Crystal Eastman's Essay 'Now We Can Begin'

During the 1920s was a time of great change in America. The role as a woman was changing in a big way not only at home, but also in the workplace and society. On August 18, 1920 the congress ratified and passed the 19th amendment, which guarantees all women the right to vote. In Crystal Eastman’s essay “Now we can begin” she gives her view of feminism during this time period and how it was viewed as negative since all the feminist leaders at the time was associated with socialism or communism. This negative social view prevented progressive movement in feminism. In “Now we can Begin” Crystal Eastman effectively uses examples on how the women’s right to vote in the 1920s would lead to social changes, economic changes, and women’s freedom overall which were unpopular at the time.
The social changes that occurred after the voting change proved that women were more than just housewives to bare children and maintain the household. As Eastman showed as an example, at the time she stated “A growing number of men admire the woman who has a job, and, especially since the cost of living doubled, rather like the idea of their own wives contributing to the
family income by outside work” (Eastman 1). This was a radically different thought process of males in society, then in the past. Although this did not completely change the traditional roles at the time it was a step in the right direction. Even though this was a huge leap for woman’s rights the expectations of the in the household was still to cook, clean and maintain the household was still the woman’s burden.

The economic independence of women was started when many high level work positions became available.
Eastman spoke about breaking down barriers when she wrote “First, by breaking down all remaining barriers, actual as well as legal, which make it difficult for women to enter or succeed in the various professions, to go into and get on in business, to learn trades and practice them, to join trades unions” (Eastman 1) which was accomplished after the women’s right to vote was won and they were able to enter these higher lever positions that began to reshape the face of America. By being in these positions of authority and management they not only displayed they could perform competently in these positions but could then hire workers base on other criteria based of positive traits and qualifications and not solely on
gender.

Eastman’s view of woman’s freedom was not about slavery or ownership, but the woman’s place in the social economic class. Eastman explained this when she asked “Is there any such thing then as freedom of choice in occupation for women? And is not the family the inevitable economic unit and woman's individual economic independence” (Eastman 1). By society, limiting the options of women to either being to just be a stay at home mother just for the fact that they give birth gave more reason for to keep woman in the household and not in the workplace. When Eastman asked “But is there any way of insuring a woman's economic independence while child-raising is her chosen occupation?” (Eastman 1) She was trying to find out a way to make child bearing a choice rather than an accidental burden. This ability to choose would put the power back in to woman’s hands just as Eastman stated "Birth control is just as elementary an essential in our propaganda as equal pay" (Eastman 1).

All of the changes Eastman talked about were very unpopular during the 1920s era due to the hundreds of years of women’s oppression that they had to face. Her views and goals were evident in not only that time but also in today’s society and continue to display themselves in many ways. When women won the right to vote Eastman wrote "Now at last we can begin." In fighting for the right to vote most women have tried to be either non-committal or thoroughly respectable on every other subject. Now they can say what they are really after; and what they are after, in common with all the rest of the struggling world, is freedom” (Eastman 1). Everyone is fighting for some type of freedom and that is what binds everyone together. This was evident in “Now we can Begin”.