Over the years, different attitudes toward women's roles in the workforce there have been experienced. The changes in these attitudes have in most cases been as a result of different economic, social, political and cultural factors. This paper is going to address the different attitudes that have existed in regard to the roles of women in three main periods in history- The progressive Period, The World War II era and The Post War Period. The progressive period was the period in which social activism and political reform were widespread across the United States of America and span from the 1890s to the 1920s. The main objective of the period was to get rid of the problems that had been caused by urbanization, industrialization, immigration, and political corruption. The World War II era is the period in which the Second World War was taking place while the Post War era was the period of robust economic growth and took place immediately after the war. Besides the different changes in the roles of women in the workforce during the three historical periods, this paper is also going to address the various ways in which the changes took place and the factors that led to the occurrences. The paper is going to focus on three films that were produced during the three periods and deduct the roles that women played, the attitudes that people had towards those roles and the reasons behind those changing attitudes.
The first period- the progressive period- is a period in which social activism and political reform were widespread. The movie A nous la Liberte was produced in 1930. The movie talks about freedom with Louis and Emilie as the main protagonists who were convicts. The women in society are represented by a lady called Jeanne. Emilie falls in love with Jeanne the first time he heard her sing while he was still in a cell. Jeanne was always under the hands of her overprotective uncle. To get Jeanne for his friend, Louis gives money to Jeanne's uncle who was very happy to receive the offer. This was irrespective of the fact that Jeanne had a boyfriend-Paul.
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The society in this period was male chauvinistic and viewed women being inferior to the men. The fact that Jeanne’s uncle was very happy to receive money so that Emilie could marry Jeanne shows that the women were only viewed as a source of wealth. When it came to decision making, the women had no say. Jeanne had a boyfriend whom she was happy to have, but her happiness was not a choice. The society that was represented in the movie had a negative attitude towards the women since they were belittled and their opinions did not matter. Also, we see Louis choosing his friend over his wife.
The second period was during the war, and we will look into through the review of the American black and white drama film from Warner Bros, The Fountainhead ; a movie produced in the year 1949, involves the life of a young man Howard Roark. Howard Roark is an upcoming architect who chooses to struggle in the obscure architecture instead of compromising his artistic vision of designing. What to him seems to be the most superior of all forms of designs but to the other members of the public seems as modern architecture. The other members of the public believe that the traditional form of architecture is better than the modern one and is, therefore, the one that the architects should be following. Due to that fact, Howard Roark faces a lot of criticism from most members (Robert, 2006). Throughout the film, individualism is much supported due to the belief that a man's ego is the basis on which progress in society is achieved.
During the period that the film represents, women were well respected, and most of the people in the society had a positive attitude towards their roles in the workforce. For instance, during the time of Ellsworth Toohey, an architecture critique working for the Banner newspaper decided to oppose Howard Roark's individualism by leading a print crusade against him. A glamorous socialite, Dominique Francon, opposes the print crusade successfully. She does so even though one of the people supporting the print crusade is a rich and influential man, Gail Wayland. Later on, when Howard Roark realizes that no one was willing to hire him as an architect, he decides to put the aspect down for a while and start working as a day laborer at a quarry. The quarry coincidentally was owned by Dominique Francon’s father. The first attitude that Howard Roark had the moment that Dominique Francon came to ask him to do a task for him in her bedroom was a mock. However, we can see that he respected her since there is nothing he did time after she strikes him across his face using her horse whip as a punishment because he had mocked her.
Throughout the whole movie, women are portrayed as people who have almost the same rights, if not fully as the men; especially in the workforce. The fact that Dominique Francon can oppose rich and very influential people all over the country in a bid to save the reputation of Howard Roark. Her ability to control and order people especially men around at her father’s quarry also dearly depicts the fact that the women were respected and people had a positive attitude towards their role in the workforce. This is unlike the progressive period in which women were considered to be inferior to men and therefore were only meant to get involved in jobs which men referred to as minor and required less energy. The reason for this change is because during the war, it was realized that men alone could not manage to fight the war and thus reinforcement from women was highly required. The realization caused the government of many countries to come up with ways of encouraging women to take part in the war actively. That is the main reason why in the movie-The Fountainhead, women have almost the same role to play in the workforce as the men.
The post-war period is addressed in the movie Nine to Five . The movie begins when Judy is looking for a job after her husband ran away with his secretary. She finds a job as a secretary where her boss, Franklin Hart is an opportunist. The opening of the movie showed that women were helpless creatures and men's attitude towards their role in the workforce was a negative one. Franklin mistreated female workers with sexist remarks (Solomon, 1989). He threatens to sack Judy for a minor mistake, sexually harasses Doralee and disrespectfully takes credit for Violet’s ideas. Furthermore, Violet is denied a promotion she deserved which since she was a lady. The women’s rights in the workforce were violated with the male employees having better salaries than the female counterparts.
However, in between the period, things take a new turn, and the women decide to fight for their rights. They put up a spirited fight, and finally, they manage to change the attitude that the male counterparts have towards them as they start to receive equal pay. The company, for this reason, increases its output. The reason for the change originates from the women themselves. The change could also be attributed to law changes and the adopted educational systems. The changes revolved around areas such as freedom and independence.
The attitudes towards the role of women in the workforce changed over the three periods. In the first period-the progressive period, women are depicted as powerless, and the societal attitude towards their role in the workforce in most cases is negative. In the second period-the world war era- women are seen to have equal roles as the men and the attitude they receive towards their role in the workforce is a positive one. They are treated as equals to men, and their decisions were respected. This contrast between the two periods was caused by the need for women to be fully involved in the world war. In the post-war period, the attitude towards the role of women is varying. In the beginning, women are mistreated, but in the end, they can fight and redeem themselves to attain equal rights.
References
Carr J. “A Nous La Liberte” ^Turner Classic Movies, Inc. Retrieved February Feb.12, 2017
Robert M. (2006). Essays on Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead: Architectural modernism, the gendered body, and political ideology
Solomon A. (1989). Twentieth Century Fox: A corporate and financial history
