The Changing Role of Women

Prior to the Women’s Liberation movement, it was universally recognized that a women’s principle role was within the family, with her education and her economic and political rights neglected as a result of common assumptions on her gender. However through the “2nd wave” feminist movement of the 1960s and 1970s, women have gradually achieved social, economic and political freedom. In consequence of this “sexual revolution”, social attitudes, gender roles and the basic structure of the family unit, have evolved to accommodate the changing status of women in today’s society.

At the beginning of the 20th century, women were considered first and foremost as mothers and housewives. Their primary responsibility was to bear children and to maintain the stability of the family unit. Women were perceived as inferior and subordinate to men, therefore there was no need for them to be educated or allowed into the workforce, which in itself further compounded their position, as th...