LIB 301
Final Paper Prep
LIB 301: Liberal Arts Seminar
FINAL PAPER PREP
The 1920s and 1960s were times of both strife and advancement that culminated in
national demonstrations. The advancement of women’s rights politically and socially, resulted in
changing the idea of what complete femininity and accepted gender roles could be. While
women’s suffrage was ratified in 1920, the right to vote was not. To compound suffragists'
frustration, African American women were refused the right to vote until the passage of the
Voting Rights Act in 1965. During the 1960s, the introduction of the birth control pill permitted
women to make decisions about their bodies the medical decisions they would make.
These political and societal decisions greatly influenced mostly the middle-class white
women’s lives, but through their progress, they began to shepherd in more programs for gender
equality in the 1970s. These overwhelming changes for women occurred across seven decades
of growth; changes in education, employment, family life, government, religion. It was women
who made the decisions to enact these changes – to ensure they would receive better and fairer
treatment. These same seven generations of women sought to be anything but passive recipients
of change agents for the laws affecting them and thus they came together to affect this change in
a democratic manner through assemblies, appeals petitioning, public protests, and
demonstrations, (Eisenberg & Ruthsdotter, 1998). Women continued to push to work diligently
to create a world in which they, and future generations of women, could enjoy freedoms only
wished for before.
Final Paper Prep
LIB 301: Liberal Arts Seminar
FINAL PAPER PREP
The 1920s and 1960s were times of both strife and advancement that culminated in
national demonstrations. The advancement of women’s rights politically and socially, resulted in
changing the idea of what complete femininity and accepted gender roles could be. While
women’s suffrage was ratified in 1920, the right to vote was not. To compound suffragists'
frustration, African American women were refused the right to vote until the passage of the
Voting Rights Act in 1965. During the 1960s, the introduction of the birth control pill permitted
women to make decisions about their bodies the medical decisions they would make.
These political and societal decisions greatly influenced mostly the middle-class white
women’s lives, but through their progress, they began to shepherd in more programs for gender
equality in the 1970s. These overwhelming changes for women occurred across seven decades
of growth; changes in education, employment, family life, government, religion. It was women
who made the decisions to enact these changes – to ensure they would receive better and fairer
treatment. These same seven generations of women sought to be anything but passive recipients
of change agents for the laws affecting them and thus they came together to affect this change in
a democratic manner through assemblies, appeals petitioning, public protests, and
demonstrations, (Eisenberg & Ruthsdotter, 1998). Women continued to push to work diligently
to create a world in which they, and future generations of women, could enjoy freedoms only
wished for before.
