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Lauren Echols
Professor Lori Bedell
CAS 137H
6 November 2014
Paradigm Shift: Womens Roles in Society
The bald eagle, the ultimate representation of the foundation of the United States
of America, symbolizes a certain strength and freedom. The American people find
comfort in an animal with such grace, beauty, and independence and so it is not hard to
believe that the bald eagle is not that too entirely different than humans. Bald eagles, just
as most humans, settle down in adulthood with one partner and begin a family. In fact,
many of these similarities continue into the roles of each partner in a relationship. Just as
women were once confined to a life of domestic work and reproduction, the female bald
eagle is objectified in many of the same ways. For most of our history we have thought of
ourselves as the most intelligent and valuable animals on this planet, however we are
really not that far from acting just like the animals we presume to be inferior then us.
However, through a concerted effort on the part of women who wouldnt accept their
traditionally powerless roles that have been created by the patriarchal notions that have
been highly valued in society for more than we can remember, women have changed
from being considered property to having socio-economic power in American society.
The notion of women being considered property as apposed to citizens was a
notion that bloomed from patriarchal systems, power systems created on the notion that
men are the superior gender and therefore have the divine right to all leadership positions
in society. Such notions formed the role of women in American society and blatantly

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allowed for the complete objectification of women up until the 1920s. Up until this
point, women were denied general rights of citizenship. The passing of the 15th
amendment in Congress, which gave colored men the right to vote, created uproar of
sorts womens rights activists at the time. Many suffragists felt a deep sense of
resentment towards the men of color who had been granted citizenship just four years
prior. One suffragist, a doctor, minister, and the president of the National Woman
Suffrage association was quoted saying, You have put the ballot in the hands of your
black men, thus making them political superiors of white women. Never before in the
history of the world have men made former slaves the political masters of their former
mistresses! (Suffragettes). Needless to say, many women felt unified in their
resentment and thousands of other suffragists have been quoted saying other similarly
hateful statements. Through white womens resentment and jealousy during this time
period, the womens suffrage movement grew and flourished, women felt united behind a
cause. Despite the fact that the country favored such patriarchal ideas that even the ideas
of white supremacy were overlooked, as long as women were kept out of political affairs,
women were granted the right to vote in the 19th amendment, which was passed in 1920
(National).
Rooted in the newly granted right to vote, womens roles in society slowly began
to change. Before having the right to vote, women were not considered eligible to be
part of such academic and political circles. Even the President of the United States,
Woodrow Wilson, had a tough time acknowledging womens rights until 1918 when a
group of suffragists took to picketing outside the White House. Many of the young
women were thrown in jail for some inappropriate anti-war comments that were made

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during the protest. Following their incarceration, many of them continued their peaceful
protest through an organized hunger strike. In reaction to the news about the suffragists
hunger strike and for fear of getting bad publicity before his reelection, Woodrow Wilson
came out in support of the 19th amendment in 1918. Although Woodrow Wilson took very
little part in the womens rights movement, the subtle reassurance of his acceptance of
these ideas was enough to begin a snowball effect of the support of womens rights
among many citizens in the US (President). Women were finally allowed to exercise
their rights of citizenship with the ability to vote and had finally made steps to entering
the world of politics.
However, the women involved in the womens rights movement were not content
with merely exercising their right to vote, they did not want to restrict themselves only to
a say in the political world, they wanted a share in the economical world as well. With the
19th amendment under their belts, feminists were on to tackle the exclusion of women
from the job force. Ironically, the start of the Second World War in 1939, led to one of the
best opportunities for women to join the workforce (World). As about 70% of young
American males who had once worked important manual labor jobs in factories were off
at were, an urgent need for someone to fill these positions arose (Elder). Many factories
owners found themselves without employees whilst the need of many wartime products
skyrocketed. Although housewives had generally been prohibited from joining the work
force before this time because housework was considered to be their most important and
much needed contribution to society. In fact, there were laws in 26 states prohibiting
married women from being employed because it was said that married women had no
right to take mens jobs when they already had the occupation of caring for their

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husbands and homes factories. Despite the past laws, factories began to hire single and
married women alike (Women at Work). For the first time, women were permitted to
take part in the economic workings of the US, which continued to lessen their
objectification through demonstrating that they were just as capable in the work force as
the average American man and therefore deserved the basic human right to provide for
themselves and their families.
As World War II came to a close in 1945, about 6 million American men returned
home from overseas (Demobilization). The nation was filled with many reasons to
rejoice. With an intense war behind them and the sudden return of almost all young
American men who had gone to war, the American people rejoiced in finding love,
getting married, and settling down. The marriage rates absolutely skyrocketed. The
amount of women married per year doubled during the 1940s and by the mid 1940s the
marriage rates had hit an all time high in the United States (Future). These new young
couples wasted absolutely no time in starting families of their own, in fact about 52% of
the young women who were married during the 1940s were pregnant which is a stark
contrast to the general average of 27% (Future.) This time later became known as the
Baby Boom due to the incomprehensible rise in the birth rate during this time.
The return of the American soldiers from World War II created an issue of
unemployment for many of the returnees. Faced with the issue of denying these young
mens right to work and provide for their families, almost all of the women who had been
hired in place of the soldiers had to be fired and the soldiers were rehired. However,
combined with the skyrocket in marriage rates and large numbers of children born in the

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wake of World War II, women were expected to return to their matriarchal duties as
housewives, to care for their new families.
The womens rights movement went on hold, so to speak, during World War II.
With a complete focus of every US citizen on the war effort, many societal issues were
put on hold and World War II took center stage. A combination of the temporary
disappearance of the womens rights movement and the continually rising numbers of
new, young families, there was a reversion to traditional (read: patriarchal) values. For a
country that had so recently experienced such a gruesome war, the American citizens
found normalcy in these values that had always been such an integral part of Western
civilized culture. Women once again found themselves objectified and encouraged if not
forced to stay at home to raise and care for their families. However, the opportunity that
women were given by World War II to enter the workforce during the early 1940s gave
many women who were once confined to the occupation of housewife a glimpse of the
possible changes that could be spurred on by this opportunity. Women were now aware of
their ability to enter the workforce and escape the oppressive forces of patriarchy
altogether.
The extremely high production rates for the wartime effort turned out to have
many grand affects on the US after World War II. The gains made from production during
this time were enough to pull the United States out of the economic depression of the
1930s and cause an extreme rise in the spending power of many young people at the
time, which was the beginning of the American consumer culture that we know so well
today (American). With all of the economic power in the hands of many young
American men and their families, the American culture saw a huge shift from the once.

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The United States boomed with economic and societal changes. The television was
brought to the US for the first time in the late 1940s and was received by the American
people with complete fascination, which filled many with the yearning to have such a
product in their own home. And so started the American Dream, with thousands of
inventions and products hitting the shelves and more money in their pockets, people
became fixated by their new ability to purchase more than just the necessities. By the
1960s, the average American family spent about 47% of their expenditures on nonnecessity items (1960). This dream formed upon the competitive nature of people to show
and exercise their economic stability during this time period. The television was a big
contender in this new race to show economic standings, however it also brought light to a
multitude of new television personalities that were easily idolized by many. And from
these very grass roots, arose many images of atypical women who were not interested in
restricting themselves to housewives. Characters such as Mary Richards on The Mary
Tyler Moore Show, who was one of the first women depicted on television as a working
woman and so began the reappearance of the feminist persona during the 70s and 80s
(20).
The normalization of mainstream feminist ideas along with the current stability of
the American economy allowed for the reemergence of womens rights movement which
had been dismissed since the 1940s due to the countries shift in focus to larger issues.
Additionally, a new law which was passed by Congress in 1964 that stated that job
discrimination on the basis of religion, race, and gender was illegal, encouraged women
as well to step out of their traditional roles as housewives and enter the workforce
(Civil). It could be considered that the rise of the American Consumer culture also lead

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to the change of womens roles in society as purely homemakers to the second
breadwinners. With a continually booming consumer culture, the modern American
family began to rely on a second income to fund the many unnecessary purchases of the
time. In addition, the consumer culture gave rise to new American conveniences such as
the drive through and TV dinners, which took much of the domestic pressure off of many
young women with families who were yearning to join the work force and made it
possible for women to transition from the home to the job sphere without neglecting their
duties to care for their families (American). And so finally, we see the transition the
complete transition from the American housewife to the economically independent
second breadwinner of the family. Women finally had the ability to gain economic power
as they had yearned for since the first glimpse of this change during World War II.
The transition from the complete objectification of women as housewives who
were divinely created for the sole purpose of reproduction and care of the home, to the
modernized working class women who have access to economical and political freedoms
and power has been quite a journey from the late 1800s to present day. In comparison, to
the amount time in which these patriarchal systems have been strictly followed during
almost all of human history, one could say that this was a rather quick paradigm shift that
was spurred on by a relentless group of women who firmly believed that womens rights
were human rights and that women as intellectual equals to men, should also be allowed
to be economic, social, and political equals to men. Through their hard work as well as
many other factors that played into making these changes possible, women have gained
almost complete equivalence to men in all aspects of American society. Although the
oppression and objectification of women has not completely disappeared from the lives

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of American women, huge steps have been made towards preventing these issues through
raising the status of women from objects to male equals. If the past can predict anything
about the status of women in the future, we can surely see an uphill progression towards a
society free of sexism, sexist oppression, and objectivity.

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