, cooking dinner, and cleaning the house. Women joined military support organizations like the WACs, the WAVES and the WASPs. These kinds of organizations contributed immensely toward the United States war effort. Women felt that if men could serve in the war, they could, too. Women relieved men of certain jobs so the men could go fight in the war. Women worked hard and took the men’s places, but they could not fight or get close to battle. Women’s roles in the war changed society, and lasted long after the United States declared victory.…

    • 495 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    New Women In The 1920's

    • 259 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Also, I think the New women was one of the successful changes that emerged in the Roaring twenties. The now women known as flapper had more freedom (they did not want to use corsets and act like their mother). They had short hair, short skirt, drink and smoke in public. Women had access to a type of birth control, which helped poor families to not have a lot of children. In 1920, the 19th amendment allowed women to vote, which increased women presence in public area. Women had more chances to work in professional jobs, but only feminized professions like teaching and nursing. The automobile becomes more popular and more reliable, especially in women. Women drove themselves anywhere and were not depended on men. The automobile made escaping more easily to women. Women were escaping their homes and fleeing with men to get married.…

    • 259 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Women In The 1920's

    • 2976 Words
    • 12 Pages

    "Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the husbands. Remember all men would be tyrants if they could. If particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies we are determined to foment a rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice, or representation,” said by Abigail Adams, First Lady and advocate of women’s rights (Abigail Adams Quotes). In the past hundred years, women have accomplished more than anyone could imagine - from joining men in the work force to building multi-million dollar fashion industries.…

    • 2976 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The economic “market revolution” and the religious “Second Great Awakening” shaped American society after 1815. Both of these developments affected women significantly, and contributed to their changing status both inside and outside the home. Throughout time, women’s roles and opportunities in the family, workplace, and society have greatly evolved.…

    • 861 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Women In The 1930's

    • 1887 Words
    • 8 Pages

    During the two decades from 1920 to 1940, the number of American women working outside the home increased slightly. In 1920, women made up 23.6 percent of the labor force; by 1940, this percentage had risen to 25.4. Some advances were made in working women's rights, but during the Great Depression, many female workers lost their jobs or were forced to accept severe cuts in pay. Despite the economic difficulties of the period, some outstanding businesswomen achieved great commercial success. In the 1930s, despite the fact that women were a big part of the society, they were not treated equally in the workplace compared to their male counterparts.…

    • 1887 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    1950s vs Today

    • 675 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Throughout history the roles of women have changed dramatically. Since the 1950’s, women have slowly but surely evolved into the individuals one sees today in public offices, law firms or even the five o’ clock news. However, this evolution did not occur over night. Although women in the 1950’s and today have dealt with similar stereotypes, today life has greatly improved because women aren’t as pressured to get married, are taken more seriously in the business world, and are even making as much or more money as men.…

    • 675 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Women In The 1920's

    • 472 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The 1920’s were the years of expression, change, innovations and new opportunities. Within these years women were exposed to different types of cultures and expressions some major ones being jazz and flappers. Women also gained the right to vote when the nineteenth amendment was passed allowing women to now have a say in political circumstances. Sheppard-Towner Act was also passed making it possible to have well-baby clinics, educational programs, as well as nursing. Expression for women came from the influence of flappers, which were usually young women who partied nonstop. This new stereotype for women came with the expression of dance, fashion and women clubs and college influenced to change their looks and way of lives. Although women were…

    • 472 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The outbreak of World War I resulted in more than mere casualties. As men left their jobs to go into the service, women were needed to "step up to the plate." For the first time, women were called upon to fill factory assembly line positions. With the war' conclusion in 1918, the United States emerged strong and prosperous. Women had aided in this accomplishment, and they began to embody the new era's lighthearted attitude. The end of World War I eased American's into a spirit of hope and newness. The year 1919 also proved a landmark in women's history in the United States. It was in this year that Congress approved the Nineteenth Amendment, which forbade discrimination against voters according to their sex. (Funk and Wagnall's A new era, characterized by greater freedoms, had begun for American women. "The New Woman" was carefree, bare-armed, and often appalling to the older generation.…

    • 526 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Women In The 1960s

    • 461 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The Women's liberation saw much change within the 1960s as women campaigned for equal pay for equal work within the workforce. These women came to be called "Labor Feminists" as they fought for their rights to be acknowledged within the workplace and were active members of unions. Different women's trade unions worked to secure the rights for women within the work place and they were a critical part of the push that created the Equal Pay Act of 1963. This act made it so that women are now legally required to receive equal pay for equal work.…

    • 461 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Gender roles have changed with the times; women have worked to strip themselves of the house wife ideal too become independent working women. Though the way we see women now didn’t just happen overnight, it came from years and years of challenging gender ideals. That’s why to truly understand genders roles of women in modern day society we have to go back into the past and examine what really shaped gender and how we have come to see gender today. To answer those questions, we will look back at hunter gatherer and Native American society’s all the way through to World War I and the Cold war.…

    • 1415 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Separate Spheres

    • 906 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Throughout the 1700’s, men and women were confined to culturally predefined spheres of responsibility. “A woman’s place is in the home” was the prevailing opinion in America under the Separate Spheres ideology during the eighteenth century. Women were thought to be biologically inclined to excel in the domestic sphere of childrearing and homemaking while men were thought to be biologically inclined to excel in the public sphere of economics and politics. Some early feminist pioneers like Abigail Adams and Mary Wollstonecraft were the first feminists to test the boundaries. Women were not content to be relegated solely to the domestic sphere and under the guidance of pioneers such as Adams and Wollstonecraft began to challenge the idea of Separate Spheres and start an eventual merging of those spheres.…

    • 906 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays