So Many Choices History Shows Freedom Today’s Women Share

Women weren’t allowed to vote 80 years ago.

Having a high profile job was almost nonexistent.

Life has changed for everyone during this century. Elders remind us, however, that that’s especially true for young women.

“Life was so much easier back then,” says 97-year-old Marion Ferm, referring to the time when she was a young woman. “We had none of the pressures young ones face today.”

The early 1900s was a time without TVs, cell phones or computers. That was the age of today’s greatgrandmothers.

Family was a very big part of Ferm’s life. Families were large during the early part of this century, often with six or more kids. Everyone lived a short distance from their relatives, especially in big cities like Chicago and New York. They gathered often for picnics and holidays, Ferm says.

Older sisters took care of the younger siblings. They frequently turned down invitations from friends so they could watch little brothers and sisters.

Without television or radio, families spent time together studying, reading or talking about the day’s events.

Church was more than just a place to worship. It was a social event, especially for teens. Parties and dances took place there. It was the place where the guys and gals met and talked. Married couples commonly met at a church function.

In the early 1900s, most women married when they were 18 years old.

Today that is the age when many young women are debating whether to go to college.

High school was usually the end of all schooling for young women growing up earlier in this century. After that, most people got married or worked and lived at home with their parents. If women worked, they usually became teachers or secretaries.

Fay Prater, 80, was in her teens during the Great Depression in the 1930s. She lived in a small farming town just south of Spokane. Times were changing dramatically in the United State. Adults lost their jobs as the economy took a nose dive. School became the only social event for teens because there was no money to spend on things that weren’t absolutely necessary. School plays, orchestra performances and sporting events became the the central social activities.

Many women didn’t go to college, and few jobs were available, Prater says. It was a hard time for the country. The Great Depression’s poverty is difficult for many of today’s young people to imagine.

Was there anything good that came out of the Depression?

“We learned to share,” Prater says.

And women had gained the right to vote by then.

The right to vote, or suffrage, became important to women in the late 1800s. Two women in particular, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, led the women’s suffrage movement in this country. They founded an organization called the National Woman Suffrage Association. They organized marches, speeches and conventions in order to pressure lawmakers into passing legislation allowing women to vote.

Meanwhile, other suffrage groups appeared in Australia and Europe.

American state governments slowly passed laws giving women the right to vote. But it wasn’t until 1920 that Congress passed the 19th Amendment making women’s suffrage universal in the United States.

During World War II, it became more common for women to work outside the home. While American men were at war, women took over the jobs that they left behind. In Washington state, many women worked at Boeing, making planes for the war.

Flower children and disco music became popular in the 1960s and 70s. Out of all the preceding generations, these young people were the most like today’s teens.

In school and with friends, they faced more pressure than their parents and grandparents. Drugs, especially marijuana, became popular. Violence increased.

But more and more women went to college and worked in professional jobs. The working woman became reality.

It’s important to know about the different roles women have played in the past. Today’s mothers, grandmothers and and greatgrandmothers lived through eras that were different and unique from modern society.

It’s easy for girls today to forget the freedom they have to choose the career and lifestyle they want to pursue. Most girls 100 years ago never dreamed of going to college, especially to study law, medicine or political science.

Women’s history is something that teenage girls, and all young people, can learn from.