So I hope my title caught your attention. You don't have to worry, I don't believe it, but if someone said this in the 1930's it would be not only be acceptable, but the consensus. How did this widely accepted statement change from then to now? Over the last one hundred years women have made the drastic shift from the home to the workplace, gaining autonomy and financial self-sufficiency as a result.
As a tentative plan for my paradigm shift essay, I will be examining how women made this change and all the events surrounding the shift. First, I will illustrate the deplorable conditions women endured during the Industrial Revolution if they weren't one of the Susie Homemakers. Then, I will examine how World War II was the critical catalyst that started the change of how they were viewed as an acceptable and even necessary part of the workplace. After that, I'll look at the changes that snowballed from their participation in the workforce while WWII raged on, and how women initiated and completed this shift from one way of thinking to another. Then, at that point, there are two overall concepts I will be examining that are at the heart of this issue. The first is how the change has affected us positively today, including the independence women gained from being able to obtain and hold a job without having to depend on a man to provide for her. Along with that is how the remnants of this passe way of thinking still has hold today, and the sad truth that even though a paradigm shift has occurred, some ways of thinking never completely go away.
I will be using many sources to complete all of the necessary research for this project, and here are three of them:
http://www.striking-women.org/main-module-page/women-and-work
http://www.dol.gov/wb/info_about_wb/interwb.htm
http://www.nwhp.org/resources/womens-rights-movement/history-of-the-womens-rights-movement/
I like your thesis a lot. I like how you plan to include the effects of the change rather than just what caused it. I also really like how you will be able to tie in things from 100 years ago to today and show the fact that some of ideas still are not changed, at least for everyone.
ReplyDeleteLooking good! Your thesis sounds good just keep in mind autonomy and being self-sufficient can be two subjects very close to each other. Finding another result of their shift might help to keep your essay going. How did this affect their position in the family? How did it affect the men in the workplace? You definitely don't have to use these, but they're a few questions that just popped into my head. Everything else looks good! Best of luck!
ReplyDeleteThis is a great thesis to start with and I think you will have a strong essay if you carry this out throughout. The structure of your essay makes a lot of sense and will allow you to show how specific things in society have caused the shift. I like that you have explored how the shift was not caused by just one thing, but a multitude of attitude changes over the course of the last century. It seems like you also have a good idea of how you will explain what this shift means for us today.
ReplyDeleteJulia, I just read about a Twitter feed that might be of interest given your topic:
ReplyDeletehttps://twitter.com/manwhohasitall/status/654420229557088257
It's called "Man Who Has It All" and it mocks the premise that women can have it all and be simultaneously awesome in all fronts -- work, home, personal life, etc. If anything, its irony will go to show that your shift regarding women in the workforce, while apparent, still isn't entirely complete (as you acknowledged.)
As you're honing your thesis, you might want to consider if you could make it address the fact the shift isn't fully complete. (Or, perhaps to acknowledge that despite the good that these shifts have caused with equality, opportunity, pay, etc., that it also can come with a cost of women feeling need that they must, essentially, have/do it all.)
Interesting topic, Julia. I hope this helps!