Recent historians have questioned the stereotype of postwar women as quiescent, docile, and domestic. Describe two examples of women or groups of women who participated actively in politics and reform. How did these women’s activism challenge our traditional ideas about the 1950s?
Rosa Parks and Alice Paul were the two women who actively participated in politics and reforms. These two women actively fought against race and voting discrimination. They had shown a great impact on Civil Right Movements. Rosa Parks brought Martin Luther King, as a new leader for Civil Right Movements, meanwhile Alice Paul strategized the event, such as Silent Sentinels.
How was the domestic revival achieved in the 1950s? What factors (social, political, economic, cultural) made domesticity possible for some Americans? Was everyone able to access this domestic ideal?
After men returning from World War II, millions of women returned home and became “ideal” housewife. Women started watching the kids, do the dishes and do all the housework. Some of women refused to do this, because during war they worked hard in factories and did all the men work did and earn better salaries doing this jobs. But the government did everything it could to put women in the house. Women thought that government is going too far and considered these actions as discrimination.
While they could and did work together to bring about dramatic changes in civil rights law, there were also tensions between old and young, men and women, black women and white women active in the Civil Rights Movement. Describe these tensions
During Civil Right Movement there were tensions between black and white women. A lot of black women felt bad for being torn apart following the idea of racial inequality case and the desire to overcome the women discrimination. Black women caused tension because they thought, that women discrimination issues were only related with middle-class women focusing only on their personal goals, instead on the goal of all women that fought government for equal rights.
Why did the Civil Rights Movement put such emphasis on voter registration? By securing the vote, what were the activists hoping to achieve? Why was it so hard for them to achieve their goals?
Black leaders of Civil Right Movement wanted to build a community organizations, where political views could be shared among the state. Since the new constitution was ratified in 1890, which stated new residency requirements and poll taxes, this circumstances made registration impossible. This registration problem strict black people from voting. By securing the votes, they could actually vote and gain political power in the state.
