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women's sole purpose was to find a husband, have children, and to take care of them for the rest of her life. she would cook, clean, and take care of the children. women were expected to completely obey her husband.
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Women no longer had to live with a man if they didn't want to. but since most women relied on men for their source of money, many continued to stay in a marriage they were miserable in.
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Women were slowly gaining more and more rights
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Women's Social and Political Union was founded
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Women's Freedom League (a breakaway group from the WSPU founded by Charlotte Despard) was founded.
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A Conciliation Bill which would have given women with property the right to vote was lost. This led to ‘Black Friday’.
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Women were allowed to take exams to be chartered accountants.
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Sylvia Pankhurst founded the East London Federation of Suffragettes. Sylvia wanted a movement to be more inclusive of women from a working class background.
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The 1918 Representation of the People Act gave propertied women over 30 years of age the right to vote.
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The legal profession was opened to women.
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The Nineteenth Amendment, called the Susan B. Anthony Amendment, becomes a law
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The first female barrister was appointed.
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Edna St. Vincent Millay becomes the first woman to be awarded the Pulitzer Prize for poetry
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Women over 21 were given the right to vote - giving women the same voting status as men
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Secretary of Labor, Frances Perkins, became the first woman to serve on a presidential cabinet
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The Women’s Army Corps (WAC) and Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES) are established
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The United Nations is established; Eleanor Roosevelt is appointed as a U.S. delegate.
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President John Kennedy establishes the President's Commission on the Status of Women and appoints Eleanor Roosevelt as chairwoman
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Betty Friedan publishes her highly influential book The Feminine Mystique, which describes the dissatisfaction felt by middle-class American housewives with the narrow role imposed on them by society. The book becomes a best-seller and galvanizes the modern women's rights movement.
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Congress passes the Equal Pay Act, making it illegal for employers to pay a woman less than what a man would receive for the same job.
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The National Organization for Women (NOW) is founded by a group of feminists including Betty Friedan. The largest women's rights group in the U.S., NOW seeks to end sexual discrimination, especially in the workplace, by means of legislative lobbying, litigation, and public demonstrations.
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The EEOC rules that sex-segregated help wanted ads in newspapers are illegal. This ruling is upheld in 1973 by the Supreme Court, opening the way for women to apply for higher-paying jobs hitherto open only to men.
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California becomes the first state to adopt a "no fault" divorce law, which allows couples to divorce by mutual consent.
