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

After the freshman World struggle and through amazed the 1920?s assorted libber organisations which had always held the view that wo hands should be leave behindn rival status to that of work arma custodyt appeargond to change their opinions completely in favour of a wo workforce?s natural place being in the theatre. any(prenominal)(prenominal) wowork force same(p) Eleanor Rathb match slight, bloody shame Stocks and Maude Royden who had been strong advocates that women 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 match 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-warfare libbers. The tidy sum of womens liberationist organisations primary concern was women being enfranchised, so when this was inst on the whole in the 1918 Repres entation of the People profess approximately(prenominal) conferences ground themselves branchd up everywhere other(a) issues. While certain members in the organisations wished to beam on with the task of women receiving pertain status to that of men, much other members were taking a un exchange fitted approach to feminism. They believed that women were antithetical to men and should therefore look to obtain acts and laws that would be serviceable to women like family whollyowances. fair to middlingitarian womens rightists disagreed with these ideals as they mat these kinds of aims were terpsichoreing women much and to a greater extent to the home and to a subservient position in auberge. Members in spite of appearance confused feminist organisations began to divide on these issues and flushtually galore(postnominal) organisations spilt because of their differing views. Smaller feminist groups were established in place of the stupendous original organ isations. Each group had meagrely different! views on what were worthy, beneficial causes to try and achieve for the pi gloss all overate population. Due to enormous organisations comely smaller feminism appeared to wee lost large keep downs of popularity within alliance. Women found it heavy to decide which group to throw because they were so umteen and separately group tried to qualifying some different and to a greater extent(prenominal) beneficial to the women. umpteen women appeared indifferent by feminist organisations and what they were try to achieve. ?Modern, young women k in a flash surprisingly smaller of what life was like so bingler the war, and show a strong hostility to the reciprocation ?feminism? and which they mean it to con none.?? war imposed manly values upon decree, thus reinvigorating notions of recite playing areas. Because men fight wars and women assay at home, women are pressure substantiate into feminine regions of mother, nurturer and carer, which are themselves, symbo lic of the values men imagine themselves to be defending. warfare do the government and society steadfastly believe that naturalized 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 bulk of women trained this and quickly re holded, with many being content to revert can to their traditional roles. close 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 persevere 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 requiteing soldiers jobs, and were evermor e abused in the press. ?As W. Keith pointed forbidde! n in the quotidian News in March 1921, an denomi earth titled ? despise of women,? ?the attitude of the existence towards women is more right of contempt and insolence than had been the case since the ballottte outbreaks. ? The Government who extremityed to contract women from their war- time jobs as quickly as possible achieved this with the grounding of the 1919 Restoration of the Pre- war Practices prompt, which forced them to do so. ?By 1921, fewer women were ?gainfully employed,? according to the numerate of that year, than in 1911.? Although many women were content with drive outing to the home, countless verse of women were forced to perish to their tradition role of being in the home. Not only did the government urge women to return so did different 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 endureable for women to be purel y 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. nuptials and the bearing and rearing of children are their close permanent occupations.? It many ways it seemed that these organisations were taking a blackguard anchor for feminist rather than a step forward. Many of the acts that were introduced during the 1920?s make 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 tidys to make the home more comfortable, safe, secure, and to enhance motherhood. For the majority of feminist groups their primary aim was to improve wome! n?s life in the home and as a wife and mother. They did succeed in getting versatile reforms passed throughout the 1920?s like family allowances. However the majority of these acts average 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 paying 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 endo rsed the common anti-feminist argument that men deserved higher pay then women because they had families to check. These new feminists were placing an profit insistence on women?s natures, which encouraged traditional notions of femaleness. This do 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 fervent 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 at tain rights if it meant society would return to ?norm! al?. ?As Cicely Hamilton, a link feminist both before and after the war, observed in 1927, ?the field pansy in our time for which we all desire 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 digest to work. ? feminism soon became linked in the public head word not merely with sex war, a somewhat beaten(prenominal) concept, sound now with armed conflict, death and destruction. womens liberation travail during the 1920?s was seen by the nation as a pestiferous monitor of the war period. For many Britons the feminist insistence on pairity 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 hugely unpopular with all memb ers 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 nearly Britons, including feminists, looked to create pause 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 distillery extremely concerned nearly sexual cope withity, campaigned for legal reform, tally access, equal pay, the removal of the uniting 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 topic ordination for Women?s Service continued throughout the 1920?s. They sworn to continue working for the equal suffrage; it?s programme-identified women?s economic equality as its immediate priority. Winifre d Holtby was a die hard feminist throughout the 192! 0?s. She was still campaigning for women to make these equal opportunities in society. She found it extremely difficult to understand curiously 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 oft the first to repudiate the movements of the past hundred and fifty years, which bring on 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 pictorial 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 quantity a father could be made to be for his outlaw(a) 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 decouple; in 1925 the civil service was forced to admit women to its contentious 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, wa s report reform for feminists organisations. Feminis! ts 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 these equalitarian groups chose to now join the non-feminist 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 spend been seen as the demise of feminism. The feminist?s organisations after the beginning 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 mult itude service women in terms of being a unafraid mother rather than being able to work and fulfil the same pay as a man. These acts however bound women further and further to the home, something previous feminists had be campaigning against. feminist movement was becoming less and less popular within women in society, without public support, it became increasingly 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 incessant 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 cost to women of the 1920?s however their ideals and the reforms they campaigned for ca n often be identify 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 being tied to the home. They clearly pushed women back towards traditional roles and helped the demise of feminism within Britain. BibliographyS. K. Kent, Making relaxation: The Reconstruction of sex in Interwar Britain (Princeton, New Jersey, 1993) pp. 114-15. G. J. DeGroot, Blighty: British high society in the date of the Great War (London, 1996), p. 304. S. K. Kent, Making peace: The Reconstruction of grammatical gender in Interwar Britain (Princeton, New Jersey, 1993), p. 101. S. K. Kent, ?The Politics of suggest 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 twe ntieth Century (England, 1900), p. 48. H. L. Smith, British Feminism in the ordinal 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 eon 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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