** Feminist issues








Feminist Issues


Figure 1.--Faminists in the 1970s pursued the narrative that little girls were being indoctrinated by American society. The caption here read, "Women's lib: Little girl stops to read poster with a message for her, while daddy looks on with disdain. Demonstration was staged jointly by several women's militant groups, incliding one from Columbia University." The photograph was taken in 1970. The group involved seems to be called media women. The issue of brain washining is is intersting today in connection with mdern academia and media.

The modern concept of family is the 'nuclear' family. Today the nuclear family is widely viewed as the the basic family unit. Histirically this has not always been the case. In fact the nucleat family is a very modern creation. Historically, households in the West and many many societies commonly consisted of sometimes quite large groups of extended family members. This began to change in the industrializing West, especially in America during the late-19th century and began to be pronouncedd by the early-20th century. The Industrial Revolution was at the center of this change. The Industrial Revolution brought a more mobile society. Workers moved intomgrowing cities and couls easily move not bonly from gob to job, but from city to city. This commonly broke extended familt ties with relied on people living close to each other in fairly constructed gepgraphic area. Thus the nuclear family gradually became the primary family unit. The small nuclear family was tailor made for the modern age. Their relative mobility have the nuclear family the ability to seek out economic opportunities where ever they may exist. This was never in greater display than the movement West over the Oregon, California, and Santa Fe and other trails. And as modern American began to form in the 20th century, sprawling cities and economic opportunities meant that young people could marry and buy houses, this meant that nuclear families could live independently in their own homes, rather than in large extended family groupings. This is the cultural and social environment in which modern feminism developed. Wages were high enough in th early-20th century that working men could support a nuclear family. As women's employment opportunities were limited, the prevailing gende vole was for the husband to mork outside the home and for his wife to take care of their home and the children. This was the basic social pattern until World War II. Is at this time that a range of developments began to crack that social dynamic wide open. First, the War created an unprecedent demand for labor. As mean were drafted for miliray service, there was not only a vital needed for workers to keep war plants running, but to staff new factories being opened. And woman would fill those needs, working in industrail plants. Rossie the Riveter was a World War II icon. Second, American women were the most educated women in the world. American schools, unlike European schools were coeducational. And large numbers of women attnded seondary school and university, to a greaer extent than in Europe. This meant that they qualified for a wide range of jobs, although until aftder the War, teaching and nursing were rare areas in which women worked. Third, after the 1950s it became increasingly difficult for men, especially blue-collar workers, to support a family on his income alone. Fourth, feminist authors began questioning thevraditional arrangement at the same time that educated women began to bcome interested in professional careers.






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Created: 6:27 AM 3/6/2014
Last updated: 10:53 PM 4/8/2019