The Evolution of Feminism: Social Reforms and Gender Equality from 1914 to Present

1. SOCIAL, GENDER AND LABOR1914 - PRESENT HOPE AND INEQUALITIES

2. SOCIAL REFORMS, SOCIAL REVOLUTIONS • Feminism • Defined: Women should enjoy equal rights in • Society, law, business, government • Decisions about their bodies especially abortion, birth control • The Issue • By 1920s: Women have the vote but this is not equality • By 1940s: Latin American women generally have the vote • Opposition to feminism came from both left, right • Left felt women would vote conservative, listen to their husbands • Right felt women would be liberals, vote to change society • Post War Europe saw the rise of feminism • Simone de Beauvoir: society oppresses women, creates differences • 1960s • Feminism becomes a middle class movement • Pill, right to work and education helped movement • NOW: National Organization of Women (USA) • Pressed for legislation to end discrimination towards women • 1973: Roe v. Wade made abortion legal and strengthened women’s movement • Presses for equal access to jobs • Runs up against the glass ceiling • An artificial barrier women cannot pass into management • Women not entering the board rooms (CEOs), senior government positions

3. GENDER • Feminism and equal rights • Early century: World War I saw Western women get vote • Status of women changed dramatically after WWII in industrialized states • Women mobilized to support war; some actually fought in war • Women demanded full equality with men, access to education and employment • Birth control enables women to control their bodies and avoid "biology destiny" • U.N. Declaration of Women’s Rights officially grant women international rights • U.S. Civil Rights Act of 1964 forbids discrimination on basis of race or sex • In Western Europe, US, Oceania women entered politics, board rooms • Gender equality in Communist Countries? • Communist states often improved women's legal status • Despite legal reforms, women have not yet gained true equality • In USSR, Eastern Europe many women entered medicine, science but second to men • In China, one-child policy encourages infanticide or abandonment of baby girls • The Developing World: Africa, SW Asia • Decolonization often as much from colonizing country as husbands, males • Domesticity and abuse restricting rights of women • Women in Arab and Muslim societies twice as likely as men to be illiterate • Most Indian women illiterate (75 perecent in 1980s) and confined at home • "Dowry deaths" common in India; burning of wives in Pakistan • Women leaders in South Asia • Effective political leaders: Indira Gandhi (India) and Benazir Bhutto (Pakistan) • Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga became president of Sri Lanka, 1994 • Democratic activist Aung Sang Suu Kyi • Received Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 when under house arrest in Myanmar • Seeks democracy in Burma • UN launched a Decade for Women program in 1975 • Latin America, Japan, Little Tigers beginning to follow early 20th century West

4. WOMEN AROUND THE WORLD • East Asia • China • Communists push women into society • Women are comrades aiding the revolution • True also of USSR, Eastern Europe; to a lesser extend also true in Vietnam, North Korea • In China • 1960s Cultural Revolution pushed this idea • 1980s economic liberalization seems to have hurt progress • Japan • Meiji women entered workforce (2/3 of work force); poor conditions • World War II • Women enter into all workforces to free up men for army • This is true of every major combatant in World War II (US, UK, USSR, Germany) • US Occupation changed Japanese society beginning in 1945 • US insisted on equal rights, women’s vote, equal pay • Women enter grassroots politics, consumer groups, environmental issues • Religious States • Muslim states • Egypt, Turkey, Morocco, Malaya, Pakistan, Libya saw some positive changes • Muslim states ruled by Communists, USSR saw progress but only to a certain level • Afghanistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia so no significant changes and experienced some decline • Christian societies • Divorce, ownership of property allowed; control of bodies (birth control, abortion) opposed • Many Catholic societies repeatedly blocked abortion, divorce • Attempts to liberalize repeatedly drew intervention of the Church, Pope • True of much of Latin America, African countries, Philippines, Catholic Europe • Protestant fundamentalist forces in the US, Latin America opposed liberalized women’s rights

5. FAMILIES • Urbanization effects family structure • Industry replaced family centered production • Breadwinners left home to earn money from outside work • All characteristics true world wide to greater, lesser extent • Women • Mothers increasingly primary family care givers • Women gradually make all family decisions • Women often had familial jobs and worked outside family • Men • Fathers often out of contact with family for hours, days • Promiscuity, divorce become more common • Boys often assumed senior male roles earlier • Children • Education generally became universally mandated • Children gradually excluded from industrial work (not farm labor) • Onset of puberty delayed by foods, expectations • Adolescence becomes a stage between childhood, adulthood • Marriage age increases

6. POST 1945 PROBLEMS • Causes of poverty • Inequities in resources and income separate rich and poor societies • Attendant problems: malnutrition, environmental degradation • Legacy of colonialism: economic dependence • Labor servitude increasing • Slavery abolished worldwide by 1960s • Tacitly tolerated in some Muslim nations even today • Millions still forced into bonded labor, debt work, sharecropping • Child-labor servitude common in South, Southeast Asia • Trafficking of persons across international boundaries • Widespread • Illegal labor, workers • Latin America, China are largest sources • Girls, Women • Lured with promises of work • Often in sex industry; hugely profitable though criminal

7. CROSS CULTURAL TRAVELERS • Travel in history • Is not new but was an elite past-time • Grand Tour of France, Italy, Germany common for nobles • Pilgrimages included travel, sights • In 1800s • Tourism fashionable for rich Europeans, Americans • Later adopted by working people especially middle class • First travel agencies established in nineteenth century • By the twentieth century • Leisure travel another form of consumption • After WWII, packaged tours took tourists across the world • Effects of mass tourism • Now travel, tourism is largest single industry on the planet • Low-paying jobs; profits go mostly to developed world • Many poorer countries try to develop tourist industries • Tourism exposes cultural variations, diversity • Tourism leads to transformation of indigenous cultures • Student Study In the Western World is also travel