Women In The 20th Century

In the 1800s, women only went to school to attract better prospective husbands (Pegues,1). They were often took as a joke. They were told to give up their spots so men could take their places within the class (Pegues,2). Around this time, a phenomenon actually occurred called, "unmarried academic woman". It was where a woman was either educated or married (Pegues,2). Within school, women were told to think about their greater roles in the world. Such as raising a family, taking care of a home, and following her husband. They were told to be obedient and act as "domestic creatures." The view of women started to change when colleges starting accepting women. Also when powerful influential women started to make an impact on the world. One of
In the 20th Century, many countries and people did not appreciate women. In the past, in China, citizens living in poverty actually murdered their child if it was born a female. This was deemed acceptable in China. If you were a female that survived you were shown nothing but unkindness and ridicule. One of the ways this slowly changed was through the Communist Party. They fought to free women from housework. They assisted in giving women the right to own their own property. In 1979, a law came about in China to one child per couple. This helped raise the value of women because only one woman could have one child not multiple women. China is not the only place the belittling of women occurs. Africa is guilty of it too, but not to the extent of China. In Africa, women are strictly viewed as servants who birth children. Women in Africa learn from a young age how important it is to raise a family, and take care of the house. In comparison to males, females are nothing; whereas the men are worshipped. A common myth in Africa is, "It is a waste to educate a female child". This has changed in today's world. Women now own property, go to school, and are not just used as an "instrument of procreation." Heroic stories of women changed the mindset of most African women. Europeans are not so horrible in the way they value women based of their gender. They value women based off their looks.
Women have grown independent, educated, and for the most part equal to men. Women do not face the harshness of men in this century, but they face their own harshness and own insecurities. Women are cruelly judged by themselves and other women in society because society has given them an impossible standard to meet. Every woman is held to the stand of being a size zero, perfect face, and perfect bodied individual. This is an impossible standard to meet because each individual does not have the same body structure. Women are still forced to meet this though. A saying that has become popular today is, "is you can never be too thin." Two things that are very important to a woman are body image and ideal body size. Body image deals with "the subjective concept of one's physical appearance based on self-observation and the reaction of others." Ideal body size pertains to, "body size that is determined by one's cultural group in order to epitomize beauty and/or success in achievement of the optimum physical state defined by that group" (Borders,1). Throughout history women have to meet the ideal body image put out by media (Kilbourne,2). Such as in 1920 women were suppose to be thinner and have smaller breast to meet the social norm of a flapper girl. But the public figure Marilyn Monroe in the 1950s encouraged curves, and a wider figure. In the 1960s another model came into the media's eye and skinniness became