John Steinbeck’s novella Of Mice and Men depicts women of the 1930s through the character of Curley’s wife.
Women’s roles in the 1930s can be viewed by history, gender difference, and their duties. During the time the European conquest, Native American girls were taught homemaking skills by the Europeans to further change their society to a European society. (Lunardini, 8) Additionally, in the 16th-17th century, the Puritans believed that husband was the authority figure in the family and that his wife and children should obey without question. (Lunardini, 9) These factors in American history shaped the way gender roles were for the future. Women and Men were extremely different during this time period. Married women were supported by their husband and they should not be allowed to work because they will be taking a man's job. (Mass) Men tried their best to be the breadwinners as they tried to find work while women were homemakers. (“1930s”)
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Women were responsible for cooking, house cleaning, and mending. (“1930”)
Women faced inferiority in the 1930s as well, however, this was not a new thing as it was seen all throughout history. Native American women had as much status as a man. However, as the Europeans came to the New World they gradually lost their status. (Lunardini, 8) This shows that European culture formed the inferiority of women which continued throughout history. Women's inferiority can also be seen as they faced gender inequality. Many jobs preferred men over women, and federal agencies paid women much less than men. (Boehm)
Women also faced inferiorly in the work life. Women colleges did not women to pursue careers because it was a man’s job to work. (Boehm) Laws made by the government enforced that women keep their traditional house-keeping roles and not work.
The history behind treatment of women has changed throughout time. Women have been said to be weaker than men. Men state that hard work is required more strength and it's their responsibility. So that left the jobs of women to taking the needs of children, cleaning, milking the cows,and other chores in the house (Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia).
During WWII to most men were drafted to join the military. This some what forced many women to take on the jobs most held by men at the time. When the Baby Boom happened, many Americans viewed this as a chance to get women back as household keepers. Many magazines at the time promoted sending women back to housewives. They would post articles like “Cooking To Me Is Poetry” and “Femininity Begins At Home”.
There really was no problem for women to be doing work, but they also responsible for all the house works before they went to work. This
While reading about American history the thing that I found most appealing was the limited rights that women had during this era. Although women gave the early settlers longer life expectancy and brought hope to their future, women still were not considered equal to a man. Women were discriminated against and didn’t play an important role in early American history. Generally, women had fewer legal rights and career opportunity than men because they were considered weak and not able to perform certain tasks. Different women came from different ethnic backgrounds and were all created equal in the eyes of men.
“She’s gonna make a mess, they’s gonna be a bad mess about her. She’s a jailbait all set on the trigger”. Of Mice and Men show’s George and Lennie’s path to their American dream. They are starting off as laborers in California in the Salina’s Valley and live in a hand-to-mouth lifestyle on a ranch. The novel portrays many male characters than female.
Women in the 1600s to the 1800s were very harshly treated. They were seen as objects rather than people. They were stay-at-home women because people didn’t trust them to hold jobs. They were seen as little or weak. Women living in this time period had to have their fathers choose their husbands.
The Unnamed Woman Up until the 1900’s woman had few rights, thus they relied heavily on men. Women could not vote, they could not own their own property, and very few worked. Women’s jobs were solely to care for children and take care of the home. Women during this time, typically accepted their roles in society and the economy ( “Progressive Era to New Era, 1900-1909”).
Boydston writes, “But if middle-class women were encased in the image of the nurturant (and non laboring) mother, working-class women found that their visible inability to replicate that model worked equally hard against them.” The standard during the Antebellum period was a woman that didn’t do any kind of laborious task other than housework which was thought as being an enriching and awarding process. However, wage-earning women visibly were unable to live up to these new standards because they were forced out of their own gender sphere of domesticity just to find work. During the Antebellum period, it was believed to be a men’s sphere to work and men masculinity was based on the fact of being the main “breadwinner” for the family. By a woman going into this sphere they went against the formation of the two gender spheres.
The novellas Of Mice and Men and The Pearl are both often noted as social criticisms. The author, John Steinbeck addresses real-life issues that society is facing. Whether through direct statements and comments, or through a fictional characters’ situation, Steinbeck criticizes just some of the problems of society. He shows the way people are discriminated against, and why. He shows the issues society faces.
There were high standards for women in society as well as in the home, as their main job was to be
World of Sexism Due to the Great Depression, women’s rights took a back seat to employment and poverty. It was believed that women shouldn’t work but stay at home, clean, cook, and raise their children. The prejudice against women in the society was great back in the 1930s for they were degraded and underestimated. All the rights they had gained in the 1920s were neglected and the women were once again maltreated. In Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, the victim of sexism is Curley’s wife who is so insignifact that even a name was not provided for her.
The women were expected to create a happy home, guard the religion, and the morality of her family. The unmarried and married women who tried to seek work outside the home faced limited employment opportunities because of their gender. Women were expected to only focus on domestic duties and her role were limited to continue living in the man’s world. Women roles were expected to be in line with the culture and norms set by the society. The American culture perceived that women were not intellectually and emotionally stable to be involved in the complex world of work and, therefore, women did not take up leadership and political roles.
In 1920 when the 19th amendment was passed allowing women to vote, many women thought that Gender Inequality was coming to an end. Soon after, the Great Depression happened, and everyone was focused on that. Life for women was especially hard then because they had to live in a world full of poverty and discrimination. Throughout Of Mice and Men we see this through Curley’s Wife. She just wants to fit in and talk to the men without thinking she wants something, or being called rude names.
The role of women in the 1920’s was to start to break free from their social cages. They were expected to be precious and helpless, but women of the “Roaring Twenties” were making dynamic changes. For example, “When passed in 1920, the Nineteenth Amendment gave women the right to vote” (Women in the 1920s in North Carolina). Although they were, by no means, completely liberated, in the 1920’s, women were beginning their escape from learned helplessness and the limitations that society enforced. F. Scott Fitzgerald demonstrated the chaos, complexity, and confusion that resulted from the inconsistency of the role that women were “supposed” to play and the role that women began to play.
Women. Women’s involvement in the working world have contributed to many items that would be missing from the world today; if they had not been allowed to work.. Women have struggled with sexism in the workplace since before they were even given the chance to try to work. They were taught from a young age that their job was to provide children, cook, and clean for their husbands, while the husband worked and provided the money. What men did not know however was that women were capable of so much more(Jewell, Hannah).