Amy Ly
998186803
Professor Olmsted
HIS 174C
May 26, 2016
The Personal is Political In this essay, I pull from Gail Collins’ account of the lives of women in the United States from the 1960s to today in When Everything Changed and Christian G. Appy’s oral history of the Vietnam War in Patriots to discuss whether the women’s movement or the Vietnam War was a greater source of change in U.S. politics and society. Under the context that the personal is political, I argue that due to the growth of consumerism and capitalism in the United States as well as social movements such as feminism and counterculture, the women’s movement amassed extensive social change, which shaped and was shaped by politics. However, the Vietnam War and its political …show more content…
The creation of the Presidential Commission on the Status of Women was an avenue for women to get together to discuss ways to improve the lives of women in the U.S. with or without the ERA. Representative Griffiths also continued to work to make both white and black women part of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The accomplishments of the women’s movement and civil rights movement were greatly owed to the successful creation of narratives to fuel both movements. Marian Anderson, a black woman who was denied admission to a local music school rose to become a world-renowned contralto, yet was prohibited from performing at Washington’s Constitution Hall. This sparked nationwide outrage and provided two lessons: (1) the glimmer of hope that the American public could do the right thing in the face of segregation and (2) the standard had been set very high (Collins, 107). This would make it difficult for all the women who were not the Marian Andersons of the United States. In addition, the Rosa Parks bus boycott story had also been selectively crafted and told to the American public. Often depicted as a tired seamstress, she had actually been one of the most active National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) members in Montgomery and had been preparing herself for a moment of defiance that would change the tide in the civil rights movement (Collins, 111). The …show more content…
After a decade colored by the civil rights movement, the American public became more and more receptive to gender equality. While it appeared to occur overnight, improvement in the lives of women had been a gradual process that started with the growing inclusion of women in the job economy during World War II. When American men returned home from the war, more and more women were choosing to work outside of the home. Paired with the growing culture of consumerism, it became more difficult to live as a single-income family and working women in the household began to take on the responsibility, supplementing one-third of the household
998186803
Professor Olmsted
HIS 174C
May 26, 2016
The Personal is Political In this essay, I pull from Gail Collins’ account of the lives of women in the United States from the 1960s to today in When Everything Changed and Christian G. Appy’s oral history of the Vietnam War in Patriots to discuss whether the women’s movement or the Vietnam War was a greater source of change in U.S. politics and society. Under the context that the personal is political, I argue that due to the growth of consumerism and capitalism in the United States as well as social movements such as feminism and counterculture, the women’s movement amassed extensive social change, which shaped and was shaped by politics. However, the Vietnam War and its political …show more content…
The creation of the Presidential Commission on the Status of Women was an avenue for women to get together to discuss ways to improve the lives of women in the U.S. with or without the ERA. Representative Griffiths also continued to work to make both white and black women part of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The accomplishments of the women’s movement and civil rights movement were greatly owed to the successful creation of narratives to fuel both movements. Marian Anderson, a black woman who was denied admission to a local music school rose to become a world-renowned contralto, yet was prohibited from performing at Washington’s Constitution Hall. This sparked nationwide outrage and provided two lessons: (1) the glimmer of hope that the American public could do the right thing in the face of segregation and (2) the standard had been set very high (Collins, 107). This would make it difficult for all the women who were not the Marian Andersons of the United States. In addition, the Rosa Parks bus boycott story had also been selectively crafted and told to the American public. Often depicted as a tired seamstress, she had actually been one of the most active National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) members in Montgomery and had been preparing herself for a moment of defiance that would change the tide in the civil rights movement (Collins, 111). The …show more content…
After a decade colored by the civil rights movement, the American public became more and more receptive to gender equality. While it appeared to occur overnight, improvement in the lives of women had been a gradual process that started with the growing inclusion of women in the job economy during World War II. When American men returned home from the war, more and more women were choosing to work outside of the home. Paired with the growing culture of consumerism, it became more difficult to live as a single-income family and working women in the household began to take on the responsibility, supplementing one-third of the household