A Study Of American Women’s Liberation Campaign:1920-1940

The two decades from1920to1940plays an important role in the history of the United States and American women. This interwar period(between World Wars I and Ⅱ) presented great changes in politics, economy, society and culture, during which the nation zigzagged through the prosperity, depression and recovery. This period has also been considered as a low tide between the two American feminism movements, providing the massive changing social-historical background for changes of women’s economic roles, political roles, education roles and roles in the family. It is indispensible to know about the living conditions and liberation campaign of women in this era, which had a profound impact on the rise of the second wave of women’s movement and women’s future development in the long term.Adopting the Marxism theory and feminist theory as the research methodology, the thesis makes a study of women’s liberation campaign under the specific historical background of the two decades. With the liberation campaign as the main content, the study will find out the transitions of women’s roles in the employment field, political field, educational field and domestic field respectively and the remaining unsolved problems at work and in family by analyzing the following questions:What did women experience during the specific era? What kind of effects did social changes have on women’s status in family and society? In turn, what impacts did women’s transitions in this period have on social transformations and developments of the2nd wave of feminist movement in the long run?The study finds out that if women want to be completely liberated, the key lies in their unremitting efforts to struggle. The economic independence is the prior condition for women to gain the real equality and liberation. Although the social status and roles of women had been elevated to some extent during these decades, the development of women is restricted by factors such as nation’s economic conditions, traditional culture and women’s limitations etc.. Therefore, there is still a long road full of hardships to go to get rid of the spiritual shackle imposed on women by the men-dominated society and gain the real gender equality.