They Called it Women's Liberation
How Women Were Lured Out of the Home in
the
By Areeba bint Khalid
Posted: 9 Jamad-ul-Awwal 1424, 27 June
2004
From the 1800s to
the present day, family life in the West has remarkably changed. While the West
calls this change part of the women freedom movement, a look at history may
show otherwise.
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial
Revolution, which began around the early 1800s, brought a major change to this
way of life. In 1807, in the wake of the war between
In 1814, Francis
Cabot Lowell, a man from
But
Soon after, more
and more factories emerged across
For money to be
earned, people had to leave their homes. When women worked on the farm, it was
always possible to combine work and family. When work for women moved outside
the home, however, the only women who could follow it were those without family
responsibilities or those who had no husband or no income. Likewise, the only
women who could take care of their families were the ones that didn't have
work.
This working out of
home became a part of life for unmarried women. They would work until their marriage.
But as time passed, women found family life interfering with their work life
and instead of viewing working out of home as optional,
they viewed family life as such. Many women started delaying marriage even more
and some decided to stay single.
Married women
however stayed home and dedicated their time to their children. Now that there
wasn't any farm work to do, women had even more time to spend with the
children. In 1900 less than about 5.6% of married women worked outside. If a
married woman were to work, it would be considered that her husband was invalid
or that she was poor.
World War I
The first major
entry of married women to the workforce came during World War I in 1914. Men
went to fight the war and the country needed workers to take over the jobs they
left behind. Unmarried women were not sufficient for the labor needs, so
employers started to invite married women too, to work. By 1919, 25% of the
women in the workforce were married. But this was only the beginning.
Another change
World War I brought was the entry of women to the army. About 13,000 women
enlisted in the US Navy, mostly doing clerical work--the first women in
Great Depression
The Great
Depression came in the 1930s. The unemployment rate climbed from 3.2% in 1929
to 23.6% in 1932. Jobs became scarce for skilled people and men. Fathers went
to search for jobs. Some, under despair, deserted their families. The
responsibility of earning fell on mothers in many families.
Most women and
children, however, found jobs more easily than men because of the segregation
of work categories for men and women. Although 80% of men during the Great
Depression opposed their wives entering the workforce under any circumstances,
economic factors made it necessary for the women to work. Hours were long and
pay was low. Twenty percent of white women were in the workforce.
World War II
World War II came
in the early 1940s. Men were drafted to fight, and
But still, public
opinion was generally against the working of married women. The media and the
government started a fierce propaganda campaign to change this opinion. The
federal government told the women that victory could not be achieved without
their entry into the workforce. Working was considered part of being a good citizen, a working wife was a patriotic person.
The government
founded the Magazine Bureau in 1942. The Bureau published Magazine War Guide, a
guide which told magazines which themes stories they should cover each month to
aid war propaganda. For September 1943, the theme was "Women at
Work". The slogan for this was "The More Women at Work the Sooner We
Win." Magazines developed stories that glorified and promoted the
placement of women into untraditional jobs where
workers were needed. The idea was that if smaller, unexciting jobs were
portrayed as attractive and noble more women would join the work force.
The media created
Rosie the Riveter, a mythical character to encourage women into the workforce.
Rosie was portrayed as a patriotic woman, a hero for all American women.
"All the day long, Whether rain or shine, She's a
part of the assembly line. She's making history, Working
for victory, Rosie the Riveter… There's something true about, Red, white, and
blue about, Rosie the Riveter."
The propaganda
efforts worked. More than six million women joined the workforce during the
war, the majority of them married women. In 1940, before the war, only 36% of
women workers were married. By 1945, after the war, 50% of women workers were
married. The middle class taboo against a working wife had been repealed.
Post World War II
The 1950s marked an
era of prosperity in the lives of American families. Men returned from war and
needed jobs. Once again, the government and media got together to steer the
opinion of the public. This time, however, they encouraged women to return home,
which shows that the women were brought out not for their freedom but because workers were needed.
But this effort was
not as successful and was abandoned quickly. First, women from lower economic
ranks had to remain in the workforce because of economic necessity. And second,
there came the rise of consumer culture.
The baby boom took
place during the 1950s as well. Women who returned home dedicated their lives
once again to their children. But around the same time an important change had
come in the American life. This was the spread of the television. By 1960, 90%
of the population owned at least one set. Families would gather around the
screen for entertainment. In the early days, everything including commercials
was watched with great interest.
Most middle-class
families could not afford the goods the television declared necessary to
maintain or enhance quality of life with one paycheck alone. Many women
returned to work in order to live according to "the American standard of
living," whatever that meant to them.
The number of American women in the workforce from 1940 to 1950
increased by nine percent. From 1930 to 1940
there had only been a three percent increase.
Effects
As mothers returned
to work, the television became the most important caretaker of a child.
Children in the 1950s spent most of their non-sleeping hours in front of the
television screen.
In 1940, less than
8.6% of mothers with children under eighteen worked. By 1987, 60.2% of women
with children under eighteen were working.
As wives assumed
larger roles in their family's financial support, they felt justified in
demanding that husbands perform more childcare and housework. Across the years,
divorce rates doubled reaching a level where at least 1 out of 2 marriages was
expected to end in divorce. Marriage rates and birthrates declined. The number
of single parent families rapidly increased. People grew unhappy with their
lives, when compared to the lives of people on television.
Women working
affected the society in many different ways. The first and most important of
these was that children with working mothers were left alone without the care
of a mother. As the number of working women increased, the number of children
growing up unsupervised increased, and with this increased crime among teens.
Since most women
placed their career ahead of family life, family life was greatly affected
since unmarried women were generally able to make more money than married ones.
For example, according to a study by a Harvard economist, women physicians who
were unmarried and had no children earned thirteen percent more per year than
those who were married and fifteen percent more than those with children.
Today
The majority of
women still work at the lower levels of the economic pyramid. Most are employed
in clerical positions, factory work, retail sales, or service jobs. Around 50%
of the workforce is female. While about 78% of all cashiers and 99% of all
secretaries today are female, only 31% of managers and administrators are
female. Equality in the workplace has been a mirage but it has conned millions
of women into leaving their homes and destroying the family structure.
It was only when
economic or political factors made it necessary to get more workers that women
were called to work. The Industrial Revolution, the Great Depression, and the
World Wars, all the major events which increased the proportion of women
workers, were times when the capitalists required more workers in order to be
successful in their plans and so they used women.
The move of women
from home to the public workforce has been gradual. First poor women went. Then unmarried women. Then married women
without children. Then married women without young children And then, all women. The same thing can be seen to be
happening in developing countries around the world, as the West spreads its
propaganda of freedom for women to work. The results of this move will probably
be the same too.
Bibliography
-Hawes, Joseph M.,
ed. American Families: A Research Guide and Historical Handbook.
-Mintz, Steven. Domestic Revolutions.
-Gary B. Nash,
American Odyssey.
-Wilson, Margaret
Gibbons. The American Woman in Transition.
-Goldstein, Joshua
S. War and Gender: How Gender Shapes the War System and Vice Versa.
-
-The Library of Congress Rosie
the Riveter: Real Women Workers in World War II http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/journey/rosie-transcript.html