History - Gender Stereotypes

Starting as early as I can document, in the 1800s there were huge amounts of rights and opportunities open for men but not for women. One of the most famous women’s rights activists was Emmeline Pankhurst. She founded the Women’s Franchise League in 1889, which fought to allow married women to vote in elections. She went through large amounts of arrests, debates and strikes to try and get equality for women. She took part in hunger strikes that resulted in being violently force fed just the same as many other suffragettes. Even though Emmeline Pankhurst didn’t live to see it, us women are now legal voters in elections in 1928.

Fast-forwarding now to the 1960s, when women were still treated and looked at a completely different way to how they are today. Women were expected to follow a certain life path: marry young (early 20s), start a family and then live her life as a housewife/mother. The typical expected lifestyle was something which often got a lot of women down as they didn’t always have a say in what they did. A statement from a woman named Stephanie Coontz "The female doesn't really expect a lot from life. She's here as someone's keeper — her husband's or her children's." – This is taken from a book called ‘A Strange Stirring: The Feminine Mystique and American Women at the Dawn of the 1960s’ which is a New York book from 2011. It definitely backs up the way life was expected to be for women back in the 60s. The average time a woman would spend housekeeping, child-minding etc. was a massive 55 hours a week! They were thought of as property that belonged to their husbands. In the 1960s there was a limited amount of working women – only 38% of the female population had careers, that being nurses, doctors and teachers.Movements over the years have been very iconic and have often created big controversies.

Throughout the 60s/70s there were a lot of campaigns and movements in general to try and equalize the society. Over the years, people have came to the conclusion that our society is ‘better’ on behalf of gender equality but if you really think about in in depth, is it? Feminism has risen in the past 10 years as more and more women and some men disagree with the way the genders are separated. Things like careers, wages and opportunities is definitely a big bugbear within the gender equality situation as men have always had more opportunities and careers choices as well as pathways and the amount they’re paid.

This chart below shows the percentage of people who approve of women earning money in business even though she has a capable husband supporting her. As you can see quite easily, there was a large increase in the 1980's; especially 1985. I want to show this increase within gender equality eithin family and partnership. The figures have fluctuated a lot over the years show below and I personally think that if this chart was extened onto the 21st century, the percentage would go up or at least stay at it's peak.