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Monday, January 27, 2014

Is it possible to speak of the 'demise of feminism' in 1920's Britain?

After the freshman World struggle and through stupefy the 1920?s assorted libber organisations which had always held the view that wo custody should be hold upn rival status to that of work advertize appe bed to change their opinions completely in favour of a wowork force?s natural place being in the kin. any(prenominal)(prenominal) wowork force manage Eleanor Rathb match slight, bloody shame Stocks and Maude Royden who had been strong advocates that wo men should be treat as cope with to men in every aspects of gild and life such(prenominal) as employment starting promoting women to go along to the home and live up to their natural born duty, which is being a become and a wife. Post- struggle libber opinions and cerebrationls appeared to hold up changed considerably to that of pre- war libbers. The peck of libber organisations primary concern was women being enfranchised, so when this was take a crap in the 1918 Representation of the People profess almost(prenominal) conferences ground themselves separate everywhere early(a) issues. While certain members in the organisations wished to luff on with the task of women receiving pertain status to that of men, much other members were taking a un equivalent approach to womens liberationist movement. They believed that women were antithetical to men and should because aim to obtain acts and laws that would be service subject to women like family whollyowances. likenitarian feminists disagreed with these ideals as they tangle these kinds of aims were butting women much and to a great extent to the home and to a subservient position in auberge. Members in spite of appearance confused feminist organisations began to sort on these issues and even sotu wholey galore(postnominal) organisations spilt because of their differing views. Smaller feminist groups were established in place of the stupendous original organisations. Each group had sparingly different views on what were worthy, beneficial causes! to try and achieve for the young-bearing(prenominal) population. Due to enormous organisations comely smaller feminism appeared to crap lost large keep downs of popularity within alliance. Women found it grueling to decide which group to throw because they were so some and for each 1 group tried to qualifying some different and to a greater extent beneficial to the women. umpteen women appeared indifferent by feminist organisations and what they were hard to achieve. ?Modern, young women k straight surprisingly teeny of what life was like in front the war, and show a strong hostility to the say ?feminism? and which they mean it to con none.?? war imposed manly values upon confederacy, thus reinvigorating nonions of recite fields. Because men fight wars and women bank check at home, women are force substantiate into feminine uses of mother, nurturer and carer, which are themselves, symbolic of the values men imagine themselves to be defending. warfare do the g all overnment and society steadfastly believe that stately roles in society should be upheld. accordingly after the war-ended women were compeld by the government to give up their jobs for the go soldiers while women give wayed to their correctlyful place, which was in the home. The absolute majority of women trained this and quickly re rendered, with galore(postnominal) being content to revert can to their traditional roles. close to(prenominal) women agreed with the notion that men should work and women should stay at home and only ever saw the war as a temporary measure. They wished to uphold tradition values, which were customary before the war. nevertheless if women wished to persist in in their wartime jobs they were realityity frowned upon. any women who tried to remain in their jobs experienced harsh preaching from society. They were depicted by society as trying to splay harvesting soldiers jobs, and were invariably abused in the press. ?A s W. Keith pointed off in the insouciant News in Ma! rch 1921, an denomi earth titled ? shun of women,? ?the attitude of the universe towards women is to a greater extent right of contempt and icterus than had been the case since the ballottte outbreaks. ? The Government who indigenceed to contract women from their war- time jobs as quickly as possible achieved this with the grounding of the 1919 Restoration of the Pre- state of war Practices exploit, which forced them to do so. ?By 1921, fewer women were ?gainfully employed,? according to the nosecount of that year, than in 1911.? Although many women were content with saveing to the home, countless poesy of women were forced to impart to their tradition role of being in the home. Not only did the government urge women to return so did mingled feminist organisations. Their attitude close to women?s role in society was completely different to the views they held before the war. Feminists groups immediately deemed it donable for women to be purely wives and mothers and focus solely on their roles within the home. They argued that this was what women were best at doing; their carcass was designed for that role. bloody shame Stocks argued that ?the majority of women workers are only birds of course in their trades. trade union and the bearing and rearing of children are their close permanent occupations.? It many ways it seemed that these organisations were taking a blackguard brook for feminist rather than a step forward. Many of the acts that were introduced during the 1920?s do it increasing more difficult for women to work, curiously once they were married. in that respect were no objections to any of these acts from feminist groups, presentation how different their objectives now were. These feminists groups consisted of women for whom war had confirmed the legitimacy of separate spheres. They campaigned for meliorates to make the home more comfortable, safe, secure, and to enhance motherhood. For the majority of feminist group s their primary aim was to improve women?s life in th! e home and as a wife and mother. They did succeed in getting diverse reforms passed throughout the 1920?s like family allowances. However the majority of these acts sightly tied women to their traditional roles and bound them more intricately to the home, something the feminists had antecedently been trying to eradicate. Eleanor Rathbone led a group of feminists who were concerned with quest enhanced privileges for women in the home. She believed that feminists ?should seek reforms link up to women?s special concerns, specially those involving motherhood, rather than seeking what men had. Family allowances nonrecreational to the mother, for example were more important than sufficient dedicate for women.? Equalitarian feminists viewed these women as ?new feminism? as it had so little to do with what they themselves stood for and were trying to achieve. Equalitarian feminists were presenting the case for granting women bear upon pay for get even work; Rathbone endorsed t he common anti-feminist argument that men deserved higher pay then women because they had families to check. These new feminists were placing an accession insistence on women?s natures, which encouraged traditional notions of femaleness. This make it increasingly more difficult for women to escape from these traditional roles. Although various acts were passed which improved the lives for women, many of these acts can be seen as not in line with what feminists usually try to achieve. Britain wished for the country to return to what life was like before the war. Numerous people believed one of the ways to achieve this was through society as a whole returning to their traditional roles. This ?reconstruction? meant a return to traditional family life, which militated against female emancipation. Yet many of those nearly ardent for a return to normality were women, including feminists. Even they agreed with this notion, so many feminists decided to stop trying to fight for summa rise rights if it meant society would return to ?norm! al?. ?As Cicely Hamilton, a connected feminist both before and after the war, observed in 1927, ?the field pansy in our time for which we all hunger provide mean a reaction, more or less strong, against the independence of women,?? The largest women?s union, the case Federation of Women Workers after the war denotative their opinion that married women should ideally not hire to work. ? feminism soon became linked in the public brainiac not merely with sex war, a somewhat known concept, goodly now with armed conflict, death and destruction. womens liberation forepart during the 1920?s was seen by the nation as a harmful monitor of the war period. For many Britons the feminist insistence on touchity and the women?s right to work and be able to participate in politics threatened the attempted return to normalcy and raised the idea of continued conflict in Britain after the Armistice. To be a feminist during this period was enormously unpopular with all members of society including women. The majority of the British public after the war was by and large anti-feminist, making it even more undesirable for women to show their support for feminist groups. So most Britons, including feminists, looked to create tranquillity and monastic order n the public sphere of social, economic and political dealings by imposing peace and order on the close sphere of sexual relations. Certain feminists groups were di legatoery extremely concerned about sexual pertainity, campaigned for legal reform, disturb access, equal pay, the removal of the wedding ceremony bar to employment, liberalisation of split up laws, advertize electoral reform like the removal of the age bar. Feminist organisations such as the Women?s Freedom League and the London and case ordination for Women?s Service continued throughout the 1920?s. They pledged to continue working for the equal suffrage; it?s programme-identified women?s economic equality as its immediate priority . Winifred Holtby was a bulk large feminist through! out the 1920?s. She was still campaigning for women to make these equal opportunities in society. She found it extremely difficult to understand especially after all the freedom women had been given during the war that the majority of women were content with keeping their tradition roles within society. ?are women themselves ofttimes the first to repudiate the movements of the past hundred and fifty years, which assimilate gained them at least the foundations of political, economic, educational and moral equality?? She dislike the feminists who promoted staying at home and felt that these ?new feminists? were trapping women just and further back into the home. ?New Feminists referred to maternity as the ?most important of women?s occupations.?? She believed that these women were inadvertently playing into the hands of those desirous on restoring Victorian notions of public spheres. Equality improvements for women were however still being achieved just after the war and during the 1920?s. In 1918 the Eligibility of Women Act passes unopposed, enabling them to stand for Parliament, the Bastardy Law of 1872 were amended, increasing the tally a father could be made to be for his whoreson child. In 1919 the Sex Disqualification Removal Act opened all branches of the legal profession to women. The Matrimonial Causes Act of 1923 eliminated the double standards of fall apart; in 1925 the civil service was forced to admit women to its combative examinations. The 1928 Representation of the People (Equal Franchise) Act granting women aged twenty-one and over the suffrage on the alike(p) basis as men, was report reform for feminists organisations. Feminists were still making considerable progress in women receiving equal opportunities to that of men. Due to the Act in 1928, equal suffrage had been achieved for women therefore making feminist organisations even more unpopular. Many felt there was little more they could accomplish. Many women who support thes e egalitarian groups chose to now join the non-femini! st organisations, which sought to teach women how to carry out their traditional roles better, rather than continue in the feminist branches. Their popularity declined more rapidly as the 1920?s went on. The 1920?s can see the light been seen as the demise of feminism. The feminist?s organisations after the starting World War changed their ideals and attitudes from the stance of women being given equal opportunities to one of promoting women back in the home to be a wife and mother. While they once aspired for women to be seen as equal to men, they now accepted that women were different and attempted to pass acts that would military machine service women in terms of being a good mother rather than being able to work and become the same pay as a man. These acts however bound women further and further to the home, something previous feminists had be campaigning against. feminism was becoming less and less popular within women in society, without public support, it became incre asingly more difficult for various feminist organisations, especially for the small minority of groups who were still fighting for women to receive equal opportunities. Britain wished for society to return to how it was before the war, feminists were a uninterrupted reminder for most people of the war period. This made feminism to all women in society an un petitioning prospect, they too wanted society to return to ?normal? so many were happy to accept their reduced statues within society once again. The ?new? feminists had something which did supplication to women of the 1920?s however their ideals and the reforms they campaigned for can often be puff as anti-feminist. As Olive Banks pointed out, interwar feminism ?trapped women in the cult of domesticity from which earlier feminists had tried to free themselves.? While some feminist groups still fought for equal rights and gained considerable success, the majority of feminist organisations during the 1920?s supported women bei ng tied to the home. They clearly pushed women back t! owards traditional roles and helped the demise of feminism within Britain. BibliographyS. K. Kent, Making restfully: The Reconstruction of sex in Interwar Britain (Princeton, New Jersey, 1993) pp. 114-15. G. J. DeGroot, Blighty: British association in the date of the Great War (London, 1996), p. 304. S. K. Kent, Making peace: The Reconstruction of sexual urge in Interwar Britain (Princeton, New Jersey, 1993), p. 101. S. K. Kent, ?The Politics of paint a picture Difference: World War 1 and the Demise of British feminist movement? Journal of British Studies, 27 (1988), p.238. Ibid, p. 241. H. L. Smith, British Feminism in the twentieth Century (England, 1900), p. 48. H. L. Smith, British Feminism in the 20th Century (England, 1990), p.70. S. K. Kent, Making peace: The Reconstruction of Gender in Interwar Britain (Princeton, New Jersey, 1993), p. 91G. J. DeGroot, Blighty: British Society in the period of the Great War (London, 1996), p. 306H. L. Smith, British Feminism in the Twentieth Century (England, 1990). P.48. S. K. Kent, ?The Politics of Sexual Difference: World War 1 and the Demise of British Feminism,? The journal of British Studies, 27, (1988), p. 242. If you want to get a full essay, order it on our website: OrderCustomPaper.com

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