How Far Did the Position of American Women Change in the Years 1917–80?

The two extracts take very different perspectives, and each historian selects evidence to support their differing views. They are both considering the progress that women had achieved in the workplace by 1980. The Bureau of Labour report states that women did make progress and goes on to explain why they did. From this, the historian can agree that women did indeed, make progress. Freeman on the other hand, seems to suggest the complete opposite. Her argument insinuates that women did make progress in terms of them being able to achieve higher qualifications but lacking in the ability to acquire a job due to the overwhelming sexism that women face, suggesting that progress was essentially nullified.

By 1980, numerous major women's organizations had sprung up and actively fought for women's rights such as NOW and FEW. This had achieved things like the Voting Rights Act, Equal Pay Act and the Civil Rights Act. This suggests that women did make progress as they had managed to get Congress to pass laws that would rise the position of women to get closer to the position that men have. However, on the other hand, it seems like the Acts were half-heartedly put into action. Such as the Equal Rights Act of 1972, though it was passed, it was not ratified by enough states and so complete equality was not put into place. This suggests that women were in a constant void of progress and regression, so to state that progress was made in the workplace would be an arduous argument to pursue.

The Bureau of Labour seems to think that women had made significant progress. It suggests that women had created a more hospitable environment for themselves through their rigorous protesting and movements which had induced them to work. The first reason for this, is due to rapid economic growth of the US. As the US enjoyed a significant increase in revenue through trade, more factories and establishments were built which meant more job opportunities for women such as in the media. This is also due to their war effort in which aided men in finally accepting that women were more than capable of doing male jobs, and that their intelligence was somewhat on the same level as men. This contradicts Freeman's view that women were portrayed as intelligently inferior which led to employment being a very difficult challenge. This is because female stereotypes such as leaving in an instant due to pregnancy was still strong and this had hindered women's progress. However, multiple stepping stones were created amid women's progression and the only thing that women had left to do was wait for time to blossom the seed as in the 1970s the Acts were passed, and they needed time to prove that they were indeed reliable like a white male. Thus, suggesting the view that women had made progress in the workplace by 1980 is true.  

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