The kind of information conveyed by the fictional documentary illustrates the historical images and roles of women which kept on changing in the US all over the 20th century. The dramatic documentary presents the US women in the family and at work across the generations in a sequential manner. The movie presents the different positions taken and roles played by women as they championed politics at war, the sexual revolution and the ways in which women presented themselves in creating and molding the history of the US since 1900. This paper seeks to summarize the first part of the movie, "work and the family" in the context of US history.
In an attempt to keep women in the light of the movie, the first part which takes approximately two hours is centered on the continuously evolving responsibility of the female gender at home and at work. This part illustrates women's roles and positions during the boom and depression, the two World Wars, the civil rights movements where they keep on changing. The journey of women in the US history over the century is presented as a long journey on a bumpy terrain that tends to be unsuccessful.
The women appear to be struggling to make both ends meet for their families and the workplaces. It presents the kind of unfair and inhumane working environments in which the women are subjected to unlike men. It's dependent on personal accounts of the tribulations that befall the women as workers all over the century. The inhumanity on women at the workplaces results to the deaths of many women as fires break out at locked factories. For example, when a fire breaks out at the Triangle Shirt Waist factory in which workers are locked in, many women are roasted inside, a disgusting incident. The women are dehumanized and their work is not acknowledged by the society. It took a long time for the pleas and cries of the women to come to public attention, a period of which many suffered and died of the inhumane working conditions. The mistreatment and unfairness against women at the workplaces were however brought to the spotlight due to the alarming death rates of the women in the line of duty. (Rowbotham)
The movie in relation to US history
The movie is a replica of the historical and current position of women in the US. It illustrates the subordinate position that has always been assigned to the women in the society. Women have always been disrespected, discriminated and denied privileges which they rightfully deserve. They have always been underrepresented or unrepresented in many social and political forums and viewed as irrelevant in the establishment of a complete society. The movie also presents the struggle for the liberation of women in the US. It shows how the woman has evolved over the 19th century and how the historical events of the century shaped the woman. The journey of women liberation in the US has been very difficult.
Works cited
Rowbotham, Sheila. A Century Of Women. London: Viking, 1997. Print.
A century of Women. Dir. Jane Fonda. Perf. Kyra Thompson, Lynn Roth,Jacoba Atlas and Heidi Schulman. Polygram, 1994. Film
