The Evolving Women

The role women play in our society is and has been an ever-changing one, from mother to doctor to soldier and everything in between. With increasing standards and demands on them to be the one who keep’s the family grounded and together in a chaotic society that thinks none to highly of them or their rights as citizens. I chose to focus on women’s changing roles during the time period from 1865 through 1920 and then through 1920 to this present day. The reason I chose to focus on the women of our history is because this was a very unstable time in history, due to the changing status of minorities in the culture at this time due to the end of the Civil War and the impending revolution for women’s rights with the passage of the 19th amendment. Dating as far back as the early 1800's women’s roles were consistently being challenged and questioned, it was not so much the women’s rights marches of the 60's but it was the beginning of that revolution. During the early part of the 19th century women’s character was separated with four basic attributes: piety, purity, submissiveness, and domesticity. Even the foreign visitors to America during this period found fault in American male’s attitude towards women, they thought males treated women as inferiors and subjected women to double standards. "By marriage, the husband and wife are one person in law; that is, the very being and legal existence of the woman is suspended during marriage." This is according to a 1765 law established by Sir William Blackstone an English barrister, and American law followed this principle thereby the wife "belonged" to the husband. These were the times that women lived through and the conditions they lived with during the early part of the nineteenth century.

As I move forward making mention of a woman named Mary Wollstonecraft who has been called a forward-thinking feminist. She was a woman that was years ahead of her time. Her writing, A Vindication of Rights of Men (1790) is one of the most important documents in the history of women's rights. Mary’s views were primarily concerned with the whole woman as an individual and about rights. Mary was a participant in and observer of an outstanding series of social revolutions. This may have been the major reason why she held such radical views. Mary's goal was to indicate the injustices in the treatment of women and attempt to correct them (Wollstonecraft). Centuries have passed since Mary's time and remarkable changes have been made in the world of woman's rights. 1998 marked the 150th Anniversary of a movement by women to achieve full civil rights in this country. Women have not been the passive beneficiaries of changes in laws and human nature; women needed to work aggressively to gain anything and all they could. A convention to discuss the social, civil, and the religious condition and rights of woman would take place at the Wesleyan Chapel in Seneca Falls on July 19 and 20, 1848. The Declaration of Independence was used as the blueprint for writing "the Declaration of Sentiments." It connected women's rights directly to that powerful American symbol of liberty. It stated such specifics: married women were legally dead in the eyes of the law; women were not allowed to vote; women had to submit to laws when they had no voice.

Moving along, a notable name would be Jane Addams (1860-1935), she is the founder of Hull House and a Noble peace prize winner. Jane founded the United States settlement house movement that first opened in 1889 and then that house became a model for more than 400 other like houses. (2.2: Progressivism in America (1900-1919)). Jane has an image as a selfless giver of ministrations to the poor, but few realize that she was a mover and shaker in the areas of labor reform (laws that governed working conditions for children and women), and was a charter member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). This type of woman was very brave considering she was living in an era of it’s a white man’s world. Another woman living in the same type of world with a different background would be Carrie Nation born and died (1846-1911) her full legal name is Carrie Amelia Moore Nation. This woman was a radical activist member of the Temperance movement, which was against alcohol in pre-Prohibition America and eventually got the 18th amendment passed, Carrie was mainly remembered due to the 30 arrests on the charges of vandalism. Prohibition that lasted 14 years until the 21st Amendment which repealed it in 1933 shortly after her death. (2:2: Progressivism in America)). Before the 18th Amendment let’s take a look at the 14th Amendment it was the first reference to gender in the U.S. Constitution. Radical Republicans in Congress debated that pursuing suffrage for both women and blacks would doom the latter, which was their priority. They wrote the second part of the amendment in order to stimulate the states to grant voting rights to former slaves, and to exclude women. Suffragists petitioned Congress to get the wording changed, but

Had been told by former male allies, “This hour belongs to the Negro.” The amendment was ratified in 1868. (pp. 326-27) As we reflect on these two women Jane Addams and Carrie Nation who were living in a particular same time era which was the Progressive Era were both passionate women about what they believed in and the type of change they wanted to see. Both women fought for what they believed and stopped at nothing short of success to attain their goals however they both went about getting it by two very opposite approaches. The Progressive Era was a period of time that consisted of extreme reform activism that lasted from the late 1890s through the years following World War I. Progressives believed “big government” was necessary for the guarantee and protection of the public safety. Progressive reformers were largely motivated by the severe consequences of industrial capitalism. The reformers fought for new labor laws and social welfare policies, believing that poverty hurt the general national welfare, and that it needed to be addressed by government. Women were very much involved in progressive activities. More women had entered the labor force, the number of female college graduates increased, and women’s organizations had multiplied and spread throughout the United Nation. The Progressive era greatly changed the role of government in American life. (pp. 454–58)

In the 1890s there was a public ideal or one could say image that displaced the ideal of the “true woman” which was called the “new woman”. This new image pushed all boundaries of the woman’s sphere to participate in a social life, whether it be by earning a wage, gaining an education, or performing some sort of community service. A clubwoman and author named Charlotte Perkins Gilman was the very first fantastic spokeswoman for the New Woman. Her writings focused on the importance of female individuation, making each woman realize her distinctive talents, personality and capabilities. New womanhood challenged the vision of comparing masculinity and femininity and claimed the legacy of individualism for women all around. Elizabeth Cady Stanton stressed this image in her 1892 speech The Solitude of self. (pp. 354-56) (NAWSA) is a united woman suffrage organization created when the National Woman Suffrage Association and the American Woman Suffrage Association merged in 1890. During the twentieth-century the new generation of suffragists expanded the organization and modernized it and included college-educated women, club women, temperance advocates and union activists. NAWSA attracted many women across classes and generations but continued to stay racially segregated. With Carrie Chapman at the steering wheel, NAWSA pulled Congress for a federal amendment during the late 1910s. Even though they were at odds with the militant National Woman’s Part, the two organizations were successful in winning the suffrage amendment in 1920.

Jumping ahead in time to a poster image of a woman called Rosie the Riveter was a massive World War II propaganda campaign to try and encourage women to do their part for our country by working in the defense industry. As men were shipped off to war, women were needed in defense plants to provide the soldiers with war material. Rosie’s image was made to portray the toughness as well as the femininity in women. The war work gave women a new independence and responsibilities, it also produced changes in the work place and at home. This type of work broke down sex-segregated patterns, as women were trained in skilled jobs. Wages increased as did the participations of women in the union. Many women workers faced issues of the “second shift” and the need for child care for the first time. When the war ended the “Rosie” campaign ended, and women were fired and told to return home and take care of their families. Times were and have been changing drastically since 1865 and the views on women and their rights are changing. Looking ahead at the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission (EEOC) that was created as a result of Title VII in the 1964 Civil Rights Act which prohibited discrimination on the account of race, religion, or sex. In previous years, the EEOC had primarily focused on racial discrimination. Once the 70s hit, women’s groups such as NOW and the Women’s Equity Action League (WEAL), bolstered by new legislation and court decisions, brought suit on behalf of working women. In addition to supporting the new agenda was the Women’s Rights Project of the American Civil Liberties Union, co-founded by Ruth Ginsberg, future U.S. Supreme Court Justice. In 1977, Eleanor Holmes Norton, an African American activist in both civil rights and women’s rights, was appointed the head of the EEOC. Norton established guidelines against sexual harassment in the workplace.

Come 1975 an international conference on women’s issues was held to coordinate women’s political and social service’s Universally, it was classified as the International Year of Women and since that day many similar conferences have taken place, attended by women leaders and conference delegates from several countries around the world. Two years later a National Women’s Conference took place in Houston, Texas, to follow up on the recommendations from the International Year of Women meetings. A few of the women that participated in that meeting were Lady Bird Johnson, Betty Ford, and Rosalyn Carter; Coretta Scott King, whom was the widow of Martin Luther King Jr.; and African American Congresswoman Barbara Jordan. At the same time another conference was being held by a woman named Phyllis Schlafly her conference was to counter the agenda that was put on at the National Women’s Conference. A women of the twentieth century may be asking “Why in the world would another woman be against equality, such as Phyllis Schlafly?” But like anyone we can all be set in our ways in which we were raised and change is a scary issue. Phyllis was a female conservative leader who was best known for her opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment. She is the woman who formed the group STOP (Stop Taking Our Privileges) ERA in 1972, Phyllis proposed that women should remain at home as full-time housewives and mothers, and that the ERA would create social chaos. Phyllis stated that women would end up being drafted into the military, would lose privileges (i.e. economic support from the husbands and a guaranteed alimony. Phyllis sternly ridiculed members of the women’s movement as anti-family, anti-marriage, and anti-children radicals. Even though most of her arguments were illogical and irrational she and her organization were a key piece in defeating the ERA, which was only three states shy of ratification in 1982. One can see as we move through time and into the twentieth century it has become more socially acceptable for women to be independent, valued and looked upon and an equal in what used to be a “Man’s World”. United States women started serving in the military in large numbers during the U.S. Iraq Desert Storm war in 1990 through 1991. This war, women accounted for 11 percent of the soldiers, serving in noncombat support positions. 2007 regulations changed and women were now allowed in combat aviation and on war ships but they were still technically excluded from ground fighting and using offensive weapons. During this time period women in the service did often times face verbal and sexual abuse, being called names such as “lesbians” and at times they fell victims to sexual assault. In one of the most exciting political occurrences known in history was for the run of U.S. presidential seat. This Democratic nation comprised of an African-American man, U.S. Senator Barack Obama against a white woman, U.S. Senator and former First Lady Hilary Clinton. It was a very close primary season, in June Obama gained enough delegates to secure his nomination. This contest brought forth alarming issues about racism and sexism with media focusing on Clinton’s emotions and clothing. Even though the nation nominated its first major party African American candidate for president, it also became clear that this country just may very well be ready for its very first woman president in American history in the very near future.

References

HIS 345 Women U.S History, 1865- Present retrieved from http://www.oocities.org/yaoleechena2/womenussince1865/ History of the ILGWU retrieved from http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/ILGWU/history/ Primary Documents in American History: retrieved from http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/14thamendment.html
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The Narrative of Sojourner Truth
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