Wars are often followed by change; World War I was no exception. World War I is sometimes credited with starting the feminine revolution. The young women of the 1920’s were considered new and rebellious. In appearance and attitude, the women of the day broke the mold society had created in the previous decades. When the war started, the Progressive Era women had to take over the jobs of men to fill the void the men left behind, and as a result, they learned to be independent.
The conservative, upstanding women of the Progressive Era were considered the moral guardians and protectors of the home. Their appearance and dress of the time was conservative, dark, restrictive, and modest, adorning themselves in respectable apparel. The wives of middle-class
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businessmen primarily drove the reforms of the Progressive Era, even though these women were still expected to avoid work outside of the home. Not having to work, the women of the middle-class used their free time to fight for reform and for the rights of those women who did have to work. United together, the women of the Progressive Era's efforts led to many reforms in society and real improvements in the lives of many Americans. The Roaring Twenties brought forth the rise of the “New Woman”. By way of contrast, the Flapper defied society’s traditional standards of what women were supposed to conform to. Women traded in their corsets, long skirts and high collared shirts for shorter hems on skirts and more flamboyant clothing and makeup. Increasing their political power by gaining the right to vote; the women of the 1920's broke out of traditional domestic roles, donning revealing clothing, more dramatic makeup, and wore short hairstyles like “The Bob”, which is still popular today. What made the short hair cut so radical was the simple fact that is was especially uncommon for women to have short hair in the early 1900s. The Flapper was flaunting sexuality, drinking, smoking, and dancing in clubs. The appearance of this new, rebellious, socially contrasting woman was very controversial, but that did not stop them from creating what can be still recognized today as a new breed of feminists. This vision of a radically new, independent woman was transformed and destroyed old traditional views previously held by society.
Although traditions were changing, one traditional standard remained unchanged: the goal of most young women was not a career, but marriage. With the new profoundly different lifestyle of the Flapper, came changes in the way traditional marriage was viewed. The wife's role was viewed more as a somewhat equal partner, rather than the traditional subservient role they had previously filled over the last 300 years. Advertisements used the image of the Flapper in advertisements professing marriage to be the highest possible achievement for women. Compounding the pressure from advertisements, advancement for women in the workplace was limited, and only about 10% of white, middle-class women actually worked outside of the household. When in fact, the image of the freewheeling Flapper was more of a symbol than a …show more content…
reality. Along with the dynamic change in the traditional view of women, there were changes in the direction of political organizations for women.
This led to major objective differences between the goals of the League of Women Voters and the National Woman's Party. The League of Women Voters primary goal focused on the education of women, with the goal for them to become good citizens and play a critical part in advocacy, but would not be exclusively focused on women's issues. The League of Women Voters wanted women to be viewed as individual citizens who were educated on the political issues while remaining nonpartisan. Whereas the National Woman’s Party's primarily focused on ending female apartheid and legal gender discrimination, and as a result, started the campaign in 1921 for the Equal Rights
Amendment. In the times leading up to and including the Progressive Era, women were considered to be second-class citizens. Women were expected to take care of the home and the family. Once married, a woman could not own property or sign contracts, and was not entitled to keep any wages earned. After decades of intense political activity, women finally won the right to vote. Although it can be argued today that the end of the Progressive Era brought on the decline of organized reform, many women remained committed to working for social reform and equal rights. The reform movement may have been slowed due to the expansion of women in the labor force, combined with economic and social welfare issues such as the depression and later World War I, but women over the decades have accomplished more to aid the economic and social development of society than any other time previously in history. The Roaring Twenties were full of changes for women both in appearance and sensibility. Women were able to change traditional standards that men imposed on women for hundreds of years, and the results of this revision are still evident in our society today. Because of the emergence of the Flappers, women were able to gain the right to vote, express themselves openly, as well as endeavor to bridge the gap in equality between men and women. Every facet of the Flapper's image stood for the idea of the new woman of the 20's; change.
Before World War I, equality for woman and men were very unfair. Woman weren’t even legally “persons”; they weren’t allowed to join parliament or the senate because they weren’t legally “persons”, therefore these jobs were occupied by men only. During World War I and World War II, many men had left for war, thus meaning there were many job openings that needed to be occupied as soon as possible, women then began to take on stereotypical male jobs which men thought women couldn’t do or couldn’t do as well. Women showed their capabilities and realized they shouldn’t be considered less than men. In retaliation of not being considered “persons”, women decided to take action.
American women in World War II brought significant changes which although people expectation that life would go back to normal they modify their lifestyle making women free of society pressure and norms, because the war changed the traditional way to see a woman and their roles leading to a new society where women were allowed to study and work in the same way than men. Creating a legacy with the principles of today’s society.
...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.
For over centuries, society had established the societal standard of the women. This societal standard pictured the ideal American woman running the household and taking care of the children while her husband provided for the family. However, between 1770 and 1860, this societal standard began to tear at the seams. Throughout this time period, women began to search for a new ideal of American womanhood by questioning and breaking the barriers society had placed upon them.
During the late nineteenth century, the notion of ?separate spheres? dictated that the women?s world was limited to the home, taking care of domestic concerns. Women were considered to be in the private sphere of society. Men on the other hand were assigned the role of the public sphere, consisting in the participation of politics, law and economics. Women in the meantime were to preserve religious and moral ideals within the home, placing children on the proper path while applying valuable influence on men. The idea was that the typical middle class woman would teach children middle class values so that they too will enjoy the luxuries and benefits in the future that the middle class has to offer (Lecture, 10/17).
Women’s role in society changed quite a bit during WWI and throughout the 1920s. During the 1910s women were very short or liberty and equality, life was like an endless rulebook. Women were expected to behave modestly and wear long dresses. Long hair was obligatory, however it always had to be up. It was unacceptable for them to smoke and they were expected to always be accompanied by an older woman or a married woman when outing. Women were usually employed with jobs that were usually associated with their genders, such as servants, seamstresses, secretaries and nursing. However during the war, women started becoming employed in different types of jobs such as factory work, replacing the men who had gone to fight in the war in Europe. In the late 1910s The National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) had been fighting for decades to get the vote for women. As women had contributed so much to the war effort, it was difficult to refuse their demands for political equality. As a result, the Nineteenth Amendment to the constitution became law in 19...
The progressive era was a time of enormous changes that flourished in the United States. Activists demanded a reform in education, technology, science, and Democracy. Purification of government was the main goal, and it was during this time that progressives made “scientific” the social sciences, especially history, economics and political sciences (http://www.iep.utm.edu). It was also during this era (1890’s-1920’s) that the Federal Reserve System was founded. The 16th through 19th amendments, the Food and Drug Act, and Federal Trade Commission were also put into play. It wasn’t until World War I that such drastic change started to slow. Amidst all this change existed an amazing woman by the name of Jane Addams; a political activist and pragmatist whom made enormous social and economic changes to the United States. It wasn’t until the late 20th century however that she was properly recognized as one of the most influential philosophers and sociologists of her time (http://americanhistory.unomaha.edu).
War is often followed by change; World War I is no exception. World War I is often labeled the cause for the rise of a feminine revolution-“the flapper”. Before the term “flapper” began to describe the “young independently-minded woman of the early Twenties” (Mowry 173), the definition that is most prominent today, it had a 300-year long history. The young woman of the 1920’s was new and rebellious. In her appearance and demeanor, she broke the social constructs of her society.
World War I is remembered as a soldier's conflict for the six million men who
Just as the Irish wanted good work and the farmers wanted a good banking system, women wanted equality. Women and women's organizations worked for various rights for different groups of people. They not only worked to gain the right to vote, they also worked for political equality and for social reforms.
When the war began men had to leave their families and jobs behind. World War I was a complete war because all of the world’s assets had to be used and the entire nation’s population was involved. Anyone that had the ability to work had to work. The women had to take up jobs and went through a lot changes in order to support their families during the war. World War I gave women with the chance to have a significant part in the victory of the war which had an impact them and changed the lives of all women forever.
Women's Suffrage and World War I In my opinion British women would not have gained the right to vote in 1918 without the First World War. In my research to substantiate my view, I obtained my information from my history book and the Internet I will state the source of my information and explain how the information links to the causes and effects that enabled women to get the vote. During the war, women were given responsibility and knowledge to carry out skilled work.
During World War I, many men were drafted away from their families to fight for America. The men left an excess of jobs available for women to take. These jobs were not just an option but also a necessary responsibility to support their family, while their husbands were at war. In the absence of many men, women wore shorter skirts for functionality, learned to drive cars, and cut their hair. It is believed that because of the shortage of qualified men, women became more aggressive towards them, demonstrating behavior of a “Flapper” ("Flappers." Encyclopedia of Clothing and Fashion”) World War 1 gave women a taste of what it was like to earn a living outside of the house and they liked the independence. When the men came back from the war, women were not so eager to give it up. Also, the war had wiped out a number of males, not only leaving more jobs available for women, but also leaving wives and...
World War 1 was a time filled with trauma, despair, and hardship. Women had limited freedoms such as being able to vote, being confined at home, and having less than half of the rights men were able to have. Time flew by and as the war ended in 1918, the 1920’s decade of change soon approached. The year was famously known as “The Jazz Age” and “The Roaring 20’s” because of the newly found freedom, social and political changes, and the time of prohibition. Among these powerful new changes was the freedom that women were finally able to vote and enjoy what was about to come.
The Cult of Domesticity rose hand-in-hand with the advancement of the American middle-class. Women of this time were expected to be selflessly emotional, morally pure and submissive in their roles as a mother and wife, while the husband supported his family financially as he was seen as intellectually superior. Although women gained moral authority, they were restricted to a life of economic dependence and limited role choices. Men typically condemned work outside of the home and expected a wife to provide a domestic refuge of purity and to devote her life to unpaid labor within the home....