Living the Twenties: V,W,X

[Gary Oswald]

Discuss this article here

 

[Hendryk]

Then as now, social conservatives' fears over changing gender roles and perceived threats to the heteronormative order were one of the factors in the rise of the far right. All those emancipated women had to be put back in their place as mothers and homemakers.

A society accustomed to having their women relegated to the house wasn’t prepared to see them getting involved in the political sphere, where decisions were made. Many men and elite women thought that women were unstable and uncontrollable, therefore unreliable, inherently incapable of sustaining the stress of political life and treat the suffragette movement with open scorn.

Now one interesting thing about the history of women's rights is that it hasn't been linear. It can probably be claimed that women had it easier in the 12th century than in the 14th, and in the 14th than in the 18th. Arguably, the mid-19th century may have been something of a nadir for the social status of women in western civilization, and the next century and a half has been one long struggle to claw their way to political, social, economic and sexual equality.

 

[Talwar]

A society accustomed to having their women relegated to the house wasn’t prepared to see them getting involved in the political sphere, where decisions were made. Many men and elite women thought that women were unstable and uncontrollable, therefore unreliable, inherently incapable of sustaining the stress of political life and treat the suffragette movement with open scorn.

I still encounter this attitude amongst a few older women I know and just can't fathom it.