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Mentally disabled discrimination in the great depression
Women's role in the 1930s
The role of women in the 1920's
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In the 1930’s, most women didn’t have jobs. Everyone was poor and racism was still prevalent. Disabled and blind people were treated almost like children. Mr. Will wasn’t treated as much of an efficient adult as he was, merely because he was blind. Today, the blind can receive as much help as they may need, but there are more things that exist to help them in their daily lives, and are seen more as people than a burden to a family than they were in the 30’s. Mrs. Spalding was expected to let her family split apart and move out of her house after her husband dies because they no longer had any source of income and there was no way she could do it alone, with her being a woman in the 1930’s. Women today are expected to have jobs, just like men
The short story is set in the period of The Great Depression, and lower classes especially struggled in this hard time. The Great Depression attacked the nation by society class. The lower levels struggled even more than usual. Lizbeth lived in a small rural town with a few members of her family. Her father and mother worked all day and Lizbeth and her brother, Joey, would hang out with other teenagers in their community to waste the daylight. The community always helped each other out but there was this one woman, Miss Lottie who played an important role in young Lizbeth’s
May argues that “the depression thus paved way for two different family forms: one with two breadwinners who shared tasks and the other with spouses whose roles were sharply differentiated.” In the latter form the father would have earned a “family wage” while his wife would have been responsible the children and their home, only working if it was necessary to supplement her husband’s income. This trend was caused mainly by two factors. During the financial strain of the depression, marriage and birth rates were much lower than they had been in the previous decade while the divorce rate was much higher. Young men of the time were afraid that they would not be able to provide for their new families and chose not to get married. While young women on the other hand, encountered an employment boom that allowed them to gain a sense of economic freedom that allowed them to not feel compelled to marry. This new single woman was glamorized by Hollywood during the 1930s. However, families tended toward choosing a life with the husband earning a “family wage” with the wife at home. Why? May concludes, "for all its affirmation of the emancipation of women, Hollywood fell short of pointing the way toward a restructured family that would incorporate independent women." Films from the 1930s like Gone with the Wind and His Girl Friday portrayed strong female leads that had to choose between their independent working life and domestic happiness, as it seemed that both could not coexist in their lives. Another cause for this were the programs implemented during the New Deal Era. Such programs aimed to raise male employment levels and often did nothing for female employment. Men had become embittered during the depression when women
During the 1970’s, women were extremely mistreated and did not have many rights. There were very limited opportunities and women were restricted for doing certain things that men could. Throughout the United States women were not tried as equals compared to men. At the time, ladies could barely do anything if they did not have a husband, lesbian women did not have the freedom to express their sexual preference, abortions were illegal, females could only attend certain college and occupy certain jobs, and this list of inequalities can go on for days. According to the article some of these problems still exist today which is a major issue.
In the early 1900’s, women who were married main jobs were to care for her family, manage their houses, and do housework. That is where the word housewife was come from. During the 1940's, women's roles and expectations in society were changing quickly and a lot. Before, women had very limited say in society. Since unemployment was so high during the Great Depression, most people were against women working because they saw it as women taking jobs from men that needed to work. Women were often stereotyped to stay home, have babies, and to be a good wife and mother. Advertisements often targeted women, showing them in the kitchen, talking with children, serving dinner, cleaning, and them with the joy of a clean house or the latest kitchen appliance.
During the 1930’s, life in America was less than ideal. The stock market had just crashed, which resulted in the unemployment of millions of Americans. Not to mention the brimming conflict that was happening on the other side of the globe. Moreover there was still a large amount of animosity towards people with distinct ethnic backgrounds. Even the west coast which was known for its acceptance of all people was filled with racism, especially towards the large amount of Latin Americans that encompassed Southern California.
As progressive era reforms advanced from the 1880s to t 1920s, women took on a significant role in political change with specific regard to the ratification of the 19th amendment and social conditions with emphasis on women’s reproductive rights and restraint from alcohol.
Women’s role in society during the 1950s is altogether different from their role in society today. The role of women then was restricted and minted. Women were presumed to perfect certain roles. Such roles include being a caring mother, hard-working housewife and compliant wife. This perfection was not an individual’s personal goal but was done to meet and exceed society’s standards. Raising the upcoming generation was significant at this time which made woman work hard to “fill the oversized shoes prepared for them” (Coob, 2005, para. 11). A prime example of a woman who endured this would be Sylvia Plath/ Esther Greenwood. Esther’s sense of indifference from the world around her derived from presumptions that had been piling up on her as a
“It is time that we all see gender as a spectrum instead of two sets of opposing ideals. We should stop defining each other by what we are not and start defining ourselves by who we are” (Emma Watson). Since the beginning of time, Eve was portrayed as the first sinner and this could be the reason why women are still paying for her sins to this day, from either education to jobs and look to stereotypes. Though now women are crawling out of the hole of inequality faster than before and soon women will be able to reach the light they have been waiting to grasp.
In years that followed, girls began to gain more rights and opportunities. On August 18, 1920, a miraculous law was passed granting the women the right to vote in the United States. Also, in 1969, Ivy League universities such as Yale and Princeton started to accept female students into their schools. Even though most females today have a considerably larger amount of rights than the past, there are still unfavorable situations that arise because of gender discrimination. The idea that women are less capable than men has led to a lack of opportunities and overall, an unfair discrimination. Due to this gender prejudice, many women receive less pay, are belittled by men, and have difficulty pursuing their dreams.
Throughout the late 1800s Americans were workaholics, constantly working in order to make a living for their families at home. Women stayed home and took care of the house as well as the children. The short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” takes place in the late 1800s.The author, Charlotte Perkins Gilman is no stranger to the hysteria that took over women in the 19th century. According to Mary Ellen Snodgrass, after her own postpartum emotional collapse and treatment in 1887, Gilman knew about the situation women were experiencing (“Gilman”). All the pressure of working and raising children affected all Americans, but society blamed the nervous depression mainly on women because they were women. Charlotte Perkins Gilman conveys her own life experience and illness that she went through and how women were treated during the 1800’s.
The term feminist is seen with a negative connotation because people use it as an insult against women in an effort to make them seem irrational and unfair, but in reality it is the exact opposite of that. Feminism is defined as the “belief in or advocacy of women’s social, political, and economic rights, especially with regard to equality of the sexes.” (Feminism). There is no reason that there should be a negative connotation to this belief or participation in advancing this belief, yet there is. This battle and struggle for equal rights has been going on for a very long time, but it really took off in the 1920s. The 19th amendment and The New Woman really helps to show how quickly women and their rights progressed in the United States. Many
Feminism has growth over the decades, first they explain who they are fought for us (women), now they are fighting for themselves.
also managed to prove that they could do the jobs just as well as men
During the Great War and the huge amount of men that were deployed created the need to employ women in hospitals, factories, and offices. When the war ended the women would return home or do more traditional jobs such as teaching or shop work. “Also in the 1920s the number of women working raised by fifty percent.” They usually didn’t work if they were married because they were still sticking to the role of being stay at home moms while the husband worked and took care of the family financially. But among the single women there was a huge increase in employment. “Women were still not getting payed near as equally as men and were expected to quit their jobs if they married or pregnant.” Although women were still not getting payed as equally it was still a huge change for the women's
Women's Values in Past, Present and Future. In the early 20’s, things like getting married at an early age. you were still at your prime, building a family, buying a house with a The “white picket fence” was important. Then in the 30’s, getting married and having a family was still the way to go.