Birth of the Women's Rights Movement
In the absence of public support, presidents very seldom take the initiative to support unpopular issues. The constant work of the women's movement was important to build the necessary support among people for women's suffrage, at first, and for female equal rights later on. The roots of female activism date to 1848 Seneca falls Convention. Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton provided the necessary leadership to denounce women discrimination. Their main objective was the right to vote. However, the passage of the 15th Amendment in 1869, which gave the right to vote to black men, split the movement. Susan B. Anthony and Cady Stanton refused to endorse the amendment, as it did not recognize the right to vote for women. They formed the National Women's Suffrage Association. The group worked at a federal level and also called for property rights. It is worthwhile to remember inheritance and property laws did not include provisions for women. Lucy Stone led the moderate wing of the women's movement. The American Woman's Suffrage Association tried to secure women's property rights at the state legislature. The two groups will eventually merge in 1900 and they will successfully work to pass the 19th Amendment. This time their communal goal was to exploit stereotypes about their immunity from corruption, guardians of family values, and concern with local issues to prove their vote was necessary to promote the reforms of the Progressive Era.
Even after the 19th amendment, women had the legal status of a minor. Women could not own property neither could they initiate a divorce. And the fact they could not make will, sign contracts, and bring law suit in court without her husband's permission deprived them of any possibility to follow an independent path. Even more disturbing was male success in creating an artificial female consciousness by which women looked at themselves through the lens of others. That is, women internalized the male definition of what it means to be a woman. Between 1920 and 1930 more than 22 percent of the total labor force was female. Before World War I women were concentrated in domestic service, agricultural labor and the clothing trades. During World War I, new opportunities opened for women in manufacturing and office work. After the war, women gave their industrial jobs back to returning soldiers. Yet, women preferred when possible, to hold onto clerical jobs even if wages were low. This pattern will repeat through WWII. Women were forcefully fired from the jobs they held throughout the war to accommodate the returning male soldiers.
The Flappers were perhaps the most noticeable change among women during the 1920s. They were the prototype to the sex revolution of the 1960s. Typically, flappers worked in offices during the day to turn into provocative women at night. They wanted to shock males with behaviors considered outrages for the time. They smoked, drunk, and wore skirts over the knee. In the long run, though, they did not contribute to the advancement of women. As soon the Great Depression struck, the Flapper phenomenon dissolved to become a colorful moment in female emancipation.
It must be said that there had been women before the Flappers who left a model for generation of women to be proud and reminded that women should indeed have full equal rights. Victoria Woodhull had an extraordinary life. She ran for President of the U.S. in 1872 for the Equal Right Party. She also was the first female millionaire. I want you to reflect on the point that women's efforts constantly opened doors for new opportunities. In 1884 and 1888 Belva Ann Lockwood run for President of the U.S. for the Equality Party. Moreover, she was one of the first female lawyers of the nation. Even more impressive was being granted to practice in front of the Supreme Court. Far from being a subservient entity, I doubt all generations of women to come would have found the confidence to expand women's expectations and nurture greater ambitions.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman predicted that female economic independence would lead to the elimination of gender social constructs: "Pictorial art, music... society, everything, tells her ...that all depends on whom she marries. (13) She understood that money buys more than material objects. Female economic dependence based on male support sets in motion a state of intellectual and emotional development. But, there are further implications due to a lack of economic self–sufficiency. Women would be forced to seek social acceptance and conform to male social mores. No wonder women took comfort in a "golden ring" that meant economic stability and psychological protection. The price that women had to pay for economic dependence was loss of identity. Her argument echoes in Betty Friedan's seminal work The Feminine Mystique, published in 1963. If in the past women was active protesting or picketing now the idealized woman was confined to the narrow roles of mother and housewife. "The problem that has no name" is in fact the result of a life spent with no stimulus and opportunity to develop one's personality.
The concept of oppression is mostly used to refer to class and racial exploitation. The instant that Perkins linked gender to oppression, I argue, was the fundamental piece needed to unveil the contaminated female identity. No doubt, she was ahead of her time. Her theory that economic independence allows women to question the whole patriarch structure based on symbols, habits, tradition will find vindication in the 1970s with the adoption of Title IX. Sam Gompers, head of the Socialist Party and Presidential candidate numerous times for a good reason, echoed Perkins' main theme when he stated in 1898, "a declaration of political liberty which does not involve an opportunity for economic independence is delusional." (13) The best way to understand how power works in society inevitably points to people in power. And Owen Young sums it up for all of us: "Here in America we have raised the standard of political equality. Shall we be able to add to that full equality in economic opportunity? No man is wholly free until he is politically and economically free; no man without adequate wage is free." (14).
The 1920s were a decade of great economic expansion. It was also the decade where women could vote for the first time. Time and again the female role in the novel depends on whom she marries. In F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, Daisy, despite her love for Gatsby, marries Tom Buchanan for money. His wealth is enough to keep Daisy from leaving him though he is a philanderer and has no respect for Daisy. Myrtle' character presents a woman who wanted to have a glamorous life. Married to a mechanic, she does not have the skills or education to change her life. She will accept an abusive relationship with the wealthy Tom Buchanan. The only woman who has some sort of Independence is the one who earns her own money, Jordan does not display any neediness and dependence on men that Daisy and Myrtle have.
Women in the 20s were supposed to reach new heights with voting rights and relative access to more jobs. Instead, Scott Fitzgerald seems to remind everyone that a lack of access to economic independence will create a false illusion of reality and/or will force women to lose their identity.
With such a complex world entering a new age full of ambiguous messages, it is crucial that our next generation of adults enter adulthood with a reasonable understanding of their person. Neil Armstrong claimed space exploration for humanity; Francis Perkins unlocked female consciousness to economic emancipation.
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