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Analyzing Post War American Society America post war society is a society that is for change. After these major wars America had time to look inward and find problems within itself. These problems include the racism of America and the denied basic rights for women. During the 1920’s and 1950’s women and Africans started to demand basic rights and equality that they deserved. Each post war brought forth different points and changes to the American society that would later improve America as a whole. Analyzing American society view on race between the 1920’s and 1950’sbrings forth the struggles many Africans went through for equality and civil rights. In the 20’s Africans had little to no protection from the government with no actions being …show more content…
brought forth to supply equality or even simple civil rights. This is vastly different from the 50’s as the government starting taking action to help desegregate America. In the 50’s a lawsuit was filed against the board of education in Kansas. This lawsuit was to reverse its policy against race segregation. The lawsuit was unanimous in favor of desegregating the school system. This was a first step into the right position with the government stepping in realizing how segregation was wrong stating that it was unconstitutional. Back in the fifties however there was no help from the government to end segregation. Instead during the 20’s groups like the KKK expanded. According to a lecture video American society was not always this positive place, there was another side documented by a photographer named Edward Hopper that showed the “lonely America”, an America that wasn’t part of all the change in the 1920’s era. With the “lonely America” there was an extreme side such as groups like the KKK that isolated people from opening up, teaching white Americans that different was bad. The white American society was slow to the idea of change and desegregation but the other races mainly the African American society was ready for this positive change. The 20’s and 50’s were similar in the fact that Africans were pushing for equality and civil rights. Jackie Robison pushed the bounds by joining the major league baseball team the dodgers during a time were baseball was segregated. Jackie Robinson was a symbol of change for Africans giving them hope that equality was possible. In the 20’s the Harlem Renaissance period was when society was flourishing with African culture like art, dance, poetry, and song. Jazz was an incredibly popular new age form of song. Though it was being copied by white singers the fact that Africans were able to have an art form of their own and not have to conform to white American society was a step forward. The gender struggles of these post war periods of 1920’s and 1950’s for women brought forth few similarities while having many differences because of expectations for women.
For starters after each war period women were left wanting more equality realizing that men were given more opportunities then women. Women were able to work during periods of war and after the wars ended so was their jobs. Women however wanted to work some not even wanting to be housewives but wanted a real job like men were offered. Not only did they want equal jobs but also the ability to have a proper education. Women were always more active during these periods of post war society but between the two periods a lot of the expectations were …show more content…
different. The 20’s was the real start to when women wanted to be equal to men.
After working for the First World War women started actively trying to get basic rights and started to get jobs. Flappers was the common term for these women going against society wanting to be treated as equals. They commonly had shorter hair, showed more skin, and acted with the purpose of enjoying themselves and not entertaining men. These women were showing their disdain for what was considered acceptable behavior through enjoying themselves. During the 1950’s though women started gaining way more support for their progress for basic rights which is why the difference is way more dominate for these time periods. The 50’s had way more stay at home wives because of the baby boom that took place. These housewives did not sit around all day talking care of the children though instead they were both work and do house work. Women were conceded to be more equal to men having the ability to vote and have a voice in politics unlike in the 20’s were women still had to fight for this right. According to lecture notes in the 50’s divorce rates were higher than they have ever been. The reason for this was “people got married before the war and after the husbands were completely different affected by the war in some way or in other case they married people they didn’t even know”. The 50’s were more forgiving to these women having many states changing the laws to a more liberal outlook. Women were able to have their
voice heard and actual listen to for the first time instead of women having these problems with the change coming to help fix things. Post war period of time are usually a time for a place to look inward at its current state and realize that there are problems. After having a county come together and fight a common enemy, it allows people to see that once the war is over that coming together for an enemy shouldn’t be the only reason to be united. Race for example was viewed in society as a ladder with whites on top and everyone else below. After the World Wars many people saw the flaws in this system wanting to speak up against it. The 50’s being a very prominent point of time where even the government got involved to end segregation like in the Brown vs Board case. Women too saw the flaws of America and wanted change. The 20’s being the stepping stones with women becoming more dominate as being a “flapper” and working in jobs that were once dominated by man. With the 50’s having women starting to use their new basic rights with voting and getting education. The culture of the post war America society is a culture of change.
In Daily Life in the United States, 1920-1939: Decades of Promise and Pain, author David E. Kyvig, creates historical account of the Great Depression, and the events leading up to it. Kyvig’s goal in writing this book was to show how Americans had to change their daily life in order to cope with the changing times. Kyvig utilizes historical evidence and inferences from these events and developments to strengthen his point. The book is organized chronologically, recounting events and their effects on American culture. Each chapter of the book tackles a various point in American history between 1920 and1939 and events are used to comment on American life at the time. While Kyvig does not exactly have a “thesis” per se, his main point is to examine American life under a microscope, seeing how people either reacted, or were forced to react due to a wide range of specific events or developments in history, be it Prohibition, the KKK, or women’s suffrage.
With the beginnings of the cold war the media and propaganda machine was instrumental in the idea of the nuclear family and how that made America and democracy superior to the “evils” of the Soviet Union and Communism; with this in mind the main goal of the 50’s women was to get married. The women of the time were becoming wives in their late teens and early twenties. Even if a women went to college it was assumed that she was there to meet her future husband. Generally a woman’s economic survival was dependent on men and employment opportunities were minimal.
During the war, women played a vital role in the workforce because all of the men had to go fight overseas and left their jobs. This forced women to work in factories and volunteer for war time measures.
...owards more love stories. Essentially more forms of propaganda ensued to let women know what they should be doing. More domestic jobs became available such as being a maid, restaurant work, dishwashing and cleaning. However women who worked war jobs wanted their own maids now so they could pursue their own dreams. They felt inspired and accomplished. Lola Wiexl mentioned that although skills within the workforce were easily learned, within the household traditions still persisted. Lola herself said she'd go home cook, clean and do the laundry while her brother laid on the couch. She didn't question it before but she was angry about it for years after her war time experience. Thus patriarchal hegemonies still existed after the war and were perpetuated by the government and media as much as possible to solicit women who participated in activities outside of the home.
American Society on the Change during the Post-World War Years. After World War II, Americans experienced a time of rapid social change. American soldiers were discharged and returned home from the battlefields, hoping to find work and to get on with their lives. Marriage rates increased dramatically after the war.
Republicans dominated the 1920's political scene. During this time period, many changes occurred in the United States. Both culturally and economically. This period is known as the roaring twenties.
Like stated earlier, gender roles in the 50’s were very strict and narrow-minded. That being said, women were extremely limited in their role in society. First of all, women were expected to be homemakers. By homemaker, I mean the women w...
The 1920’s was a period of extremely economic growth and personal wealth. America was a striving nation and the American people had the potential to access products never manufactured before. Automobile were being made on an assembly line and were priced so that not just the rich had access to these vehicles, as well as, payment plans were made which gave the American people to purchase over time if they couldn't pay it all up front. Women during the First World War went to work in place of the men who went off to fight. When the men return the women did not give up their positions in the work force. Women being giving the responsibility outside the home gave them a more independent mindset, including the change of women's wardrobe, mainly in the shortening of their skirts.
The start of the war era came on the heels of a decade when women had seemingly taken a step backward in social and economic progress. The depression of the 1930's had devastated the American economy. Women, especially married women, had bore the largest share of the burden. To help male workers get back on the job, national leaders called for married women in two-income families to give up their jobs. Several states had passed laws barring women from holding state jobs.
Out of some of the most turbulent times in history have come the greatest ages of success and prosperity. The 1920’s and 1950’s are two eras that exemplify the spirit of triumph and wealth. In both decades, a nation thrilled by the victorious conclusion of war and the return of their loved ones from war entered into an age of capitalism and materialism, bolstering the economy and with it national pride. Some of features most common to the 20’s and 50’s were consumerism and the accompanying optimistic mindset, the extent to which new ideas entered society, and discrimination in terms of both sexism and racism.
The 1940s provided a drastic change in women’s employment rates and society’s view of women. With the end of the Depression and the United States’ entrance into World War II, the number of jobs available to women significantly increased. As men were being drafted into military service, the United States needed more workers to fill the jobs left vacant by men going to war. Women entered the workforce during World War II due to the economic need of the country. The use of Patriotic rhetoric in government propaganda initiated and encouraged women to change their role in society.
However, when the war was over, and the men returned to their lives, society reverted back to as it had been not before the 1940s, but well before the 1900s. Women were expected to do nothing but please their husband. Women were not meant to have jobs or worry about anything that was occurring outside of their own household.... ... middle of paper ...
In the 1920’s, the Nineteenth Amendment was passed, which gave women the right to vote. During this decade women became strong and more independent. Women were accomplishing a lot more than they had before. Women started going to college so she could earn her own living. More women started leaving the home and working at a factory or as a secretary. Women were discriminated at the work place. They received lower wages then man did. In the 1920’s, the term flapper was introduced. It was first used in Britain after World War 1. Young women were labeled as flappers who wore makeup shorter skirts. Fl...
When the United States maintained a system of African Slavery, they sold them on at the current values. African’s were believed to be commodities to be bought and sold. They were culturally held to be less then their white counterparts. Abolition of slavery that came later in the post- civil war did little to alleviate the prejudice and the suffering that Africans suffered during the period of slavery. The Jim Crow laws t...
During the years between 1920 and 1960, America saw change in many aspects of life. The United States was a part of two major wars and a crash of the banking system that crippled the economy greater than ever seen in this country’s history. Also the country had new insecurities to tackle such as immigration and poor treatment of workers. These events led to the change of America lives socially, economically, and politically. The people of America changed their ideas of what the country’s place in the world should be. The issues challenging America led the country to change from isolation to war, depression to prosperity, and social change. The threats to American way of life, foreign and domestic, were the changing forces to the country in the twenties to the sixties.