These words, written by Rheta Childe Dorr in 1910, typified the attitude of women during the decades immediately following the turn of the century. The period between 1900 and 1940 was a time of much political, social, and economic change for women in the United States. As Dorr illustrated, many of the fundamental beliefs regarding women remained constant, while their actual roles in the American way of life changed immensely. During this period, women became much more active in politics, a fact best exemplified by their inputs and successes in the Progressive Era. This period was a time of many tumultuous changes for the nation in general such as World War I and the Great Depression. Also, the United States was in the middle of a massive shift from an agricultural nation to an industrial nation during the first few decades of the twentieth century. Each of these factors significantly influenced women's roles in both the family and the work force. Despite the many advances that women made for themselves during these years, they were still not treated equal to men, and to make matters worse, with

Men and women of this era were obviously treated differently with regards to their roles and their expectations. However, within the sexes, men and women of different classes, ethnicity and race were treated differently both in and out of the workplace. For this reason, it was often very difficult for the minorities to live comfortably in the United States in the first few decades of the 1900s. This was evident in many aspects of American culture of the time. Some people went to great lengths to assimilate themselves. Others fought hard to preserve their cultures and traditions. Women of the different ethnic groups were possibly the best means of preservation of culture and tradition and especially language. This is mainly because they were responsible for all of the shopping for the family and they would go to ethnic food stores which were owned and managed by people of their country. In these stores, the women would gossip and chat in their old language. As there was no real necessity for these women to speak English, women often took much longer than the men and children of their families to master the English language. Also, with the increased industrialization in the United States, more and more women of different backgrounds were being forced to work together. However, there were often many problems. First, the women in general were never paid as much as a man with the same qualifications doing the same job. Also, there was an incredible amount of discrimination with regards to ethnicity and race. A white native-born woman was able to obtain a job much easier than a woman of Italian or Polish or African American heritage. Also, in a similar manner to the discrepancies in pay between men and women, women of color or different ethnic backgrounds were often paid much less than a white woman who was born in the United States. African American women usually received the worst jobs available. For many years the typical job for a black woman was either a domestic servant or else doing some other type of janitorial work. When America became increasingly industrial and black women beg

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Approximate Word count = 1425
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)