From Could Not to Please Do

                                                                Women Joining the Workforce 

              From 1772 to 1940 opinions of a woman and her abilities drastically shifted, newspapers went from printing demeaning articles restricting a woman to the household, to praising their “super woman” abilities in the work force. As explained earlier, media had a large role in stifling the woman’s right to vote and victory was gotten by fighting against such publications, but in the case of women in the workforce newspapers and periodicals were the workhorses in the task of shifting public opinion, (including women’s opinions) and encouraging the notion that woman not only had the ability to "hold down the fort" but excel in jobs not typical of a woman.

By Toronto Public Library Special Collections

It would be a lie to say that all women were gung-ho to join the ranks of the dirty factory worker. Let’s be honest women are women, and especially in a time where the ideals of a typical woman were largely based on appearance, women and men alike needed a little convincing that they  could help the war effort while still maintaining there femininity. The media had a simple solution, glamorize women in the work force. Journals showed images of petite beautiful women working in factories, emphasizing the fact she can still look like a woman while doing a job typically reserved for men. In my opinion this is still a sentiment that holds true. Fashion designers show women dressed to the nines in their female business suits while carrying a kid, or on TV showing female police officers looking like beauty queens  in their uniforms, rivaling the glamour of an evening gown.  I myself hold a job dominated by men and I often feel the need to emphasize my femininity through clothing or makeup for some reason unbeknownst to me. Am I and other women alike trying desperately to say WE ARE FEMALES, as if our natural physical appearance didn't already make that fact painfully obvious? Or are we playing up our feminine qualities because by working in jobs typical of males we are still fearful of being subjected to  hateful words attacking our sexuality for wanting to excel in the work place, like the ladies of the suffrage movement often faced? So with this in mind it’s not shocking that the media used emphasis of  the ultra feminine woman in this very successful campaign to get women to throw away their reservations and join the work force.

By Marion Doss

                Women were all over the workforce, practically dominating it while all the boys were on the war front. Now women faced another obstacle from serving their patriotic duty, with a question that women even face today “How the hell am I going to handle a family while working a job? “ That’s where Alma comes in.  The New York Times ran an article about Alma, a working wife and mother who fulfilled all of her womanly duties while still maintaining a job. This was the media addressing the concerns of reluctant women and encouraging the women who were already in that situation to KEEP GOING! Though inspirational as this may be articles such as these addressed the harsh realities of being a working mother without really addressing the harsh realities of being a working mother. It sensationalized their strife, but in a time of dire need I feel it was necessary to tell women they could do it.

      Photo journalism played a large role in the advancement of women in the workforce but photographers often stuck to the petite young women as subject. While Margaret Bourke-White went against the norm and showed tough, strong women in her photo essay “Women in Steel.” I feel that the iconic image of Norman Rockwell’s “Rosie the Riveter”   melded theses two aspects of the working woman by showing beauty confidence and above all strength. It didn’t just depict the “woman” aspect it also showed the “working” part, and for this very reason it was the iconic image of the time.

Photo by Steve Bott

“Placed in a situation of difficulty, they neither have a head to dictate nor a hand to help.” 

            This quote about "ladies" was drawn from an article of (believe it or not) Ladies Magazine.  In 1972 when ladies magazine was first founded it was the first publication to be aimed exclusively towards women, which at first thought is a good thing, hey even a triumph. Look the media is acknowledging women have interest! But that notion is soon squandered upon further inspection.  This magazine like many other publications of the time uses its influence to support and shape the roles and limitations of the female population.  This is why in Streitmatter (as do I) feels strongly that the media of the time did not simply stand by and whiteness the oppression of women, which would be bad enough, but in fact played an active role in slowing the momentum for women’s rights.
            Seneca Falls 1848 marks the start of the movement towards gender equality. This meeting was organized through an add in the news paper put out by Elizabeth Stanton, its ironic to think the very vehicle in which started the revolution would also try to stifle it. Relentless attacks were wielded against the “radical” women and men who fought for justice. First papers would diminish the movement, by calling it un-noteworthy. They would further push the idea of the uselessness of a woman if she was not a wife or mother, as a woman’s value is held in her place the home, so she is nothing without a home.  Then the attacks became more personally pointed and demeaning, The New York Sun referred to women in the movement at “Hermaphrodites” and the men as “Aunt Nancys.”  It’s like when you get into an unrelenting fight which somehow ends with “well you’re ugly!” What does that have to do with anything? Nothing but attacks on how the public viewed these brave men and women was the media's last resort to maintain some sort of power over these unruly women and misguided men.                                     

Photo by  Tony Fischer 

               
            Soon women were able to publish their own press. The Revolution was the first, but proved to be too extreme for many readers and dying out soon after publication. The most successful was a less radical Women’s Journal Founded by Lucy Stone. This journal was important because it may not have changed opinions, but it did create a feeling of unity and purpose among women in the movement.

The Foundation had been laid out for the following generation, now they simply had to act, and act they did. These ladies capitalized on the Progressive movement of the time and created the Women’s Political Union. This allowed them to have a political platform to actually influence change. By 1918 the 19^th amendment had been passed. Streitmatter sums up his views of media in regards to the movement by saying  “Had the Fourth Estate mobilized that power as a positive force in support of the Women’s Rights Movement, there’s no question that half the American citizenry would be granted its rightful voice in the democratic process far earlier than ultimately was the case.”  

I chose to base my first project off chapter three from Mightier than the Sword, “Slowing the Momentum for Women’s Rights.”  The Women’s Rights Movement is a topic I am very passionate about and would like to further explore through this blog.

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