Women’s History

Telling of the story concerning women that lived in America in the sixties and in the seventies has continued to be a favorite topic for scholars.  The women revolution of the latter part of the nineteenth century and the early parts of the twentieth century is often referred to as the “Second wave.” It may still not be clear who coined the phrase but the contribution of Norton Beth stand tall especially in her book entitled, “Major Problems in American Women’s History.”

The book captures challenges that women of yester years face and how they came up with creative solutions to meet the day to day challenges. The modern day woman may feel discriminated in terms of employment, social status and other areas, but her state is nothing in comparison to the woman that lived in the nineteenth century. The olden day woman had very little influence in society and it was the norm that her place was at home to do the laundry and cook for her family. There was a lot of male chauvinism that dominated the society. But even in such environments, women still found a way to be heard.

They came up with ingenious ways to create their identities, a task that needed the surmounting of many hurdles. They succeeded in rising above the tides of social pressure and as Norton (XVI) points out in her book, these women should indeed be commended for their important contribution towards the shaping of the modern day “social history” Norton continues to underscore that it was as a result of this that graduates can now look back in the sands of time and make something out of the footprints that were left by these virtuous women. The females of the modern society can take a good leaf from their forefathers while the males of the modern society can be admonished by the experience.

The Home

The traditional concept of the role of a woman was that her position was to be at home taking care of the house by cleaning, gardening and cooking. The males were traditionally viewed as the bread winners who spent their entire day sweating it out in the offices or in the factories. What went unnoticed to may people is that the women were actually doing more than merely seating at home to wait for their husbands to return in the evening. As quoted by Norton (1) Kate Haulum observed that  the women had a lot of free time on their hands an they converted this free time into making of very strong covalent friends hips amongst themselves.

The relationships that were forged by the women right in their homes were the same relationships that ultimately led them to come up with creative ways of making money, the women formed organizations and guilds and they literally “spun straw into gold” (Norton 1). But there was another important importance of their associations, the political movements that resulted from their social groupings benefited from the closely knot relationships which helped fuel the revolution (Norton 4).

Reproduction

One of the e biggest concerns for the women activist was the discrimination the women faced as far as sexuality was concerned. They were against the idea of a woman carrying a pregnancy she did not want as many women were exposed to sexual harassment and rape. The women activists also began to realize that the Sexual behaviors and the societal beliefs and taboos on the subject directly impacted on the woman more than it ever did on the male.

It was this that led the female activists to begin the debate that was to be heated on the subject of induced abortion. The debate may have begun in the late nineteenth century but it was only until the twentieth century that the debate began yielding some fruit when some \nations began legalizing abortion. The law traditionally did not permit abortion unless the life of the female carrying the pregnancy was in danger.  The legal experts were concerned that the provision for abortion was based on a condition that seldom occurred (Norton 437).

Equal and different

Norton (12) points out a very important fact, that the gender dichotomy was an umbrella of other bigger and discriminative dichotomies. The most important of this is the equality debate which has continued to be the center of debate even in modern times. The debate continues to take different connotations across the boarders although the initiators of the debate were merely asking whether women were equal. In fact, they were not directly alluding to the fact that women were disadvantaged or much less that men were to blame, a position that has since changed in the views of the current activists.

The early activists were referring to the story of creation in which God created Adam and afterwards created Eve. As the account of creation in the holy writings goes, God gave all the creation to Adam and eve to dominate but God never gave the dominance of the male to the female or the dominance of the female to the male. Ideally, they were equal partners. The activists based on this concept to insist on the need for equality of the men and the women (Norton 164).

 But the legal experts of the nineteenth century were the group that took the debate to a new level altogether when they decide to rewrite the social contract. The lawyers came up with the concept of co-equality in a bid to affirm the position of the women as equals and not subordinates in the male dominated society. By so doing, they had successfully created a space for the women even though the space was being created in an original social contract that was theoretical (Norton 164). This was perhaps the step that led to the calling for the creation of institutions that realized the need for affirmative action to help the woman achieve equality in the male dominated society (Norton 451).

Employment

One of the issues that concerned the activists was the issue of employment. As Barrie Fannie discovered, the coloreds that lived in the 1900s were better placed at securing employment than the other races.  The main reason was that the colored women had the required technical expertise and they also had a general good grasp of their different vocations. The African Americans were therefore discriminated from securing any meaningful employment (Norton 262).  

The African America women began to push for a change of view to also allow them to enjoy equality. It was widely realized that the black women were the last hired during an economic boom and the first fired during a recession. This led them to begin agitating for reform in the employment sector and as Norton records, the black women soon began to get employment opportunities albeit very slowly over the years. The main wheels for these changes were the unions they formed on the ground as the government was not very supportive in the initial stages. Politicians were too concerned with being politically correct (Norton 479).

The discrepancy in employment was however not merely a thing of race for indeed, even the coloreds were locked out of some jobs and they lacked a fair ground to compete with their male counterparts for opportunities. The first ever census that was done with a view of identifying the ratio of men to women across the different jobs was conducted in the year 1870. There were a number of women in some odd jobs but there were only a handful in the notable careers like law. This is also one of the facts that inspired the call for affirmative action.

The role and the importance of the women were fully appreciated in the economic with the onset of the concept of fundraising. It was a relatively new concept and people were not initially excited it since it was a typically case of one sowing his or her sweat. The woman run organization emerged as a very successful organization as far as fundraisings was concerned and it was therefore realized that the woman should be given more and more responsibility in the market place (Norton 170).

Conclusion

            The analytical approach of essays and the other sources that together make up Norton’s book are very instrumental to the knowledge and realization of the position of the woman in the society of yester years and the price that was paid for her liberation. The writer inspires critical thinking in the issues that surround the history of the American woman and how such issues influenced and continue to influence the formation of American societies. In summary, it is clear that the woman has since time immoral been subject to discrimination and abuse and has had to chart her own destiny through the help of the concerted efforts of her peers until she has finally achieved the present status. It is still clear however that the fight for equality has not completely been worn although considerable progress has been made.

Works Cited

Norton, Mary Beth. Major Problems in American Women’s History. Fourth Edition. New             York: Houghton Mifflin, 2007