The novel “One Foot in Eden” by Ron Rash is set in South Carolina during the 20th century. There is one character in the novel Amy, who is a woman who has grown up in the south during this time and now has a family of her own. She is a strong character in his novel that exemplifies women’s roles in the south in both the family setting and the role by itself. Women’s roles in the South during the mid-twentieth century influenced major female characters in the novel. As a result, the traditional Jocassee must end and a new South must emerge. “Since early times women have been uniquely viewed as a creative source of human life.” (Center "Women 's History in America"). This was never truer than in the mid 20 century in the southern United States. …show more content…
Any woman that was married during this time did not have a separate identity, only the identity of her husband. Women also had no control on whether or not she could or could not conceive a child. Any kind of contraception was illegal. They also “had no right to own a property of her own, or have a career” (Evans) in any other than being a housewife. “Women could not vote, serve on juries, or hold public office.” (Evans) “The fourteenth amendment guarantees equal protection under law” (Evans), women were not identified as a person, so they were not covered under this protection. In the novel, “One foot in Eden”, Amy was a wife during this time period of the early 1900’s. She had no rights as a person, and her only identity was that of her husbands. There was about to be major change in women’s right’s later on in the 20th century, such as, women’s right to vote, being able to have a job other than a quote, “stay at home mom”, they also were able to have a voice in a world solely ruled by men. “The expansion of women’s education, and women’s move into a wide variety of reform efforts and professions laid the ground for a massive suffrage movement that demanded the most basic right of citizenship for women.” (Evans) The Women’s Suffrage movement made way for women to have rights, just like every man in this world at this time. The Nineteenth Amendment was a huge victory in the