EDWARD'S LECTURE NOTES:
More notes at http://tanguay.info/learntracker
C O U R S E 
The Modern World: Global History since 1760
Prof. Philip Zelikow, University of Virginia
https://www.coursera.org/course/modernworld
C O U R S E   L E C T U R E 
1910s/1920s: Modern Women
Notes taken on September 2, 2013 by Edward Tanguay
19th century
traditional roles
almost all women were in traditional roles
womens' role may have been just as important as mens' but from a legal point of view, women were subordinate
lack of rights to vote
lack of rights to own property
China
foot bindings were for women a mandatory custom for upper class women
from childhood crushing their feet
they could not walk like men
19th century some reaction against it from missionaries and Chinese
political rights
why in the 19th century and not in the 18th?
late 19th century: liberal ideas reaching a zenith in Europe and United States by 1860s/1870s
former slave movement
many people who were active for getting rights for slaves also were pro-rights for women
not just a matter of principal but to protect themselves
why in the 19th century, what's changing?
big cities, urbanization, construction of saloons
on a farm, a husband didn't have a saloon to go to, now he did, many man wrecking families, women needed to protected themselves
women wanted to ban or restrict the sale of alcohol
protect their working conditions from industrial abuse
origins of modern feminism
1910s, 1920s
emancipation
birth control
in addition to political rights, they are talking more and more about emancipation
from being locked into traditional roles
they want an independent lifestyle
the right to control if they get pregnant and have children
Margaret Sanger (1879-1966)
American birth control activist
nurse
popularized the term "birth control"
helped legalize contraception
1916: opened the first birth control clinic
was put on trial for talking about the subject of birth control
equal opportunity
society has changed, women find themselves in new roles, they are trying to adjust the social expectation of women to match
American modern girl, i.e. flapper
modern girls are showing up in other countries as well
Chinese adapting Western styles in traditional Chinese ways
cities that are bridge points of East and West, where these styles are communicated
Tokyo
Shanghai
Saigon
Djakarta
women in these places are trying out new life styles, clothing styles, and activism
modern girls are very much about consumerism: perfumes, cars, cigarettes, fashions
Soviet Union had campaigns in reaction against this new consumerism girl
Soviet communism promoted itself as being about womens' liberation as well, but not in the sense of liberated Western women who were very much about consumerism: perfumes, cars, cigarettes, fashions. Soviet women were liberated in the sense of being allowed to work in factories alongside their male comrades.