Women’s Evolution
We are all born the same and die the same. How can one human allow themselves to take away another human’s rights? There are major books and movies on slavery; however, some people tend to overlook the women’s rights that have come a long way since hundreds of years ago. It was not that along ago when women had no right to work, vote, or get education. They were simply looked upon as the weaker gender compare to men who were unable to perform work requiring muscular or logical development. Society had accepted the thought of women being easily corrupted with all their purity, innocents, and morality that was superior to men. However, some women where against this thought and started the first women’s rights movement in 1848 held in Seneca Falls, New York. It was a call for equal treatment of women and men under the law and voting rights for women. The Progressive Era began in 1890s and women were the main force behind it. The New Deal, which was passed during the first term of President Franklin Roosevelt in 1933, helped many women get employed. During World War I, women played a very important rule back home and in the battle field; they gained a lot more respect with all the hard work they did. Towards the end of nineteenth century, press gave the “New Women” title to those who were active in the public. A key person who was holding an important position in the government and used her powers to help women gain their grounds was Anna Eleanor Roosevelt who was the first lady from 1933 to 1945. She contributed a lot by supporting and conducting many organizations. Colored women had also started their own organization which later on came together with the white women’s organizations; however, they were facing a harder battle due to the fact they were slaves who gained their freedom in 1865. Over all, women were able to change their roles in society and family from the traditional point of view to becoming a working mother, loving spouse, and an active person in community. (American Women)
Women from years ago up until the nineteenth century were typically stereotyped as being weak, passive, illogical, and unable to resist temptation. On the same note, they were recognized as being more pure and moral than men. These qualities of women made them more suitable for private sitting such as home, and men were thought to be better fits for public world. A true woman was to feel little or no sexual desire and only abnormal women felt sexual desires. Birth-control was against their belief until Margaret Sanger, a nurse who was arrested once on the same issue, opened the first clinic in Brooklyn, New York in 1923. Getting employed was at first impossible to get. Women in lower-class worked as servants, domestic helpers, factory workers, or prostitutes. Middle and upper class women were supposed to take care of their home and family. Occasionally, they could help with family business. The concept of education being less important to girls than to boys changed towards the end of 19th century where higher education became broadened by the increased admission of women to regular colleges and universities. In 1900, one out of three college students were women that helped them gain nineteen percent of all undergraduate college degrees around the beginning of the 20th century. All of these freedoms were the seeds of the first women’s rights movement. (Middle Tennessee)
In 1848, some men and women got together to form an organization that fought for their freedom and gained women the same freedom as men. It took two days of discussions and debates to get sixty-eight women and thirty-two men to sign a Declaration of Sentiments, which outlined the agenda for women’s rights movement. One of the issues they were fighting for was the right to vote. Following the same path, the National Woman Suffrage Association was form by Susan B. Anthony, who was the key spokesperson (Western New York), and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who was a women’s rights activist, feminist and a writer (Biography). The main goal of this organization was to achieve voting rights for women by means of a Congressional amendment to the constitution. The nineteenth amendment was signed in 1920 granting the right to vote to any citizen regardless of sex and ethnicity background. (Living the Legacy)
Getting their right to vote was not the only noticeable thing women did, they were the driving force behind Progressive Era that stared in 1890s and ended in 1920s. Journalists wrote articles to increase people’s awareness regarding the political corruption, harsh factory conditions, and unhealthy residential neighborhoods. A large group of people, mainly from the middle-class, worked at local, state, and federal levels to clean the corruptions by improving the living and working conditions. The reformers worked hard towards improving public health and education, breaking up trusts and regulating private industry, and to eliminate waste and corruption in governments. The luxuries we have today are because of the impact women had on Progressive Era; that led to clean water, hot lunches at schools, public playgrounds and libraries, fire codes for buildings, and so much more. By the end of nineteenth century women were considered “moral guardians” who were the protectors. They used this philosophy to fit themselves in the public sphere to have public health and education under control. A huge number of women joined the reformers and conducted many research, employed programs, and gained enough power to raise their voice about social, political, and economic issues. The reformers laid the groundwork for President Franklin Roosevelt’s “New Deal” programs for men and women. (America’s Women)
A series of nationwide programs were created to focus on relief from unemployment, recovery of the economy to normal level, and a reform of the financial system to prevent the same mistakes from happening again. This was referred to as the “New Deal” which took place from 1933 to 1940. The main focus of the programs was on men as they were the main provider of their household and girls who got married quit their jobs to become housewives. However, a few numbers of households were being headed by women; with this fact under consideration, the New Deal came up with a program to assist women. Works Progress Administration (WPA) begun in 1935 to hire single women, widows, or women with disabled husbands. Men were mainly given manual labor jobs such as constructions projects, and women were in charge of making clothing, bedding, and hired for school lunch programs. Women were also funded by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) program that gave 8,500 women jobs to work at the beaches, park, and forests to keep the maintained. Besides helping men and women get jobs, the New Deal re-established trust in the currency. It was recognized as the first program the government came up with that was the great solution to the problems people at all levels of society were experiencing. What helped them get to this point was all the hard work they did during World War I. (American Women)
One event that helped women show their capabilities was World War I. the women peace activists formed the Women’s Peace Party (WPP) which could have worked if it was not dependent of the support of President Wilson that refused to consider their peace plan. That did not stop them from being active during the war; they served in the navy, marines, and majority of them served as nurses. The women who stayed back home, took over the men’s jobs and worked in factories and in the government. World War I increased support for woman suffrage and contributed to the passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920 that states: “the right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex” (UMKC). Another benefit the women gained was during the war was the Department of Labor created the Women in Industry Service which led to Women’s Bureau, headed by Mary Van Kleeck. (Middle Tennessee) The college educated, active in sports, interested in pursuing a career, supposedly young girls who look for marriage based on equality were titled the New Woman by the public and the press based on the change in their life styles. Many women found employment in department stores and as clerical workers. As more of them were graduating from college, more women were becoming lawyers, doctors, and scientists. Some of the young professionals during the reform movement made careers as settlement workers, social workers, and public health nurses. Their rule in society completely changed from house holders to an active person in public world that made them equal as men. (America’s Women) She was a mother of six children and yet involved in political and reform work. She set a perfect example for other women who wanted to work and have a family at the same time. Even though her husband cheated on her that did not stop her from being a great mother. She became more active by joining the League of Women Voters and the Women’s City Club in New York. Eleanor was one the knowledgeable and powerful women in national politics. She became the director of the Bureau of Women’s Activities of the Democratic Party in 1928. Eleanor held press conferences for women only to educate them and urged her husband to appoint women to governmental positions. Her point of view was that everyone, including women, youth, and black Americans should be included in the Franklin D. Roosevelt’s programs. This made her a huge stepping stone for women and black Americans. (National First Lady)
Colored women had a very hard life in the past. A black woman had to fight to prove she is a “true women” before she could even ask to vote. They had to fight as slaves and then fight as a woman. They were beaten up for anything they did or did not do. For example, if they refused to become someone’s wife, they mad would tie them up and beat them. There were no laws to protect them. African slaves were at the very bottom of the social system that were considered properties. Black women were even lower than black men and they were expected to do the same amount and type of work as men. In 1835, female antislavery societies were organized in Boston and Philadelphia. It was a mixed group of white and black middle class women that was led by Lucretia Mott, Harriett Forten Purvis, and Grace Bustill Douglass. The first independent women’s political organization was the Antislavery Convention of American Women that gathered for the first time in 1837. Towards the end of 1900s black had gained their freedom to get education, jobs, and in 1965 they got the right to vote as well. In 2010, Barak Obama who was considered a minority became the President of the United States. (Chapman Smith) Back in the days, women were viewed as a creative source of human life. Their main purpose of life was to get married and have kids. The only thing they were in charge was taking care of the house. During the 20th century, however, in most nations women gained the right to vote, increase their education and get employed while they could still be a mother and a wife. During the World War I, they proved their capabilities by being with the men at the battle field serving as a navy, marine, or a nurse, and they took over them men’s job back home in their absents. Women became the backbone of Progressive Era by taking the public health and education plus other projects under control to eliminate corruptions. Once the public saw all their hard works, the press titled them the New Women. With President Roosevelt’s New Deal, women getting help to find employment. It was a transaction between the traditional way women were raised and the new life style they were living and this transaction is yet to be completed.