Women's Liberation in the 1920's: Myth or Reality? The decade following World War I proved to be the most explosive decade of the century. America emerged as a world power, the 19th amendment was ratified, and the expansion of capitalism welcomed the emergence of consumerism. The consumer era was established, which generated new spending opportunities for most Americans in the 1920’s. From the latest fashions to the world of politics, ideologies collided to construct a society based on contradicting principles. These powerful ideologies infected men and women of all classes with an inescapable desire for material possessions; however this ideological tug-of war affected women the most. Although legally declared citizens, society’s assumption of motherhood and domesticity, being the only professions for women, still remained supreme in the country that supposedly promoted equal opportunity. New sex role stereotypes appeared throughout society and women became identified with the consumer culture for they were "major purchasers of products" and "constituted a crucial underpinning of the economy" (Dumenil 144). No group was more responsive to this than the advertising industry, which introduced new images while reinforcing traditional stereotypes. As speculation on women’s rights grew tiresome after suffrage had been won, women separated in search of their own individuality; however a woman’s identity was based on the sex-role stereotypes advertisements continuously portrayed which in turn transformed cultural expectations and thwarted women’s autonomy. The emergence of consumerism allowed advertisements to be viewed worldwide. "Across the nation, women in cities, towns and farms paged through issues of mass-circulation... ... middle of paper ... ...ture and Society in the 1920’s. New York: Hill and Wang, 1995. Fitzgerald, F. Scott. "Echoes of the Jazz Age" Flappers and Philosophers. New York: 1921 Harriman, Helga H. Women in the Western Heritage. Sluice Dock, Guilford, CT. Danshkin Publishing Group, Inc. 1995 Kroger, Jane. Identity in Adolescence: The Balance Between Self and Other. London: Routledge, 1989 Scanlon, Jennifer. Inarticulate Longings: The Ladies’ Home Journal, Gender, and the Promises of Consumer Culture. New York, NY: Routledge, 1995 Sivulka, Juliann. Soap, Sex, and Advertising. Belmont, California: Wasworth Publishing Company, 1998 Stearns, Peter N. and Jean Lewis eds. An Emotional History of the United States. New York, NY. New York University Press, 1998 Stevenson, Elizabeth. Babbits and Bohemians: From the Great War to the Great Depression. New York: Macmillan, 1967.
The history of welfare systems dates back to ancient China and Rome, some of the first institutions known to have established some form of a welfare system. In both of these nations, their governments created projects to provide food and aid to poor, unemployed, or unable families and individuals, however these were based on “moral responsibility.” Later in history, in 1500’s England, parliament passed laws that held the monarchy responsible for providing assistance to needy families by providing jobs and financial aid. These became known as “poor laws” (Issitt).
Advertisements in Life magazine showed women mainly in ways were they were responsible for kitchen duties and taking care of their husbands. In the early 1950’s, there were recurring ads of women with refrigerators. In an advertisement from 1950, a woman is dressed like a typical housewife standing next to the refrigerator showing all the features it entails. It gives off the message that during this period of the 1950’s, society saw women as the face of the kitchen and a majority of the duties as a housewife took place there. Another advertisement from 1950, gives a clear indication of gender roles. In the advertisement for a refrigerator, the women and her daughter are shown organizing their refrigerator, and the man is shown as carrying in the refrigerator. The advertisement expresses that women are more fit for domestic work and that men are more for the labor tedious work that a woman cannot do. In an advertisement from 1953 to sell health insurance, the man who is selling health insurance puts a picture of himself and his...
After World War I America became the world’s center for trade. The economic center of the world moved from London, England to New York City, New York, United States of America, and more specifically Wall Street (Buhle, Mari J, Czitzrom, Armitage 848). Due to women, the 1920’s marked economic and social change in America. Women took over men’s jobs during the war while their husbands were overseas, and once the men came home the women wanted to keep their positions. To show gratitude to these women Congress passed the 19th Amendment on August 18th, 1920 which prohibited any United States citizen from having the right to vote based on sex. This change in women’s social status led to more workers in the factories, which were usi...
In this essay I’ll be exploring various concepts of women and will deeply criticise the way women are seen and portrayed through advertising. My primary resource I’ll be referring to throughout this essay is a book called ‘Ways of seeing’ by John Berger, which highlights the role women during the early renaissance and onwards. In addition to this I will explore the various beliefs of women from a wide range of secondary resources, and will include references from books, websites, and various images to help clarify my statements.
They did this by having the woman on posters look happy being a housewife. The women in these posters, advertisements, and political cartoons would usually have an apron on in the kitchen or with a rolling pin in her hand and exuberant. In the late 1900’s Martha Stewart started her magazine line, which was aimed primarily at the women population. Martha Stewart made sewing, arts, and other household activities popular once again. These prints are exposed to all ages, so the conditioning of gender roles starts young. Tineke M. Willemsen, who is a social psychologist from Leiden University, did an analysis to see if the gender stereotypes for the Netherlands, the U.S., and other Western Countries, which is women are emotional and men are rational, was more of a conditioning from the magazines or an observation the magazines picked up from statistics. Based off of Tineke Willemsen’s work, one can easily conclude that the Netherlands’ and the United States’ both have particular magazines to aim at specific sexes, and most of the magazines are aimed at female. The main magazine Willemsen analyzed was Teen magazine, which is a magazine aimed at the younger women of the population
Betty Friedan is the author of the famous book, which credited the beginning of a second –wave feminism in the United States. Friedan’s book begins with describing “the problem that has no name” to women who had everything, but were unhappy, depress and felt like they had nothing. Women are expected to be happy by buying things, a new refrigerator, house, best-selling coffee, having the right make-up, clothes and shoes, this is what the Feminine Mystique symbolized. Something that women wanted but can never have. Furthermore, society in present day is full of advertisements everywhere we go in TV, books and on the radio. The young generation as well as adults get trap in a fantasy world full of perfection. Women always want to have a thin waist, the most expensive make-up and purses, it’s all based on stereotypes. In her book, Friedan mentions that the average age of marriage was decreasing compared to increasing birthrate of women. Moreover, Friedan has been nit-pick at for focusing on the middle-class women and for prejudice against
There are two types of research that can be conducted in research studies, these are qualitative and quantitative (Newman, 2011). Qualitative research is a process that uses detailed oriented methodology that tries to achieve a profound knowledge or understanding of specific incident and circumstance, wh...
This phenomenon suggests that all women are required to remain loyal wives and stay at home mothers who aspire to achieve perfection. In “Mirrors of Masculinity: Representation and Identity in Advertising Images,” Jonathon E. Schroeder and Detlev Zwick claim that “highly abstract connections are made between the models, a lifestyle, and the brand” resulting in a need to associate these products with a specific way of living (25). Instead of simply displaying these luxurious bracelets and handbags, the ad creates an elegant environment through the incorporation of sophisticated items. The women are dressed elegantly in dresses and blouses, adding a conservative element to the ad. The ad presents a rather stereotypical image of the very successful heads-of-household type mothers who have brunch with other elite women in an exclusive circle. Everything from the merchandise they sport to the champagne glasses down to the neatly manicured fingernails provides insight into the class of women presented in this ad. The body language of the women strips the image of the reality element and instead appears to be staged or frozen in time. This directly contributes to the concept of the gendered American dream that urges women to put up a picture-perfect image for the world to see. Instead of embracing individual struggle and realities, the American dream encourages women to live out a fabricated
Freedom from Fear: The American People in Depression and War 1929-1945. Oxford History of the United States: Oxford University Press. Davidson, J. W., Delay, B., et al. (2005). The 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary'.
Michael Katz of the University of Pennsylvania defines welfare in this quote “The welfare state is how a society insures against the risks inherent in human life - unemployment, poverty, sickness, and old age - that in one way or another confront everyone.” (Katz). Accordingly the United States’ citizens and government has been thought of as charitable, but unfavorably, government intervention might be altering United States’ citizens’ charita...
French, Katherine L., and Allyson M. Poska. Women and Gender in the Western past. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 2007. Print.
Research can be quantitative and qualitative. Quantitative research is objective and involves measuring the phenomena under investigation. Qualitative research is subjective, explores experiences and feelings, and involves the recording of phenomena that cannot easily be quantified (Toates, 2010, pp. 5-6). Both are empirical since they involve data collection (OU, n.d.).
Quantitative research may be seen as the less contentious of the two because it is more closely aligned with what is viewed as the classical scientific paradigm. Quantitative research involves gathering data that is absolute, for example numerical data so that it can be examined as unbiased as possible. The main idea behind quantitative research is that it is able to separate things easily so that they can be counted. The researcher generally has a clear idea of what is being measured before they start measuring it, and their study is set up with controls. Qualitative research on the other hand is a more subjective form of research, in which the research allows themselves to introduce their own bias to help form a more complete picture. Qualitative research may be necessary in situations where it is unclear of what is exactly being looked for in a study, while quantitative research generally knows exactly what it is looking for. Questionnaires and surveys are quantitative socio-legal research, because it is the collection of numerical data, or data that can be easily being turned into a numerical form. In terms of analysing quantitative data, Excel is the b...
On the other hand, Quantitative research refers to “variance theory” where quantity describes the research in terms of statistical relationships between different variables (Maxwell, 2013). Quantitative research answers the questions “how much” or “how many?” Quantitative research is an objective, deductive process and is used to quantify attitudes, opinions, behaviors, and other defined variables with generalized results from a larger sample population. Much more structured than qualitative research, quantitative data collection methods include various forms of surveys, personal interviews and telephone interviews, polls, and systematic observations. Methods can be considered “cookie cutter” with a predetermined starting point and a fixed sequence of
I assume that in the 21st century, many people are increasingly becoming disinclined towards the concept of welfare state. They are vociferously opposing the phenomenon on ideological grounds. It is a great service for welfare citizens, on one hand but on the other, it is also a hassle for them to pay high taxes. This does not imply that there should not be any welfare states at all but the places that have adopted the models are also finding it challenging.