Modern Women

Women in the New Century

Introduction
Women have always accompanied men. At the beginning they had secondary roles, they lived at men´s shadow. Everything that was important, in terms of power and prestige, was under men’s control. Domestic responsibilities were the natural domain of women. But women’s role has evolved with time.
Because of the intense and rapid change industrializationbrought, there has been a change in women´s role in the society such as voting. Voting was seen as a symbolic of all the women´s rights, they believed that voting would allow them to get into other areas of influence in society. As a consequence they fought for equal voting rights. After they won the battle for suffrage, the target of their activism shifted, and women began to pursue more personalfreedom.
The 1990s have been characterized by great changes in gender definitions. Women learnt that they can rise to leadership roles. But it has been shown that it requires more effort, that they have to be exceptionally better, and that they must devote a great deal more time, than men. Because they had always been denied many of their rights they began to fight for their own place in societywith sacrifice, effort and suffering. They are still capable of settling down in a relationship, having children and doing the housework. In the Twentieth First Century women have proven to be capable of carrying out the most demanding challenges in male world.
Some History
It is necessary to look at the key social changes in the past to better understand this role reversal.
In 1865, the firstcollege aimed exclusively at educating women was founded; the ideas of equality began an upswing. With more education, more women were allowed to participate in society, but it was really only upper class women, whose families could bear the expense of the education.
From the late 1860s to the early twentieth century, women began to press to be allowed into professional occupations, as doctors andlawyers.  (In the beginning, they could get the degrees but not the licenses to use them.)
At this time, voting was seen as symbolic of all the rights women were denied, and they believed voting would allow them to get into other areas of influence in society. By the early 20th Century suffrage was again an issue, as women began participating more in public life.  Still, everything that wasimportant, in terms of power and prestige, was under male control: politics, economy, etc. During the first fifty years of the 20th century many countries have attained women’s right to vote.
WWII changes gender roles once again. Women’s working was seen as a national necessity and a patriotic duty.  The media and government propaganda worked to convince women that they could retain their femininityand still hold men’s jobs. These women were given new training and became very skilled. Women also became better educated during this time. Since the younger men (18 to 21-year-olds) were at war, women needed to fill college seats to keep colleges open. By the end of 40s, however, the war had ended and men wanted their old roles as leaders, workers back, and justifiable felt entitled to this, asthey had risked their lives for democracy and American values.  Again, many women were fired and removed from their jobs—after all leaving those jobs was now their patriotic duty—but this time many women were angry and resentful because they had found a degree of self-definition they had not previously known.
The 1950s was a great era of consumerism. Americans found great prosperity, producing andcreating needs for many consumer items.  Items were marketed toward the idea of providing women with more time and freedom, as vacuum cleaners, toasters, and washing machines could satisfy their needs for technology and help them become more efficient at their domestic duties. Men worked designing, manufacturing, and marketing these items, while women stayed home and worked to create a “haven”...