CHANGE OVER TIME: Women’s role in society
A women’s role has changes tremendously and is making its greatest impact in our society today. Many years ago, women’s contributions to society were inadequate and controlled by men. Women are standing tall and are playing a major role in many important areas. Women’s roles have changed at an increasing rate and have part in areas such as politics, professional training jobs, medicine, business and law. Formerly they were not part of any political matter, but they had advanced in many aspects within society.
Since the beginning of time women have fought to find a lasting and prominent position in their society. In the short span of twenty years, 1900 – 1920, the roles of women changed dramatically in the U.S. Women went from homebound producers to wage earning consumers to political and social reformers in the short course of twenty years. Though the women were not always seen as productive by men, many women became active and independent. They also became productive in their new found jobs and roles as changing women.
Prior to the world wars, women were always considered the “weaker sex”. This meant that they were there to be pretty and to make sure all the chores were done and food was cooked. At that time, they also had what was called the sphere of domesticity. Women were supposed to stay in the domestic, another term for their house, while men were suppose to go off to work.
More than any previous war, the World Wars hinged as much on industrial production as they did on battlefield clashes. With millions of men away fighting and with the predictable dreadful sufferers, there was a severe shortage of labor in a range of industries, from rural to city jobs. Soon many women took advantage of those jobs and made money for themselves. These jobs were otherwise known as ‘Women’s Work’. In Great Britain for example, just before world war 1, out of an adult population of about 24 million women, 1.7 million worked in domestic service, 800,000 worked in the textile manufacturing, 600,000 worked in the clothing trades, 500,000 worked in commerce and 260,000 in local and national government. The British textile and clothing trades employed far more women than men could even be regarded to work in those industries.
Women’s impact is simply due to the fact they are now educating themselves which has made a considerable progress. The rapid development has helped women gain good education. It also helps that they are now concerned with the improvement of their own position. Women are starting to fight for their own rights and are slowly progressing and participating in activities that they were not allowed to before. The women’s rights movement is a god example of how women changed and came across very strongly and fighting for their own statuses in society.
When the war ended 6,000,000 or so men came back from the war expecting to get their jobs back. This led to a problem since the women were starting to move up in society and make money for themselves. The war led to several changes to society: women were given the opportunity to work and they like it, which later helped with the process of the women’s rights movement. Most women had saved some money while they were previously working so it enabled then to get started on saving or investing in buying a house, etc. It also showed that women could do some of the work men can, and that it was becoming clearer that women are equal to men.
Since the 1960’s and 1970’s, the women’s rights have been beginning to rise throughout the world. In the past several decades, the status of women has been greatly improved. The concepts of women in people’s minds have also changed. Nowadays, women play an important role in modern society. Many women are going into professions like law, engineering, health and medicine etc. They comprise a large part of the workers in business and factories. In addition, they are working up to important positions which used to be held by men. There are even in some cases where companies are completely run by women. Clearly, women are making outstanding achievements to the progress of modern society. Women had a great change in their society role in the past several years and it was all in a positive effect. Women now can have just a good of an education as men; they have many of the same job opportunities as well as fair ones. Their position at home increased. Although this view is widely held that women have had a successful change over time, there is still some evidence in which women’s roles have not changed enough.