Womens Rights and Gatsby 2013

7/29/2019 Womens Rights and Gatsby 2013

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Gatsbys Women:Historical Context

Suffrage w Consumerism w Gender Roles

L. M. Freer w FIT/SUNYw revised Spring 2013


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The Fight for Suffrage: Early Organizing

n 1790: All free inhabitants of NewJersey have the right to vote

n 1807: Women lose their votingrights in New Jersey

n 1848: Seneca Falls, NY: 1stwomens rights convention in theU.S

n Declaration of Sentimentsand Resolutions signed(organizing principles forsuffrage movement)

n 1854: Massachusetts grantswomen property rights

n 1859: rubber vulcanizedreliablecondoms available soon after. U.S.birth rate begins to decline.

n 1868: 14th Amendment toConstitution essentially definescitizen and voter as male

n 1869: 2 major womens orgs founded(split over 15th Amendment)

n National Womens SuffrageAssociation (more radical, women-only)

n American Womens SuffrageAssociation (supportedamendment, included men)

1790s-1850s 1860s


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The Fight for Suffrage: State-by-State

n 1870: 15th Amendmentenfranchises black men

n 1869-70: Utah and Wyomingorganized into territories;

women have suffrage rights inboth states

n 1874: Founding of WomensChristian Temperance Union

n 1878: Womens suffrageamendment first introduced inU.S. Congress

n 1883: Women in Washington territorygranted full voting rights

n 1887: U.S. Supreme Courtdisenfranchises women ofWashington territory

n 1890: NWSA & AWSA merge tobecome National American WomensSuffrage Association

n 1890: Wyoming admitted to theUnion with womens rights tosuffrage intact

n 1893: Colorado passes womenssuffrage

1870s 1880s-1890s


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The Fight for Suffrage: Taking it Public

n 1896: Formation of the NationalAssociation of Colored Women inWashington, D.C.

n 1896: Utah admitted to the Union withwomens rights to suffrage intact

n 1903: Formation of Womens TradeUnion League of New York (laterInternational Ladies Garment

Workers Union, ILGWU)

n 1909: 20,000 women workers strikein the NYC garment district

n 1910: Washington, now a state, grantswomen full voting rights

n 1910: First large-scale suffrageparade, held in NYC

n 1911: California grants women fullvoting rights

n 1912: Progressive Party (TeddyRoosevelts party) makes suffragepart of their political platform

n 1912: Kansas and the Arizona andAlaska territories grant women theright to vote

1890s-1900s 1910-1912


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The Fight for Suffrage: Taking it to D.C.

n 1913: Congressional Union (laterNational Womans Party) formed; stagessit-ins and hunger strikes to drawattention to suffrage cause.

n 1914: Women win the right to vote inNevada and Montana

n 1916: First woman in the House ofRepresentatives (Jeannette Rankin,Montana)

n 1917: New York State grants women fullvoting rights; other states grant theright to vote in presidential elections

n 1918: President Woodrow Wilson issuesa statement in support of womenssuffrage

n 1918: The 19th Amendment passes theHouse of Representatives

n 1919: Women are granted voting rightsin Oklahoma, Michigan and SouthDakota

n 1919: The Senate finally passes theamendment

n 1920: 19th Amendment ratified bystate legislatures; becomes law

August 26th

n NAWSA disbands, its members formthe League of Women Voters

n 1923: The ERA is first proposed. (Stillhas never been passed!)

1913-1918 1918-1923


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Changing Views of Women

n Roles of women during theCivil War and especially WWI

n Women as advocates for andproviders of services to the

poor and needy

n Hull House, Jane Addams,1890

n Emerging consumer societyn Growth of advertising

n Increasing consumer powern Fashionn Home

n Greater interest in birth controln First as a social issuen More & better barrier

methods become available

n More rigorously educatedn Mt. Holyoke, 1837n By 1920s: 2-3 generations of

college-educated women

Additional Factors During Prohibition


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+The Great GatsbyReacts to Cultural

Changen It isnt only about suffrage! All these changes (votes + money + driving +

drinking + education) are beginning to accumulate

n By the mid-1920s, women are emerging as somewhat more equal playersn Especially true among upper classes (wealth enables the exercise of

privilege)

n Fitzgeralds novel depicts a set of related anxieties about shifting,ungrounded gender roleschange he perceives in both men and women

n Best embodiment of these anxieties is not Gatsby or Tom but Nickespecially when talking to (or about) Daisy or Jordan

n This progress is quickly lost in the economic upheaval in the 1930s,repressed in the 1940s (the quick move from Rosie the Riveter to Stepfordwife), and is only regained in the 1960s and 1970s (oral contraceptives andwomens movement)


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+F. Scott & Zelda

n Fitzgerald involved with 20s high society afterhis first novel is a success

n Literary celebrities of their day; high-flying lifeof alcohol and parties

n F. Scott borrows from their relationship andZeldas writing in his own works; is generallythought to have done so without her consent

Womens Rights and Gatsby 2013

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