Major Contradictions Of The Role Of British Women In Family In The 20～(th) Century

Women's domestic role has been a concerned topic since the feminism movements were launched in the world. From 17^th century on, lots of researchers and feminists made studies on the issue from different viewpoints, and made different recommendations on improving female status in family area. This paper is to explore the changes and contradictions of British women's roles in family during the twentieth century, and also to show the major problems and the deep social-psychological root in British feminist movement on the family area.This paper is based on literature studies and arranged in a chronological order according to the British social sequence in the 20^th century. The paper first looks back the British feminist theory and the related historical research, which serve as the theoretic background of the study. Then it demonstrates the British social changes in the 20^th century, and the changes of female domestic roles under such a changing history. Afterwards, the paper elaborates on the contradictions of female domestic roles in different phases of the century: including contradiction between the role of angel-like housewife and independent new women; the contradiction between moderate and radical feminists; the feelings of belonging and loss; and the contradiction of female double roles. Finally the paper discusses the problems underlying the above contradictions as well as their deep social and psychological root, and points out that the British feminist movement needs relocating in a new period to advance the female roles in the society.