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By the end of the 20th century, there was a complete turnaround of gender norms comprising of mixed and reversed roles among both genders from the reserved gender roles that were exhibited and practiced at the onset of the 20th century. This paper will analyze the characteristics of the 20th century gender norms and the way these norms were enforced and justified by both genders. On the first phase of the analysis, gender norms that surfaced in the first half of the 20th century will be discussed, each with their respective enforcements.

This phase contains significant gender evolutionary milestones like women suffrage, and women’s increased responsibility in acting as subordinates to men during the first and second World Wars. The second phase that constitutes the second half of the 20th century displays more dynamism in gender norms reconstruction. These go on till finally, there is a form of gender norm balance and satisfaction from both ends at the end of the 20th century. The need for a more aligned gender norm definition does not stop, as the same plea flows over into the 21st century.

The conclusion of the defined characters will be succeeded with a brief explanation of the challenges that were encountered in a continual bid to adopt and accept the changes in gender norms through the 20th century. Gender norms transition: 1900 – 1950 The onset of the 20th century carried itself along with the strict gender norms that were adhered to at the close of the 19th century. The increased industrial age had amplified the disparities in the gender norms where the men were categorized as the society’s producers and the women classed as protectors of the comfort havens the men came to roost after their daily works.

The women in the society thus maintained a low profile in the society with their area of confinement maintained as the household where they took care of the children, prepared food, and carried out other household chores that would take away that burden from their men’s activity list (Ryan 34). In the years that preceded the 1920s, women’s suffrage was the key fight by women that aimed at giving the native-born American woman the power to participate in politics and the right to vote. This fight had persisted during the last 40 years of the 19th century with associations such as the American Women’s Suffrage Association (AWSA) by Lucy Stone and Henry Blackwell in 1869 and National Women’s Suffrage Association (NWSA) by Susan B.

Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton in the same year. The cries for women’s suffrage were initially ignored by the chauvinistic-dominated male administration. The years between 1910 and 1920 marked the most active years for the fighting for women’s right to vote and emphasized by an active lobbyist, Catt, who utilized her personal relation skills to obtain more than 500,000 signatures attesting for women’s suffrage. Since the advent of politics, it was a preserve of men whose position in politics was justified by claims of them being able enough to make decisions.

Further, it was alleged that women were too religious to soil their morality in politics, which was allegedly dirty. It was preferred that they kept their sanctity and helped uphold the moral values in families and the society (Ryan 58). After many years of activism, 1922 was the year of victory when women participated for