Social Change Case Study Judy Phillips

For this social change case study, I chose to interview Judy Phillips, my grandmother on my mother’s side. She was born in April of 1940. When she was the age that I am now, equal opportunities and achievements for women were practically unheard of. In this report, the social change of women’s political, labor, and educational opportunities from the 1950’s to now will be addressed through the testimony of Mrs. Phillips. The first part of social change that was discussed with Mrs. Phillips was education and how the opportunities and achievements in this area of society changed over time. When asked how educational opportunity changed for women between the late 1950’s and present day, she replied that “most women went to junior college” but rarely worked toward transferring to a four-year university. Women at the time, if they chose to go to school at all, mostly just went to a two-year community college type of university with the hopes of learning skills such as typing. She stated that the majority of the time, “when someone went to college, they took typing for being a secretary” rather than trying to take other classes to obtain a more prestigious, top-tier career. Additionally, the culture of women was not centered around getting a top education, but was more fixated on family life, which many people today refer to as being a housewife. This societal expectation of women also led to them not pursue a four-year degree as many people considered childbearing, raising children, and house work as more important and practical than attending a four-year university. As movements arose around the world, this began to change as women began to strive toward the higher paying, primarily male-dominated careers. My grandma stated that the changes in educational opportunities and achievements occurred gradually as women began to push for equal opportunities in universities. The next area of social change was the achievements and opportunities available for women in the labor force. When interviewing my grandmother, she stated that, while she was growing up, “women always got less pay, even less than they do now, and there were a lot of jobs that they weren’t qualified for,” due both to them not being as highly educated and the culture of the time which repressed the women who wanted to receive a more advanced degree. At the time, the majority of both blue and white collar jobs were predominantly taken by men, which perpetuated the housewife culture as women were excluded from many fields of study. The few women that did receive a higher education and achieved top-tier jobs made significantly less money than men with the same degree. Even the secretary jobs that women often would obtain, payed …show more content…
According to my grandmother, when she was my age there were very few women involved in politics and none that she could remember. This, similarly to STEM fields and business, was a primarily male-dominated career. At the time, women were not very involved in politics, although over time that gradually changed. Many women did not attempt to get involved in the political sphere and those that did faced great difficulty in gaining a foothold in this field. My grandmother stated that although there must have been women striving for political involvement, she “[couldn’t] remember too many women in politics at the