英語論文二十世紀美國婦女沒的社會地位

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1、 山西師范大學本科畢業(yè)論文 二十世紀美國婦女的社會地位 姓 名 張 婧 院 系 外國語學院 專 業(yè) 英語雙學位 班 級 0702班 學 號 0619010219 指導教師 李 楠 答辯日期 成 績 14 內(nèi)容摘要 婦女在社會中扮演著十分重要的角色，但是由于各方面的原因，婦女的社會地位與其重要性卻不對等。作

2、為一個移民國家，美國婦女由白人、黑人和華裔婦女組成。鑒于美國這一國家自身的獨特性，關(guān)于美國婦女的社會地位問題一直以來都是學者們研究的重點，尤其是二十世紀。這一時期，美國社會發(fā)生了巨大的變化。美國婦女的社會地位也隨之發(fā)生了很大的變化。這兩種變化交互影響：社會的變化為婦女社會地位的改善創(chuàng)造了條件，反過來，婦女社會地位的改善有促進了社會的進步?？傮w上來說，雖然期間有一些波折，但是二十世紀美國婦女的社會地位主要呈現(xiàn)一種上升的趨勢。 本文主要是通過一些重要的數(shù)據(jù)對比和重大事件，從經(jīng)濟，高等教育和政治三方面研究婦女社會地位的提高，描述這種變化的表現(xiàn)，分析造成這種變化的原因，以及婦女社會地位改變對美國社

3、會的影響，最后，呼吁人們?yōu)楦纳茓D女的社會地位創(chuàng)造條件。 關(guān)鍵詞： 婦女社會地位；工作機會；高等教育；平等；政治參與 Abstract Women play an important role in the society, but for all kinds of reasons, their social status is out of proportion with their importance. As an immigrated country, the American women were mainly composed of the whites, the

4、 blacks and the Chinese women. Since the United States of America is distinct as an independent nation, the American women’s social status has always been an important problem for researchers. The American society witnessed a lot of changes in the 20th century. So did the American women’s social sta

5、tus. These two changes also had an effect on each other: the social transitions provided some conditions for the improvement of the American women’s social status, in reverse, their status’ improvement also promoted the social progress. In summary, although there were some setbacks during the 20th c

6、entury, the American women’s social status presented an increasing tendency. This paper mainly discussed the improvement of the American women’s social status from the perspectives of economy, higher education and politics by comparing some important figures and significant events while describing

7、 the manifestations of the shifts. The paper studied the factors which had caused these shifts and these shifts’ influence to American society as well. At last, the author called on people to create some conditions to improve women’s social status. Key words: women’s social status; employment opp

8、ortunity; higher education; equity; political participation Contents 1. Introduction…………………………………………………….…………1 1.1 The American society in the 20th century…………………………………...1 1.2 The factors that influenced the American women’s social status……………..2 2. American Women’s Economic

9、Status…………………………………...3 2.1 The American women’s employment opportunity…………………………..3 2.2 The working women’s role in family……………………………………….5 3. American Women’s Status in Higher Education……………………….7 3.1 American women as students in higher education…………………………..7 3.2 American women as facult

10、y members in higher education…………………..8 4. American Women’s Political Status..........................................................9 4.1 American women’s effects in politics……………………………………….9 4.2 American women’s political participation…………………………………10 5. Conclusion………………………………………………………………..12

11、 References Acknowledgements The American Women’s Social Status in the 20th Century 1. Introduction Women play a vital part both in family and social life, but their importance and value are always overlooked by the people and the society. So do the American wom

12、en. For a long time, the American women’s social status was dramatically out of proportion with their importance. They suffered from the social prejudice and bias which provided them with only limited rights. This kind of unequal situation had not been greatly improved until the 20th century. 1.1 T

13、he American society in the 20th century The 20th century had witnessed unprecedented changes in the American society and the American women’s life. The development of industry which was known as the Industrial Revolution changed the American society significantly in the 20th century. As a result

14、 of the American Industrial Revolution, the labor market was greatly enlarged. Under the circumstances, only men couldn’t meet the enlarging labor needs. This provided an employment opportunity for women to work outside the home. Especially in 1939, the Second World War broke out. Almost all male wo

15、rkers were asked to join in the army. Women were encouraged to work in factories due to the severe labor shortages. Even though they returned home after the war, women still made a great contribution to American society during the war time. Besides, with the development of science and technology, ma

16、ny great inventions were invented. These inventions such as tractors, mechanical cotton pickers, vacuum cleaners, washing machines affected not only the industry production but also the family life. Owing to these great inventions; women could free themselves from the heavy housework and had more ex

17、tra time to work outside their families. At the same time, many regulations and laws about improving women’s social status were proposed and put into effect. For example, the President John F. Kennedy organized an Advisory Commission on the Status of Women to make some public policies which were of

18、benefit to women (Conway, 1995:6). In the 1960s, in particular, the feminism movement gathered strength. And the total number of women organizations was increased drastically as well. These organizations were aimed at fighting for women’s legal rights and improving women’s social status. They also p

19、rovided a stage for women to start a new life. All these social transitions contributed to the improvement of the American women’s social status. 1.2The factors that influenced the American women’s social status There were many factors that influenced the American women’s social status in the 20

20、th century. All these factors were not isolated; they were closely connected with each other. Based on the essence and category of the factors, we can classify these factors into two categories: the internal factors and the external factors. The internal factors were the arouse of women’s self-cons

21、ciousness and the desire for self-fulfillment. Women were not satisfy with their current conditions in the society, they began to place a great emphasis on achieving personal satisfaction and individual growth and struggled to fight for their own rights and benefits. Not only did they campaign women

22、 movement, they also established and developed lots of women organizations, for example, the National Organization for Women, General federation of Women’s Club, the League of Women Voters (Rix, 1987: 29), to improve their social status. The movement and the organizations strengthened the American w

23、omen’s collective consciousness and encouraged them to work together to fight for their social status. They realized self-value and achieved accomplishments through the movement as well. The external factors were the transitions of the society. In the 20th century, the American society experienced

24、 the Great Depression, the World War Ⅱ, and the economic boom after the war. All these changes made it possible for women to step out of the domestic sphere and offered an opportunity to broaden their horizons. It is needless to say that the American industrialization also played a key role in liber

25、ating women from the traditional roles as full-time housewives. Furthermore, some great inventions such as tractors, mechanical cotton pickers, vacuum cleaners, washing machines and the like so largely reduced the time which women devoted to housework that they had more spare time to do what they fa

26、vored. They participated in some voluntary associations: temperance societies, charitable associations, settlement houses and so on (Rix, 1987:39). In these associations, they realized their own value. They were not content with their current situations in the society. They wanted to improve their s

27、ocial status, they’d like to work outside the family, have access to higher education and take part in the political activities and what not. In addition, the legal guarantee such as the enforcements of the Equal Pay Act of 1963, Economic Equity Act, Higher Education Act, the Women’s Educational Equ

28、al Act of 1974, Title Ⅶ of the Civil Rights Act of 1964(Conway, 1995:6), and all played an important part in improving the women’s social status ,too. All these factors caused the American women strive to improve their social status in the 20th century. 2. American Women’s Economic Status 2.1 The

29、 American women’s employment opportunity The American women’s employment opportunity can be discussed from two aspects: the number of working women, the job they did and the pay they earned. For a long period, women were not allowed to work outside the home. Even if they could work outside the f

30、amily, they just did some jobs which didn’t need too many skills in limited fields. They were denied access to many kinds of jobs. Their working choices were often confined to nurses, teachers, social workers or most commonly, domestic services. Only a few worked as the clerks in offices. What’s mor

31、e, women’s work outside the home was temporary, always ending with their marriages (Rix, 1987:41-42). In brief, their work outside the families was not encouraged. In the 20th century, especially after the World War Ⅱ, because of the severe labor shortages and some cultural and legal obstructions

32、to the employment of the married women were eliminated, women were encouraged to work outside the home. On one hand, the number of working women increased significantly; on the other hand, a good many women’s work shifted from farm, domestic and service work to skilled industrial jobs which was prev

33、iously closed to them and only opened to men (Rix, 1987:49). Even though they returned home after the war, their devotions to the American society and economy were of great importance. And of course, this also paved the way for women to work outside the family. Since then, in several states, for exa

34、mple, major labor unions and states legislatures adopted the equal-pay-for-equal-work standard (Rix, 1987:51) .It was estimated that by 1980s, more than half of adult women worked outside the domestic sphere, and by 1990s, the figure reached almost 60 percent. While in the middle of the 20th century

35、, there were less than 20 percent working women (Conway, 1995:4). From these figures, we can see that there had been an increasing number of women working outside the home and the ratio of working women had steadily increased in the 20th century. The increased proportion of women in the labor mark

36、et aroused the concern of inequities in pay and employment opportunity and their status in the workplace (Conway, 1995:61).They started to ask for equal-pay-for equal-work. In the early half of the 20th century, women were only admitted to some less skilled jobs, such as clerical jobs, sales jobs, n

37、ursing and teaching and all that sort of thing. The higher paying or professional and managerial positions were only admitted to men workers (Conway, 1995:61). In the latter half of the 20th century, with the implementation of the Title Ⅸ legislation and Title Ⅶ of the Civil Rights Act in 1964, disc

38、riminations against women pursing advanced professions such as law, medicine, management, bank and so forth were abolished step by step. Women’s proportion in the managerial and professional occupations had increased. But it was an undeniable fact that although women had taken a footstep towards the

39、 formerly man-dominated professions, they were less likely to be advanced to a higher position. For one thing, from government civil service to university faculties, private companies and banks, women were underrepresented at the top, however, overrepresented at the bottom, when compared with men (R

40、ix, 1987:123). What they did was more auxiliary than specialized. For another, because they were considered as the primary care providers for both children and elderly parents, it was impossible for women to be employed as full-time employers. Women’s average working time was less than men’s. And al

41、so, the proportions between men and women who worked in the formerly male-dominated professions were unbalanced. Women only accounted for a small proportion. The wage-gap can not be overlooked, either. In the past, women’s average earnings were substantially fewer than that of men. This was in par

42、t because that women’s work was less skilled than men’s and their working time was also less than that of men. But when women worked in the male-dominated occupations, they still earned less than their men counterparts who did the same jobs. The situation was not improved until the passage of the Eq

43、ual Pay Act of 1963 and the enactment of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Conway, 1995:63). This was a small but very significant step toward requiring equity between men and women in employment. Since the passage of the two acts, there have been supports of legislative regulations for eliminating sex

44、differences on wages. Ever since, the disparities between the earnings of men and women have been declining. But the laws’ implementations were not the sole reason that narrowed the pay gap. There were other reasons that caused the pay-gap between men and women narrowing. For example, they did more

45、skilled jobs than before. More women were employed in the higher-paying professional, managerial, technical occupations. Furthermore, women worked more continuously than in the past (Conway, 1995:66). All these leaded to the narrowing of the pay-gap based on sexes. Although the wage-gap between ma

46、le and female has been declining since the 1980s, the differences still existed. In order to get rid of the disparities on wages thoroughly, more efforts and actions should be taken. Improving the women’s access not only to male-dominated but also to the higher-paying occupations and establishing co

47、mparable equal compensation in female-dominated professions were important ways to reduce the pay gap (Rix, 1987:126). What’s more, the equal employment opportunity especially in the higher-paying jobs between men and women was a more effective way to bridge the wage-gap and gain the real equality.

48、 2.2 The working women’s role in family The working women played an increasingly important role in both economy and family life in the 20th century. Generally speaking, people always thought that men’s earnings were the main financial resources in the families while working women’s income was s

49、econdary to men’s and even non-essential. Women’s work was not worthy of any monetary reward comparing to that of men. And women were not financially responsible for their family (Rix, 1987:103). What’s worse, women’s jobs had always been undervalued and ignored since their work was paid fewer than

50、men’s work and they were not seen as important economic providers as men. However, in the 20th century, with the development of the society and the economy, a majority of women began to combine family life with work outside the home. Although women, on average, earned less than men, their contribu

51、tion to the economic resources of the family was significant and could not be ignored any more. For example, in husband-wife families, a wife’s earnings made a significant difference on the family living standards. Their family would be able to live a better life than the family with only a husband

52、worked outside the home to support the whole family. The financial status of that time’s husband-wife families was also closely relevant to women’s earnings. In a single-parent family, mother’s income was more important because the mother’s wage was the only economic resources. Without the mother’s

53、income, they even could not make a living. In summary, the working women’s income played a critical part in family life. And also, the working women lessened their dependency on men, they were financially independent. In addition, women and men all worked outside the home to support the family, bu

54、t women still had to bear the most responsibility of housework. The shift of women to paid employment didn’t mean a reduce in the number of hours most women spent in the household. They not only had to work outside the home to support the family but also they had to do most or even all of the housew

55、ork such as cleaning, cooking, shopping, child caring and so on after they returned home from workplace while men didn’t (Conway,1995:80). Women devoted more total hours to the family economy than they did before the changes. The working women gained more rights in family in the 20th century as we

56、ll. By 1960s, married women had the rights to deal with property. They acquired the right to own and control the property they brought to the marriage and that which they acquired during the marriage while in the past the family property was controlled by men. Women were also entitled the right to d

57、ecide the residents and equal guardian rights over the children. Moreover, it was a tradition that a woman should adopt the surname of her husband after marriage. But since then, the married women could keep their own name without adopting their husband’s surname (何家弘, 2001:248-249). All these were

58、progresses which the American women made in the 20th century. To some extent, the American women’s status in economy was upgraded in the 20th century. 3. American Women’s Status in Higher Education Since both the individual and society attached great importance to education opportunity, the highe

59、r educational right was also one of the most important areas in which women struggled for equal opportunity all around the time. The more education a woman received, the more likely she was to be employed or promoted. The American women’s status in higher education can be analyzed from two aspects:

60、 women as students and women as faculty members (Conway, 1995:21). 3.1 American women as students in higher education In American, for a long run, most women were excluded from the higher education. Only a small number of women had access to colleges and universities. In the early beginning of th

61、e 20th century, on average, there were only about 40 percent of women students in higher education (Rix, 1987:240). The unequal situation hadn’t been improved until the Title Ⅶ of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which was amended in 1972. Since then, more and more women had been allowed to higher educa

62、tion. In 1979, the number of women students was first exceeded the number of men students in the college enrollment. The percentage of college women students increased continuously. By 1990s, more than half of women went into colleges and universities for further studies. Not all students in higher

63、education could earn degrees, however, women’s proportion of earning degrees at every level of higher education were increasing all the time. In 1974, women were awarded 45 percent of all bachelors’ degrees; in 1982, the figure reached 51 percent (Conway, 1995:24). And the percentage of women who re

64、ceived masters’ and doctorates’ degrees was also increased. By 1990s, there were about half of women earned master’s degrees while there were less than 35 percent in the 1960s. The proportion of doctorates earned by women also jumped from 16 percent of all doctorates awarded in 1972 to 35.4 percent

65、of the total awarded in 1986. The proportion was still keeping increasing (Rix, 1987:242).Women were making a slow but very steady strides at the higher educational level. Apart from the mentioned above，women’s study fields were also amplified. For example, in the past, women were refused to stud

66、y in military colleges for many years. In 1976, military universities began to recruit women students as a consequence of the Congressional legislation. In the middle of the 1990s, there were nearly 13 percent of women students in military colleges. And the number of women who majored in fields such as business, law, medicine which were traditionally thought of as the domain of men was also increased significantly, though the proportion was very small (劉永濤, 2001:244). I