The Womens Movement Essays -- United States History Women Essays

The Women's Movement Works Cited Missing The women’s movement began in the nineteenth century when groups of women began to speak out against the feeling of separation, inequality, and limits that seemed to be placed on women because of their sex (Debois 18). By combining two aspects of the past, ante-bellum reform politics and the anti-slavery movement, women were able to gain knowledge of leadership on how to deal with the Women’s Right Movement and with this knowledge led the way to transform women’s social standing (Dubois 23). Similarly, the movement that made the largest impact on American societies of the 1960’s and 1970’s was the Civil Right Movement, which in turn affected the women’s movement (Freeman 513). According to informant Betsie Cole, at age forty-six and an instructor at East Tennessee State University, the women’s movement made a large impact on her life growing up and she is still able to see the changes that the women’s movement has made in societ y. Cole states that women did not have to be directly involved in the twentieth century women’s movement to feel and notice the impact it had on society. Cole, for example, notes that even though she wasn’t in an organization to help support the women’s movement until she was in college, it still made an impact on her during her high school years. "The modern movement was just getting into gear when I was in high school and that was my formative years. That thinking about- well, what is a women’s role? What am I supposed to be after high school?" stated Cole. Cole considers this era a period of questioning mainly because college was considered a choice at the time when she was graduating high school. Are you going to work or are you going to start a fami... ...al interest concerning small sections of feminism rather then the whole picture," Cole said. Maybe the fragmenting of the women’s movement has to do with some women being so comfortable in today’s society that they feel no need to press on to gain more social equality. The movement has made a lot of progress in changing the views that society has caste on women by aiding in the accomplishments for equal rights. College is not presented as a choice for women, but rather a choice for both sexes, right along with choosing a career and working. Granted that men do have more benefits with pay and support, but now women are not looked down on for going to college. Striving for equal rights and opportunities is still a major issue for women and probably will be for years to come. Cole summed it up best by saying, "I still believe that one person can change the world!"