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20th Century Women's Rights Movement

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While the beginning of the 20th century was a critical time for American women, what with gaining the right to vote via the 19th Amendment, ratified on 18 August 1920, the struggles of women neither began nor ended with the Suffrage Movement. Women of all races struggled against the shackles imposed by tradition and societal expectation, though only white women made monumental strides towards equity and independence during this period, leaving women of color to struggle even to be seen as worthy of being mothers and wives, the caretakers of their own homes. As men often infantilized and split women along two lines, either seeing them as pure, or absolute filth, women also shared this attitude though primarily along racial or income lines.
Prior to the 20th century, tradition dictated that women be bound to rigid gender roles. These roles, for white women were limited to being a wife and mother. This was seen to the public at large as the natural …show more content…

While women became further integrated into working society due to the requirements of many men being called to the war front, the ideas about women, their roles and their weaknesses had not changed. Society looked upon some manipulation and exercises of burgeoning political power with a species of benign amusement or even favor, as in the case of the Hull House women, who used political relations to further their own work on laws to benefit working women most notably the 8 hour law[2]. In other places, specifically in the west and border south areas of San Antonio, women holding positions of authority were met with disdain by male politicians[3]. Civil rights were impeded on with nearly 15,000 working class women being incarcerated without trial,[3]. While men might have disagreed and protested these mass incarcerations, they did not have the additional burden of being seen automatically as the repository for

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