Women In The 20th Century

Submitted By flower9797
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Every day when you see a woman at her job doing her work or walking the streets in casual clothing, was there ever a moment when you thought she didn’t belong, or deserve to be who she is? It’s become a rarity to find prejudice beings in everyday society, however there was once a time when married women were considered the property of the man whom of which she loved. Even in our free country, it wasn’t until the 19th century, that the rights of women were even considered. The women of today’s era, are free to be who they are today, because of the 20th century “New Women”. The working women, the suffragettes, and the Flappers who stood for themselves and fought for the equality they deserved. The day the US joined World War I, was the day that all of our country’s men were being enlisted in the army, and our workforce was running low on man power. Around July 1914, just before the war broke out, there were about 3.2 million women in employment. By January 1918 the employment of women had amounted to 5 million (“Women in WWI”). As a result of the sudden draft into war, the role of men was pushed onto all women. Without much of a choice, women were pulled from their house duties, or other lesser jobs for women, and lured into the average mens workforce. Observations show that their ability to hold the position of a man, led to a change in the attitudes towards every woman (“Women in WWI”). For many, learning that women were capable of taking over a man’s role in society, their view on women changed for the better. Hundreds of thousands of women replaced men in the munitions industry, an extremely dangerous job that women managed to successfully keep stable (“Women in WWI”). Most women enjoyed stepping out of the house and feeling that they were needed for their country. “…For many women the war was ‘a genuinely liberating experience’ that made them feel useful as citizens but that also gave them the freedom and the wages only men had enjoyed so far” (“Women in the Workforce”). Yet, women joining the workforce was not all they were capable of. During the war, April 6th 1916, marked the very first time that women other than nurses were granted the ability to enlist in the Marine Corps or the Navy (World War I…”). Because of the actions taken by these strong women who enlisted in the army, many more opportunities became available in the future of women. “Women’s successful participation in WW1 was an important precedent for expanding roles of American Women in the Military and for developing the military establishment’s acceptance of women’s service in the U.S Armed Forces” (“World War I…”). Not to mention, not only did the women enter the workforce and Navy, they also took their place in sports entertainment. They filled the shoes of men and began to play baseball. A whole new entertainment with gambling and excitement to take the gloom and stress out of everyday lives. By the time the war ended, many women had to return home and welcome their husbands back from the war and return to their everyday lives before the war ever occurred. Since the first World War, the opinion of our society’s women began to change, and with it our Government began to change as well. Noting a woman’s strength and intelligence was key to opening up the eyes of others in society. It all began when the effort of women at work, in respect to the World War, displayed women as worthy of citizenship and as patriotic as any man, as a result (“The Fight For…”). For many years women have been trying to earn their right to vote. All those women who believed they deserved that right, those who protested, and continued to fight, were considered suffragettes. Many more activists began to believe that women deserved to vote for the very reason that women are different from men, and because of that, they believed a woman’s vote could give a different perspective (“The Fight For…”). The belief that woman are different form men contradicts the older belief that
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