Women in 20th century America - Essay Example

Running Head: WOMEN IN 20th CENTURY AMERICA Women in 20th Century America [Institute’s Women in 20th Century America Women’s roles have undergone a change from the 20th century to what they are these days. Family today is somewhat as important as it was before, but the shift in needs of people today, coupled with the lifestyle everyone requires these days, requires a lot more money than it did before. Hence, the number of working women has increased since the last quarter of the 20th century.

Women in 20th century America were more dedicated towards their families than they are today. In the colonial times, women would help their husbands with agricultural work, knit, sew etc. Also it was part of the mother’s job to make sure that she would effectively pass on all of her skills to her daughters so that she would in turn make a good wife/ mother. As time progressed, and the industrial revolution took place, changes occurred gradually. There were changes in methods of work, transportation etc.

Consumer goods were now readily available which meant that the things that the women were required to do before were no longer required. This meant that there was more time for family. There was also a rise in perception of the people towards education and its importance. Unmarried females from the middle class got jobs and worked. More women were going for higher education. In the time of the World War II, more women got employment, whether they were married or not. In the later years, the rise in feminism in the 1960’s led women to organize for equal rights.

In the 1960’s to 1970’s era there were much more women employed as ever before. More women started to become the heads of families, meaning that in the 1990’s the children were quite less likely to get access to their mothers than before. The job of looking after children was usually outsourced to child care centers etc. According to Woloch "."family value" And the "traditional" family of post war America has swiftly faded" (Woloch p.375). Looking after the children changed to become a shared responsibility for both the husbands and wives.

The role of women still remained important for family, as it used to be the woman who was to alter her work schedule when her children used to be sick. The numbers of women to have joined various jobs according to their capabilities have been huge in the 20th century. The current scenario gives a somewhat clue to what it would have been like 10 years ago. In the end, it is the women of the household that are expected to keep the family together in times of crisis. As Carl Degler explains "Women are still the primary child rearers, even when they work.

" (Degler p.453). Women also freely volunteer to various jobs for the good of the society. They work in old age homes or kindergartens without pay. A safe thing to say is that they do it because of their inbuilt desire of nurturing and doing well for everyone. Women are and always will be the essential role-players in family for matters that range from taking care of the children or working like their husbands do as breadwinners to provide the desired lifestyle to the family. References Woloch, Nancy.

Women and the American Experience. New York: The McGraw Hill Companies, 1996. Degler, Carl N. At Odds, Women and the Family in America from the Revolution to the Present. New York: Oxford University Press, 1980. Meade, Teresa A.,& Wiesner-Hanks, Merry E. A Companion to Gender History.