Gender Matters Tillie Olsen 's “I Stand Here Ironing” reflects the characterize prejudice and ethnic perspective of women during the Great Depression the setting of this story reflects that era. The 1930’s was particularly hard on single, divorced , single mothers and minorities “ I was nineteen. It was the pre‐relief, pre‐WPA world of the depression. I would start running as soon as I got off the streetcar, running up the stairs, the place smelling sour, and awake or asleep to startle awake, when she saw me she would break into a clogged weeping that could not be comforted, a weeping I can yet hear” (pg. 271). Traditional gender roles during the 1930s were taken for granted that all women were married with children and men being
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It was while recovering from inflammatory disease and tuberculosis as an effect of the factory conditions along with the time she spent in jail she began writing. Olsen became a familiar and passionate presence in community meetings, on picket lines and at demonstrations for labor, against apartheid and racism, as part of anti-war movements, on behalf of women 's rights. "I Stand Here Ironing" examines the subject matter of women and that of mother daughter connection as a single mother battles long work hours in order to make ends meet during the Great Depression and her ability to care for her daughter in the way she desires “ She was a miracle to me, but when she was eight months old I had to leave her day-times with the woman downstairs to whom she was no miracle at all, for I worked or looked for work” (pg. 271). Women made up one fourth of the labor population even once jobs were acquired they were not secure. With economic rights women had limited job opportunity and although some did work most companies preferred to hire only men and that is what they did. Women who had jobs were often pressured to give up their jobs for men who had families and often accused them for the reason of the …show more content…
Women only took part in activities within their home because they did not have a lot of rights. They were treated as valueless, there was a lot of blockage in the direct of equal rights for women. Economic Rights was a major issue they were not easily given out as they were to men. If a women did not have a husband, they had to support their families which was difficult because the only jobs available were for men. “I Stand Here Ironing” is better comprehended in the environment of two elements that seized America in the twentieth century. One being the years of the Great Depression a period of declining and lower economic activity in the worldwide economy, mass unemployment, poverty and hunger. This also was the on set of the growing second wave of the feminist movement of the 1950s in which efforts and focus was on social and cultural inequalities. This was more of about discontentment in being stereotype into the character of wife and mother and nothing more. Women were more educated than they had ever been but the only socially accepted role was to get married and have
It was while recovering from inflammatory disease and tuberculosis as an effect of the factory conditions along with the time she spent in jail she began writing. Olsen became a familiar and passionate presence in community meetings, on picket lines and at demonstrations for labor, against apartheid and racism, as part of anti-war movements, on behalf of women 's rights. "I Stand Here Ironing" examines the subject matter of women and that of mother daughter connection as a single mother battles long work hours in order to make ends meet during the Great Depression and her ability to care for her daughter in the way she desires “ She was a miracle to me, but when she was eight months old I had to leave her day-times with the woman downstairs to whom she was no miracle at all, for I worked or looked for work” (pg. 271). Women made up one fourth of the labor population even once jobs were acquired they were not secure. With economic rights women had limited job opportunity and although some did work most companies preferred to hire only men and that is what they did. Women who had jobs were often pressured to give up their jobs for men who had families and often accused them for the reason of the …show more content…
Women only took part in activities within their home because they did not have a lot of rights. They were treated as valueless, there was a lot of blockage in the direct of equal rights for women. Economic Rights was a major issue they were not easily given out as they were to men. If a women did not have a husband, they had to support their families which was difficult because the only jobs available were for men. “I Stand Here Ironing” is better comprehended in the environment of two elements that seized America in the twentieth century. One being the years of the Great Depression a period of declining and lower economic activity in the worldwide economy, mass unemployment, poverty and hunger. This also was the on set of the growing second wave of the feminist movement of the 1950s in which efforts and focus was on social and cultural inequalities. This was more of about discontentment in being stereotype into the character of wife and mother and nothing more. Women were more educated than they had ever been but the only socially accepted role was to get married and have