A Two-Sided History Reflecting on societal changes throughout history that altered men and women’s lives both in the past and today.
by: MALLORY SWOPE staff writer
The feminist movement is one of, if not, the longest-spanning societal movements of all time in America. Because the movement has gone on for so long and its effects continue to trickle down from generation to generation, it has a sort of connotation that makes us as a society oblivious to the whole of its effects. Throughout all of the changes made in the feminist movement, society tends to solely acknowledge how women’s lives were altered. This leads the public to overlook the second side of the story, the men’s perspective. When the first women stepped into their new jobs in factories alongside men, the women were not the only ones to experience a jolting culture shock. As men left for their shifts after women were adopted into the workforce, they felt their own sort of culture shock. They wouldn’t leave their wives at home for 12-hour shifts anymore. Instead, they both left for work at the same time and came home at the same time. This advance in society was just one of the first that began a series of changes that would be observed for the next several decades and even into the next century.
The foundation of the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) - 1869
Impacts on Women: With the establishment of the NWSA came the beginning of the official Women’s Suffrage Movement, and it motivated women nationwide to vote. In areas of the country where it was still considered taboo for anyone who wasn’t a white male to vote, the NWSA inspired women to take control of their beliefs and promote them. They were encouraged to become involved in the government and political reforms which created a domino effect as sub-groups of the NWSA such as the National Woman’s Party were created.
30 // BGQ // April 2020
Impacts on Men: Even though the Women’s Suffrage Movement was centered around women, men were the ones who had control over the results ultimately. The feminist movement also caused conflict between men who had opposing viewpoints on women’s voting rights. Men were also presented with the fear that women would use their right to vote as a way to spite them for the years of societal lag the women suffered, according to the National Association of Scholars.
