March is known as Women’s History month, a month where we acknowledge the accomplishments of women so far, how far women have come and hopefully what we will lead into in the future. The world has changed drastically for women in the past century, new job opportunities, leadership positions and the right to vote have been added to many of the things women have done and influenced.
“I feel like everytime some important turning point happened we can look back and know that didn’t just happen because men were in charge it also happened because women were serving in any capacity they could,” Michele Forbes, a history teacher here at South said.
There were three predominant waves which started this movement for equality. The first wave having started in the late 19th early 20th century which focussed on the legal rights of women, for example, women’s suffrage.
Times often varied when specific states voted for these rights, places like Wyoming or Utah started as early as 1870 to ratify the 19th amendment whereas other states like Oregon or Kansas ratified it only a few years prior to its nationalization but it was nationally passed in 1920 by 36 states, giving women the right to vote. This is something that is still known as a crucial accomplishment from the 20’s and something that hugely influences our world even to this day. “Just the very fact that women couldn’t vote for such a long time and their voices weren’t considered important for such a long time and now we recognize that women are equally capable as men for anything especially for ideas and that opened up so many doors,” Forbes said.
The second wave in the 60’s and 70’s lasted around two decades and looked at issues of equality and discrimmination in the cultural and political instances, for example, their rights of sexuality, family, the workplace or reproductive rights. The third and final generation started in the late 90’s and has continued into the 2000’s which sought to redefine the ideas of womanhood, femininity, beauty and gender. Not only have women achieved new political ground but also single mothers are not as scarce or looked down upon as much as they once were. In today’s world 71% of moms with kids under 18 have jobs, whereas in 1975 there were fewer than 47% who did. Even things like sports and schooling have drastically changed for women. For example, in the first ever Winter Olympics in 1924 the only event open for women was figure skating, that has obviously changed a lot, as now women compete in swimming competitions, both cross country and downhill ski racing, snowboarding and even hockey. There are still many ways that the world can still change.
“I think that some areas that could be improved justin the recognition of different roles that women can fill so women don’t have to be just activists or they don’t have to be just out in the workplace or stay at home moms but that they can be all of these different things, and maybe even just recognizing that its okay to be maybe the more stay at home traditional mom and there’s nothing wrong with that,” Lauren Rasca, an english teacher at South said.
But now we have made so much headway that women are now more open about how they feel and look, not caring about their appearance everyday, as was once thought so important, but finding beauty even without makeup. Women have also gained a much more respectable position in society, now having the choice to do what they want with their bodies and they also have significantly more freedom now. Overall, the status of women in the world has gotten much better and they are showing the world one by one that women are capable of anything.
All stats in this story are courtesy of:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women%27s_suffrage_in_Utah
https://www.nps.gov/subjects/womenshistory/19th-amendment-by-state.htm
