Blog #14

Textbook: Chapter 10
1. Their were various reasons why feminism had its revival or its second wave during the 1960’s and 1970’s. The National Organization for Women was first introduced in which they would push for women’s equality and a change in the culture. The belief that people were able to practice safe sex because of birth control pills had allowed more people to be involved in sexual intercourse more freely. A new culture, known as a counterculture, had existed at this time. Another source of the second wave of feminism was the civil rights movement. African Americans began fighting for their own equality rights during the movement where they would go against the white Americans. The war in Vietnam also had an impact because many women had served at Vietnam. Women also had their own protests against the war making sure that their voices and opinions were heard throughout the nation.

2. The protest at the Miss America pageant shows us that women were not only looking for their equality rights politically, but socially and culturally as well. Women felt as if they were only being seen as objects which they felt was extremely degrading. Women had enough strength and confidence to go to a large event in order to get their word out about women’s liberation. They wanted to spread the word on how women should be as equal as men and not controlled by men. These women had made a lot of points regarding the issue and felt strongly about what they believed in.

3. The war of the sexes is one that has lasted for quite a while and it is a war that will exist throughout our history. Every time an issue is brought up regarding the equal opportunity to achieve something, different gender roles are brought up in order to question whether or not a women is capable of carrying out her duties in a certain job. An example of this today is with Hillary Clinton. Even though she has lived a life of politics and has the right credentials to become the President of the United States, many people in our nation question whether she is able to fight certain issues such as the war in Iraq because she is a women. Women have come a long way in order to have their voices heard and now have high positions in our government such as secretary of state Condoleeza Rice and the Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi who is third in line to the presidency if anything were to happen to the president or vice president. Women have definitely done a lot to get to where they are. They still have a fight ahead of them because some still criticize whether they could handle some issues. Although, they will have to fight against those who criticize, their fight will not be as long as it was in past years.

Source Interpretation
Textbook document
4. During the 1970’s, Mary Tyler Moore had an impact on the changed culture in the United States. She was able to show women throughout the nation that every woman was capable of being her own independent person, taking care of her own independent responsibilities. She showed that she did not need a man to take care of her needs and was able to take on a career in the television industry as a producer, which was mostly a male-dominated career. She was a single women who took care of herself and her own issues that took place. The Mary Tyler Moore Show is compared to Sex and the City in that the women in both television shows had their own careers in the city and would constantly look for men to date. Through this, they showed that they were liberated. These women were capable of making their own choices.

5. I would expect Walker to agree with Orenstein at some points of the article. These points would include the parts in which Orenstein talks about the women’s own independence and how these women are able to make their own choices. The parts in which Walker would disagree with Orenstein is when Orenstein talks about how women should not focus on just sex and also on their families and their careers. Walker’s article mostly talks about sexual liberation and on how women should be able to express and use their bodies in order for them to develop and grow. Orenstein does not see sex as important in developing and argues that a women’s family and her career is what truly makes her develop into the sexy women that she is.

6. There are some cases in women’s lives in which they do live their lives like the women in Sex and the City. These women usually live in more rich areas in which they revolve their lives around materialistic consumerism. These women have their own idea of independence which usually involves having sexual intercourse with any man they are sexually attracted to. Perhaps these women are controlled by these television shows and believe that being promiscuous is normal in our modern day society, since “Carrie” and “Miranda” are doing it. Although, most women in the United States do not live a life as the women in the television show. There are women that hold on to their morals and have enough respect for themselves to know the true meaning of independence, which does not involve sleeping around with a different man every week. Sexual liberty has not gained enough ground for all young women to be involved in sexual intercourse because even though sexual partners use condoms or birth control pills, a promiscuous young women is still not safe from sexually transmitted disease, even if “Carrie” believes she is. Although sexual liberty has not gained its ground, many young women continue to involve themselves in sexual intercourse because of their exposure to television and movies, which causes curiosity to occur in the lives of many young women.

Blog #13

Textbook: Chapter 9
1. As the war in Europe ended, a new type of war had evolved that would change the lives of families in the United States. The Cold War was had begun and the United States was getting ready to go against an enemy that had once been an ally. Some American women who were involved in politics were accused of being communists because of some of their beliefs. These women’s political positions were usually taken away from them because of these accusations. Meanwhile, women had returned to the home in order to take on their domestic work. This time, these families lived a life of fear because they were unsure of what the arms race would do and how far the soviets would go. Many also believed that the working women were actually harming their children by taking on jobs rather than taking care of their children. They argued that parents who did not take on their regular gender roles had a better chance of raising homosexual children and that separate gender roles created heterosexuality in children.

2. Betty Friedan had argued that the United States media and culture created the women’s domestic roles. Historians revision of Friedan’s book stated that Friedan did not talk about the differences of these women regarding class and race because most of the women that Friedan talked about in her book were wealthy white women. Friedan stated that the media had not shown these wealthy business women. Magazines such as Ebony were able to show the African-American women who had been successful in business and politics even though they were discriminated against. Other magazines even encouraged women to work and usually featured women with successful careers.

3. Women began the activist movements in order to live better lives. These activist women had fought for their opportunity to go into the workforce and challenged many different ideas regarding women. These women’s challenges had brought upon many difficulties as well. Women believed that they were being treated unfairly in the workforce. These women had been brought back to the same prewar jobs where they would have low wages and were even forced out of their jobs in order to make more room for the male workers who did not even argue with the employer’s decision. Many of the women workers had also been discriminated against and, therefore, protested not only for racial equality, but for equality in the workforce as well.

4. The “Bridge Leaders” that existed in the time of the civil rights movement had made an impact across the nation because of their large influence. These women had demonstrated their will and showed their strength throughout their communities in order to prove to many others the importance of standing for what they believe in. The concept of the term identifies how these women had fought against racial discrimination. They pursued equality using a method which involved sit-ins or the famous Freedom Rides. These women had used a method that caused a lot of controversy and media attention which was important in getting their word across throughout the nation.

Blog #12

Textbook: Chapter 8
1. Women’s gender stereotypes had been challenged throughout the war. Women had taken on a new identity from the beginning of the war all the way to the end. These women, with their new identity, had shown the United States what they could do in order to help with the war effort. In order to challenge their stereotype, women had been in the workforce with jobs such as welders or mechanics. Others were even recruited into military organizations such as the Women’s Army Corps or the Women’s Airforce Service Pilots. Even though they were not allowed to fight in actual combat, these women had shown that they were capable of taking on a man’s job. Even though these women were in the workforce, their gender stereotypes were also reinforced in some way. Women’s workforce jobs included nurses, clerks, and telephone operators. Women were not allowed to be paid doctors until April of 1943. The nation had tried to show that these women had not been masculine by printing a newspaper articles that told its readers that women were doing jobs that they would normally do in a civilian life. Women were seen as being temporary workers until the men would return to their jobs.

2. There were lasting results that took place because of World War II that shaped the way that many women and families would live their lives. During the war, as many men were fighting in the war, more women were needed in order to fill the men’s jobs. These women had a new idea of independence because they had been expressing their personal freedoms. There was also a large rise in the amount of marriages and the amount of families created after the war. Many women and their families had moved to larger cities where they would try to find higher paying jobs in a new type of area.

Source Interpretation
Textbook document
1. The women’s work opportunities were not limited during the World War II era. Women were needed in the workforce and the United States even put out propaganda posters in order to get women to attend to these jobs. Since the men were fighting in the war , the women had greater opportunities in the workforce. These women even got paid the same amount that a man would but would have to work just as the men did. According to these women in the article, they had to go through difficult labor in their work while they lived in conditions that were not all that comforting for them. These women were also not happy with their work hours and shifts because some had to work the night shift and get their sleep during the day.

2. The audience for this article are the men during World War II who were unsure of what would happen when they would return to home after the war. These women in the article prove that the job is too hard for them and that they would rather go back in the home and do their domestic duties as they had done before because that was the cleanest job of all. The article also tries to show the readers of the United States that a women’s femininity has not been taken away because of their work they have been doing and that their job is just temporary.

3. The women do not enjoy their work as much as some thought they did. They lived in very hard conditions with one another and also had to work hours that were not enjoyable for them. They were given the type of work that men would do in order to get the same pay as men did but many believed that it was not enough since they were working so much. The article points out their job experience as the work they are doing causes their hands to be sore. They do not get to sleep much and when they do, it is usually in the late afternoon hours of the day.

4. These women work while doing and man’s job while receiving the same wages that a man would, but the women are still able to retain their femininity. They wear their nail polish as they are doing the hard labor, they cook in their apartments and wash their dishes right after they finish eating, and they keep conversations past the night. In the article, Ginny states that she wants to return to the home because doing the dishes in the home is the only way that she could get her hands clean. These women did not find the conditions in the workforce too enjoyable because of their work conditions.

5. When the war is over, some women workers will keep their jobs and move to other jobs such as those in aircraft production. Many of these women will get married to the soldiers who are returning home from that war. These soldiers, who return from the war, will most likely take the jobs back from these women and work themselves. The younger girls who were working did not enjoy the workforce much and were hoping that when the soldiers did return from they war, the girls would be able to return to their home and work on their domestic duties such as cleaning the dishes and taking care of the home, since that was the cleanest job of all.

Blog #11

Textbook: Chapter 8
1. It was appropriate to speak about “New Woman” because the women in the 1920’s were different than those in prior decades and these woman played a large role in influencing society. They lived new lifestyles, and as each new decade appeared, a new and more independent type of woman was revealed. The 1920’s had first brought a new change with the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment which allowed for woman’s suffrage. Woman had been involved in politics in which they organized their own parties and even influenced the Democratic and Republican parties with some of the women’s issues which these parties recognized. Some woman were elected into politics such as those few elected to Congress. These new changes did not only appear in politics. As woman lived in this new era, a “New Woman” was introduced to the world. She was a “flapper” girl who did not care about what society thought of her. She was a rebellious type of girl strutting her short dress and rolled stockings. She made use of the new culture with her consumerism and her love of materialistic goods. She was the symbol of a “New Woman” in a new era.

2. Even though women were beginning to enter the world of politics in the United States, these women had experienced difficulty during their service. While in politics, women had always been expected to carry out the women’s issues and therefore gave them a limited amount of power in politics. It had become harder for women at the end of the 1920’s because many of these women had different goals and ideas of how they would carry out these goals, which caused a division between these women. An example of this was of the articles that argued for the ERA and the article that argued against the ERA. These women had different beliefs which made the bond between them weaker and made it difficult for them to carry out their agendas.

3. As the Great Depression was occurring in the 1930’s, citizens throughout the nation were fighting for a way to survive. Woman had gone through great difficulties in order to keep their children from starvation. They had lost their crops in droughts and were forced to migrate west in order to find new resources during their fight for survival. The image shows the hardships that these women had endured. The stress deep in her eyes show us the troubles this woman had to overcome. Her hand on her cheek while looking out into the horizon proves to us that she is nervous and unsure of what the future might bring. She sits there and ponders, worrying about her children as they rest themselves on their only source of strength, their mother. Her hair, beautifully brushed to the side, giving herself that feeling of being a young girl again; but still she is woman, a mother of thirty-two with wrinkles streaming away from her sorrowful eyes with each wrinkle telling a story of her hardship. She is a young caring mother colorful at heart, captured in a moment of grey, who has lived a lifetime.

4. The experiences of people during the Great Depression had been different because of the gender roles that existed. Many had believed that the women should work in the home even though many women had already begun to enter the workforce in the twentieth century. They believed that unemployment was and should be a problem for the men and not the women. The women in the home were able to keep the home together with their cooking and housecleaning while the men walked the streets with nothing to do. In a psychological aspect, the unemployment for men would take away their masculinity which would cause a disruption in the relationship of the families. Men had deserted their families and birth rates had declined.