Living in the 1920s, women faced many radical changes in “politics, the home, the workplace, and in education.” The most influential issue was women not being able to take part in politics, when they realized they should have rights because whoever ran the country made the decisions that would affect their own lives. Women and men followed certain gender roles that still exist today-- women take care of children at home, cook, clean, etc-- while men had more opportunities to work and gain a good education, and have more experience in business and politics. Many women, after high school, would go to an all women’s college to become nurses or teachers, since those were considered to be “suitable” professions.
This event inspired many women to really try to revolutionize the opportunities that women were offered. This eventually changed the economic, social, political, and cultural climate of that time period and many generations to come. Feminism wasn’t “widespread” until the 1970s.According to History and Theory of Feminism, “..originally it (feminism) focused on the promotion of equal contract and property rights for women and the opposition to chattel marriage and ownership of married women (and their children) by their husbands…. however, by the end of the nineteenth century, activism focused primarily on gaining political power, particularly the right of women's suffrage.” This event inspired me, as a modern feminist, because the empowering women fought for the rights that I have today. Without the bravery and commitment for a change that the women had in the 1920s, many women, along with myself, wouldn’t have the same opportunities that we have today. People need to come to appreciate that because if the historical feminists had not fought for rights, things would not be anywhere near to where we are today.