The Prosperous Eras for the Women’s Rights
What exactly are women’s rights? As the famous saying goes, “women’s rights are human rights.” For hundreds of years, women have been deprived of the basic rights that are given to men. Women were not allowed to vote, social expected to marry, were not allowed to own property, and were ultimately stripped of their self-confidence and self-respect. Honorably, women have struggled and fought for their basic rights over the decades and the decades with the most notable successes of them all are the 1920s, 1960s, and the 1970s because of the great accomplishments and milestones for women and the women’s movement as a whole.
Throughout many decades, women have been vigorously fighting and struggling to be equal to men in all social environments. In the late 1880s, while women were able to have jobs, they only occupied small jobs such as maids. It wasn’t until the 1900s when women left the “cult of domesticity” and entered the “urban industrial workplace” as clerks, typists, secretaries, teachers, nurses, and seamstresses. A primary source discussed in class about Anna Harder Ogden describes the life of a maid during the late 19th century. Over the years, Ogden worked as a chambermaid, laundress, baby tender, and domestic servant. In this primary source, Ogden keeps a journal detailing her numerous jobs. Throughout the journal entries, it is evident that Anna H. Ogden was unhappy with her life as a servant. She even claims she will “surely commit suicide some of these days.” This particular primary source connects to the struggles of the daily life of a woman during the 19th century. Women have certainly made it a long way in their fight to gain true equality, however, women still have a long way to go.
The decade of the 1920s is perhaps one of the most dynamic decades in American history. The 1920’s is a period of urbanization, innovation, prosperity, social rebellion and political conservatism. In the 1920s, women were finally allowed to vote in all American states. It was also becoming more accepted of women to enjoy many of the simple freedoms that were previously only enjoyed by men. Also known as the “Jazz Age”, it was during this decade that a “new women” emerged. These new women rebelled against the traditional gender roles of the times before them and eagerly got rid of the wardrobe choices of their mother’s generation. Previously, it was the social norm for skirts to be approximately six inches above the ground. However, by the late 1920s, women’s skirts were worn at the knee. Although the idea of the “new women” wasn’t adopted or favored by all women, it is still a very significant time in women’s history. An example of the “new women” idea not being favored actually comes from one of the primary sources we reviewed in class. During the decade of the 1920s, a new version of feminism emerged, and women began to see that there was more to life than marriage and motherhood.
A letter written by a woman to Elinore Roosevelt, dated January 21, 1933. In the letter, the woman clearly does not agree with Roosevelt’s advocacy for “drunkenness for young girls” and states that she is ashamed of Roosevelt and should “be quiet like a good woman.” This last statement reveals of many women after the twenties still believed in the image of the “domestic woman.” To the writer of this letter, Elinore Roosevelt was not a good woman because she used her voice and did not let her husband “muzzle” her.
In contrast to the 1920s and other decades before it, the 1960s was a decade of social reform, liberal activism cultural conflict and youth rebellion. The recent successes of the civil rights movement inspired many other groups, including women, to demand equal opportunities and equal rights. Previously, the main focus of the women’s movement in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century was gaining the right to vote. However, the difference with the feminist movement during the sixties was that it was aimed to challenge the idea of the “domestic female” and to ensure that women got equal treatment in the workplace. In 1963, the Equal Pay Act was passed which made it illegal to pay women less than men for doing the same thing. In 1966, author of the Feminine Mystique, Betty Friedan and other activists founded the National Organization of Women (NOW). This organization’s goal was to put an end to the discrimination against women in the workplace. They also pushed forward efforts to legalize abortions and obtain support for childcare. During the late sixties, a new and more radical wave of feminists emerged. Similarly to the organization NOW, these new women wanted liberation for women of all forms of sexism and male-oppression.
By the seventies, the role of women in society was significantly changed due to the growing feminism of previous decades. On August 20, 1970, the Women’s Strike for Equality brought tens of thousands of women together to march for gender. Also in the early seventies, the National Organization of Women was still at large and pushing for the same important goals for women. By this decade, however, member of Congress, the Supreme Court and NOW were working together to advance the cause of gender equality. Most notably, in 1973, the Supreme Court, in its Roe v. Wade decision, made history by tacking back state laws that forbade abortions during the first three months of pregnancy. Ultimately, the Court decided that women have the “right to decide.”
Over the pass century, women have accomplished so much, however, despite their numerous successes, a lot still needs to be done. There are still barriers that are in our way to American women’s ultimate goal to full equality. The Women’s Rights Movement clearly has been successful in changing the social norm and the expected image of a woman and what she should be. All of the women and girls in America today are living in the legacy of the brave women that came before us. These brave women include the women of the twenties who dared to wear shorter skirts than what was socially accepted, the women of the sixties who united together and fought for equal treatment in the workplace, and even the women of the seventies who kept pushing and convinced America that women had the right to decide. Because of them, the world for women is quite different than what it was in the twenties. And with a new world comes new issues and situations. The great thing about the women’s movement, however, is that there are many powerful women in today’s world who have what it takes to fix those problems.