Women's History Term Paper

Total Length: 726 words ( 2 double-spaced pages)

Total Sources: 0

Page 1 of 2

Women's History

This report aims to present my views on the fact that wage work during the late 19th and early 20th centuries have more or less reinforced women's roles within their families or more accurately, have provided an extension to their familial roles. The objective of this work is to therefore present an argument that contradicts a belief held by many historians that wage work actually enabled women to develop a new sense of individualism as well as economic independence. These liberations are supposed to have liberated women from their roles in the traditional home. The report also attempts to incorporate how the effects of race and/or ethnicity come into play in this situation.

First and foremost, the idea of wage work and non-wage work must be explored to give credence to the topic at hand. Women have traditionally been unpaid for the bulk of their work while they served in their roles as homemakers. In my opinion, that contribution could easily have been considered a form of slavery throughout history and certainly deserved some form of compensation. Without women's unpaid work throughout history, entire nation's economies could have been in jeopardy -- yet, society has always seemed to overlook the role that women played by their contribution in the home.

When women took on wage work during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the familial roles did not simply go away. Women had to work both at home while not getting paid and at the office for their pay.
In other words, women still had to fulfill their traditional roles before and after normal office hours. Basically, wage work did not produce independence for women because their roles at home were not abolished because they became executives or cleaning ladies. Their responsibility for the family actually increased.

The key is to not forget that, of course, there are exceptions to all rules. Wage work did allow many women to be in a position to now decide that they did or did not want children because their careers came first. But, in the sense that families are the point of observation here, if children were in the picture and in the….....

Show More ⇣


     Open the full completed essay and source list


OR

     Order a one-of-a-kind custom essay on this topic


sample essay writing service

Cite This Resource:

Latest APA Format (6th edition)

Copy Reference
"Women's History" (2005, March 14) Retrieved May 18, 2024, from
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/women-history-62999

Latest MLA Format (8th edition)

Copy Reference
"Women's History" 14 March 2005. Web.18 May. 2024. <
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/women-history-62999>

Latest Chicago Format (16th edition)

Copy Reference
"Women's History", 14 March 2005, Accessed.18 May. 2024,
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/women-history-62999