Societal Expectations

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Social role and behavioral expectations of women in the early to mid-20th century A woman’s role in society in the early to mid-20th century was much more different from what is it today. At that time, society defined how a woman should live her life and what she was expected of. During this time, societal expectations had a big influence on women’s behavior. Societal attitudes and expectations about women’s appropriate behavior frequently led to the segregation of women. Society in the early to mid-20th century viewed a woman as physically weak, soft, loving and motherly and therefore not suitable for any hard labor but rather to stay and take care of kids at home. This was the attitude during that time as we see Walker notes in the essay…show more content…
Due to such societal attitudes women were segregated from education especially college since society only looked at them as wives or mothers. This is clearly noted in the essay Another Evening at the Club by Rifaat as the father of Samia who was then in secondary school ,gave his daughter up for marriage by saying, “As of today she will be staying at home in readiness for your happy life together”…show more content…
At the time due to that misconception of women being inferior, only men made important decisions in a household. This kind of misconception led to women being treated as property to men rather than as human beings who can make their own decisions. The film Adam’s Rib put this clear as we see in Jury selection, man in court being asked if he believed in equal rights for women and he answered by saying no which meant he did not believe rights for women “Adam’s Rib”. Women were also generally not expected to appear in public places like bars or night clubs to socialize as such an activity would be seen as immoral for a woman and there most women stayed home doing laundry or sewing clothes in their free time. Also due to the fact that women were considered to be inferior to men, they could not own property. These kinds of attitudes in society segregated women from generally everything like sports, top administrative jobs and so much more. We also know that women could not cast a vote in the early 20th century because voting was considered a responsibility only a man could handle and therefore women could not vote. Such a societal attitude denied women a right to have a say in the future of their country. This was a form of segregation in a way that no woman was allowed near a voting center because only men could go

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