Tuesday, December 24, 2019

What was expected of women - a brief overview

Women today have a choice of what to wear. We aren't expected to be housewives all our lives, be stay at home moms for life, or focus solely on finding a husband. We can now be single, working women. We can be married working women, too, thanks to the changing times and the freedom we have acquired in today's era. If you so desire you can be a stay-at-home mom, but it's a choice you can make for yourself. The point? We have a choice.

1950s ad for a mixer 


I'm going to give you a brief overview of every era up to now. Coming up next week is the men's side of expectations up until now. 


The Overview
 1800s-  Your status, in this case, matters. Middle and upper-class white women had the expectation of educating the kids. Either way, you stayed home and raised the kids. Being in the public sphere wasn't a woman's place, according to that society. There were white women writing, usually under a different, male, name. While some did that, others used their actual names.

women sewing in factories in 1800
African descent meant being slaves, most of the time. African American descent had a role in their tribal public spheres, but not white public spheres. White society overlooked Native American
society often. 

  Some women went into higher education and founded schools. The abolition movement was getting started at this point. There were limitations to speaking in public life, however, and that led them to fight for more voice. Work, mostly sewing, was being introduced with the invention of the sewing machine, and many women did work, especially if they were widowed. 

1900 working women
1900s -  Still, it was assumed women were domestic. If you were upper class, you found a husband and raised a family. Women were being more educated at this point. The direct result was exercising rights and contributing to the economy, as well speaking on their own behalf politically. Some were absorbed as workers in Mills. However, after World War I ended, the women who worked in place of men were sent back to the domestic sphere, just like another era I'm going to talk about. 


 1920/1930-  Flappers began around 1920, and this is the year of prohibition, the failed movement that caused more drinking than ever before. Attitudes towards women were changing. The right to vote was extended to women, so women had a political voice now(Though some remained convinced women were purely domestic, and this is coming from women and men). The political reforms for prisons and child labor were the fruit of women in the political sphere. 

College was not an expectation for women, like it is now, but when they did get educations it was for nursing or teaching. Women were not welcomed in with open arms, as a general rule, when it came to higher education, yet women were getting into colleges with more frequency. 

Women working wasn't the trend at this point, either, given that 15 percent of white and 30 percent of black women held down jobs. The popular opinion was that if the husband worked, the woman didn't. Young unmarried women were getting jobs more often. Think secretaries and retail, with young women. It was acceptable to live outside of home if you worked. By 1930 one in four women held a paying job. However, majority worked only until marriage. 

four flappers drinking-1920
Cigarettes among women became popular, as well, for sophistication and fashion. The flapper was
freedom for women, representing less restrictive rules for clothes and behavior. Women were now in the public sphere and more independent, along with more freedom from society rules. 

1940/1950 -   In 1940, the wartime call to join the army meant fewer jobs filled, and women filled those roles, though they were expected to return to the home afterward. Women, too, were being accepted into military roles, including intelligence operations that dealt with codes (though it was kept hush-hush to the point that it is barely known about). To replace the boys playing baseball, girls took their place at the call of Wrigley at Wrigley Field. Women were on top when the men were away. 

propaganda 1950 
1950 brought a national agenda for the return of normal, family-centered, life. This was also the cold war era, so there was general uneasiness. Women were highly encouraged to be purely domestic, in contrast to the propaganda that showed communists as just the opposite. It discouraged women from working because communist women worked miserably and put their kids in a cold daycare center. 
We went from Rosy the Riveter to "go back to the kitchen". 

You might be familiar with MRS degrees, that is, getting married out of high school or college, and probably not finishing your degree. Basically, you go to college to find a man. Though employment rose, media urged women to be domestic. Most had large families right away. Stay-at-home mothers were highly encouraged and women working when they were financially okay beforehand were considered selfish. 

While singleness was a bad sign then, single and pregnant was worse. They were sent away to homes for wayward women and shunned by society. Thus birth control was more of a need, either that or you obeyed society and only had sex in marriage. Sex was for marriage and considered a key part of a happy marriage. Without birth control, this meant having a lot of kids. When the pill came out there was much joy. 

1960
1960/1970 -     The sixties was yet another changing time. The birth control pill was a new invention, called Enovid. Women entered the workforce more, now able to control how many kids they had. They were being challenged to follow their dreams by Betty Friedan's book. The work world was adjusting work regulations. Women took on political roles once again. TV shows stuck with the 1950 dream, but movies were moving to women who didn't fit that mold. Women weren't held back as much anymore. Political roles grew as women's rights movements became bigger. Women were gaining government roles as they fought for more rights. 

1980/1990 -  The war on drugs was now in full swing, and the first lady Nancy Reagan started the "just say no" campaign. College was now becoming more and more common for women, mostly for library science, home economics, nursing, teaching, and social services. These weren't decision making jobs. Pay still wasn't equal. "Ms." was now a term used, and you can't tell marriage status from that. It was for privacy and lack of focus on marriage status. 

With movies, women had more leading roles. These were more mature roles, less sex symbols. We all know Hollywood still uses women for sex symbols, but there was less of that going on in 1980. 

From the movie Pretty Woman
1990 brought online work, with the internet, so women could work from home. Some still do, to this
day, and make good money. It also brought more sex symbols in movies back, and women's dependence on men. Men were more leading roles. 

College was even more popular here. Feminism was still alive here. Women were going for decision making jobs at this point in time.


Present day (2000s)

Today we don't have strict rules for female roles, from 2000 on. To be egalitarian in view means equal opportunity (and in marriage, equal partnership). That is now the majority in this present time. The time for strict roles is gone. You can do, more or less, what you want. 

Given that, there are still some limitations in some careers. Careers that are still dominated by men include truck driving, carpentry, construction, and automotive. The heavy lifting and hands-on dirty work are not presented as options for women most times, because we are either small human beings (I am at least, I'm short.) or we are pushed into college education. While there are exceptions to that rule, as always, most females aren't running towards the labor-intensive jobs because they are presented as men's work by ads, and when night work comes into the picture some worry for their safety as a woman. That doesn't mean you can't do these jobs if you are female. All that means is that you are one of the few if you do.

This has been an overview of women in society and what is expected of us. Next week tune in for the men's side of things. Merry Christmas! God bless us, every one!



Pictures:
the classroom
misadventures magazine
all that's interesting
makinghistoryatmacquarie-wordpress
medium
the study
Hollywood Reporter
fueloyal

Sources:
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