History of Women's Role & Status

Women's role and status changed considerably during the period that stretched from the decade after the Civil War until the years when World War swept with its savage ferocity across the face of the earth. While women's status remained secondary to men throughout this time (and through the present) in terms of such generally accepted markers of social standing as political power, economic independence and cultural importance, women during this period in many ways ceased to be regarded as only mothers, daughters or wives and became simply human beings with their own identities independent from the men to whom they were related.

Charting the changes that women underwent during this period of time is a difficult one for a number of reasons. To begin with, while some changes can be quantified or at least assessed (women's salaries as compared to men's, for example, or the equitableness of divorce laws), others cannot. How an individual woman (or a group of women) feels about her place in society and the reasons behind that is something that is very difficult to tease out, and it is impossible to know with absolute certainty whether certain women feel the way they do for cultural, historical, personal or psychological reasons. Also, the changes in women's status during this time encompass such a wide range of issues that it is difficult to summarize them with any degree of brevity.

Finally, the change in women's status varies dramatically by region, by class and by race - so much

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Category: History - H