Rise of Feminism and Women Rights During the WW1

U.S. AFTER 1865

DYNAMICS OF GENDER POLITICS IN THE 1910S AND 1920S

In the period during World War 1, the place of the women was in chemical plants, steel foundries, and munitions factories as a way of serving their country. After the creation of the Army Corps of Nurses, many women went abroad as nurses, and this gave them strong moral arguments for their voting rights. Women tactics and immoral way of treatment forced the Congress to act on the issue, and it was on August 26, 1920, that President Wilson declares his favor on women suffrage. From this day on, the style of women changed and between 1910 and 1920, many women were present in the labor force. Moreover, a notable difference was also evident in the kind of works the women engaged in, and this led to the decrease in the number of female household servants, dressmakers, farmhands, and cooks. Nonetheless, an increase in women bankers, doctors, social workers, police and probation officer and hairdressers was noted (Tindall & Shi, 2010).

The 1920s also marked a new period for females because they found new freedom in the modernizing of American urban culture. Two of women's greatest movement, temperance, and suffrage were brought to life, and this changed gender politics in society. The women witnessed new challenges about gender status quo, which mostly affected the cultural sphere. As such, women from the urban places enjoyed their fruits of new mass-production of the consumer economy; they adopted new styles and lifestyles, and this pushed traditional limits (Kramarae & Spender, 2004).

During this period, gender politics of women saw a shift as women became trained about sex and their sexuality and this enabled them to seize great control over their bodies and lives. The contraception gospel spread and this was a form of liberation for women.

Feminism is a term that came into use in the 1910s and looked at issues of marriage, sexuality, the workplace and the home, which were all beside the suffrage issue. In 1910, the Women's Political Union manage to organize the first women suffrage parade in New York City and later in 1911, the National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage (NAOWS) was structured. Mrs. Dodge Arthur led the movement. The members included influential and wealthy women, brewers and distillers, Catholic clergymen and corporate capitalists. The National Women's Party of 1913 is one of the movements that brought about change as it peered to fight for the women's equal rights. The groups managed to picket the white house; they held marches on women suffrage, and they held meetings with many personnel from the political system. The movement was successful in delivering its intended goal because women were involved in voting in the 1920s and they attained their rights (Kramarae & Spender, 2004).

The limit and resistance that the movements encounter were related to their agendas that revealed a revolution and change as they protested against women suffrage. In achieving self-respect, the women went for education as their power tool, and this made them attain better lives for their family, which included their husbands. Their ideas were being stalled by the men who were in power, and this resulted in a delay in presenting their ideas and implementing them to societal members (Tindall & Shi, 2010). Due to their revolutionary ideas, the movements caused the rise of controversy and the ideology of women's place being at home limited the parties from performing their agenda. Through this ideology, men portrayed the inherent characteristics of women, and the traits made it impossible for women to function well in the public sphere. These setbacks, however, did not deter them from attaining their end goal, which was liberating women and ending their suffrage. Their access to resources was limited, and this hindered the movements from accomplishing their objective quickly and steadily.

Reference List:

Kramarae, C. & Spender D. (2004). Routledge International Encyclopedia of Women: Global Women's Issues and Knowledge. New York: Routledge

Tindall, G. B. & Shi, D. E. (2010). America A Narrative History, 8th (ed.). New York: WW Norton & Company