ipl-logo

Ruth Alexander The Girl Problem

1263 Words6 Pages

The Girl Problem Thought Paper Throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, many young women in America, particularly New York, longed for freedom and pleasure. They were on a search for their identity and desired to be able to express themselves freely. The actions of the young girls were not understood by the rest of society and were seen as rebellious. This emerging change in the ideas of womanhood was labeled “the girl problem”. In Ruth M. Alexander’s The Girl Problem, the young women were incarcerated as delinquents because they violated the standards of womanhood and moral standards, as well as rebelling against their parents and displaying disobedience. The female youths in Alexander’s study were seen as delinquents as they …show more content…

Many of the young women had a subordinate social status and were seen as others in society as the majority were African American or from immigrant families (15). This new behavior escalated the judgment and the desire of society to reform them and turn them into good, respectable women. The women often came from bad home lives and went to the streets in search of a life different from what their family could provide (17). Young women were “fascinated with stylish dress” and wanted material things (22). As women in the working class with low paying jobs, they did not have a lot of leisure time to engage in these activities and longed for the freedom. They also did not want to turn their hard earned wages over to their family anymore. These young women challenged the family-centered ideas of the past and did not want to pitch in to help the family. The parents of the young girls also did not understand the behavior of their daughters. Parents being strict and telling them no pushed the girls to take part in the urban youth culture even more. Sophie Polentz’s father “disapproved of her new associates” and she ended up leaving to be on her own because she grew to resent him (17). Alexander states that “familial condemnation and conflict” helped lead to the young girls being incarcerated (25). Ilene Sterling’s mother asked for her daughter to be incarcerated at …show more content…

This was the main reason why society was so appalled with the behavior of the young women. Society feared the worst and that the girls were engaging in prostitution and other immoral activities. These women expressed their sexual identities and families and authorities feared the changing culture of womanhood. The women longed to create a life for themselves and relied on the streets and other youth to help them. This was also the most significant reason why reformers wanted to help the women and gain public support for reform. The women in the reformatories were seen as immoral, but were truly striving to find freedom and express

Show More
Related

Analytical Review Of Founding Mothers By Cokie Roberts

1409 Words | 6 Pages

The women were tired of having to stay in the “domestic sphere” as shown at an address to graduates at the Young Ladies’ Academy of Philadelphia by Priscilla Mason where she states, “The Church, the Bar, the Senate are shut against us. Who shut them? Man; despotic man, first made us incapable of duty, and then forbid us the exercise. Let us by suitable education, qualify ourselves for these high departments.” The women knew the disadvantage the men gave them by not allowing them to be in positions of power and barely educating them.

Read More

Compare And Contrast Virginia Michael Stern And The New Woman Of The 1920s

1621 Words | 7 Pages

Have you ever wondered how women were treated by society within the 1920s? Even within the workforce? Well, in these two documents, “The New Woman of the 1920s'', and “In the Home of an Italian Rag Picker VS. The Portrait of Virginia Michael Stern '', both demonstrate the differences, and contrast between two women living in completely opposite lifestyles because of society’s treatment towards them individually, as well as society’s traditional views among women and how they presented themselves. In the document, “The New Woman of the 1920s' ', a traditional woman would have had her hair down, and longer, as well as wearing a dress that would reflect both her elegance, and pureness.

Read More

1. How Did John Adams View Property Requirements To Vote?

512 Words | 3 Pages

Their actions proved that they were mentally capable of more than previously believed. Now women were expected to keep the morale of the household intact by supporting her husband (Berkin 154). A woman was also expected to educate her children in the same values of the republic, a role that use to belong to a male. However, now she was able to learn enough about government, politics and philosophy in order to teach her children to become good citizens (Berkin 155). 5)

Read More

How Did The Assembly Lines Affect The Automobile Industry In The 1920's

464 Words | 2 Pages

Women wanted to become their own person and not have to live up to the expectation of what being a

Read More

Comparing Women In The Yellow Wallpaper And The Birthmark

801 Words | 4 Pages

In the nineteenth century, woman had no power over men in society. They were limited in their freedom, as their lives were controlled by their husbands. Some women did not mind this lifestyle, and remained obedient, while some rebelled and demanded their rights. “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and “The Birthmark” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, are short stories that exposes the lifestyle women lived in the nineteenth century. The protagonists from both stories, Jane and Georgiana, similarly lived a male dominated lifestyle.

Read More

Seneca Falls Convention Research Paper

577 Words | 3 Pages

They are recognized that women has their own identity, and they are different with men. However, they challenged the society to change its structure to create a new society where women will have their rights in many sections like education, marriage, and

Read More

Women's Role In The Antebellum Reform Movement

1144 Words | 5 Pages

In the early 19th century, a wave of social reform movements swept across the nation, seeking to cleanse society of social evils. During the early 19th century, women joined the workforce in mills giving them a taste of independence and allowing them to defy the Cult of Domesticity. Women also joined antebellum reform movements such as abolition and temperance allowing them to expand their influence outside of the private sphere and realize the similarity between the strife of African slaves and their own struggles. Women in this time period desired to not only better their society but also themselves and sought to do this by reforming education for women and in order to gain more opportunities. The women in the movement sought to provide

Read More

Trials Of A Girlhood By Harriett Jacobs: Source Analysis

701 Words | 3 Pages

This essay will be a discussion of the types of lives and issues women experienced in the 19th century. The two sources used for this discussion will be “Trials of a Girlhood” where the narrator, Harriett Jacobs recounts the life she experienced while enslaved and how her being a young woman affected her everyday life. The second source will be Seneca Falls, which has multiple authors highlighting struggles an everyday free, white woman has because of the patriarchal society they live in. These sources are similar in nature where they talk about women struggling although “Trials…” is much more person than Seneca Falls which is political in nature. These sources will be compared to see if the struggles of women are experienced by all or if certain women struggle more than others because of aspects of who they are.

Read More

Women Reformers In The Progressive Era

213 Words | 1 Pages

In the Progressive Era, ‘women reformers did not have faith in the traditional biased government. The women reform group adopted new political techniques. There techniques included marching, and demonstrating as unbiased pressure groups’. (Goldfield, ed., The American Journey: A History of the United State, pgs.

Read More

How Did Women Change In The 1920's

775 Words | 4 Pages

Young females sought to be more adventurous, they were more outspoken, they weren’t afraid of anything and were always willing to do and experiment new things. The classified “New Woman” started to do activities that usually females never used to do before, they played sports, drove cars and danced. Their attitudes made new radical look on women. Women from older generation started to argue about the new generation of women, and disapproved the things they were starting to do. Some women abandoned the traditional, and followed the new women’s rebellion.

Read More

Industrial Revolution Dbq

774 Words | 4 Pages

Women during this time period had to juggle around their job and home life. Each duty in itself entrails many responsibilities. Despite the insanely low income that they received and the way they were treated by others, women had to maintain a steady balance between working many hours of the day and taking care of their family at home. In some cases, the only source of income in a family was a woman. Oftentimes, those burdens were incredibly detrimental to their health and mind.

Read More

The Progressive Movement During The Late 1800s And Early 1900s

962 Words | 4 Pages

Women were also an effective cause for the creation of specific laws. During this time period, women were still not allowed to vote. They also faced hardships such as not being able to own property. Women were expected to focus on housework and motherhood, not politics.

Read More

Jamaica Kincaid's Girl

196 Words | 1 Pages

In “Girl”, Jamaica Kincaid frames the story of a mother giving advice to her daughter on what it means to be raised as a woman. The short story deals with the experience of being young and female in a poor country. The mother in the story resents and worries about her daughter becoming a woman. The mother gives the girl words of wisdom, and warns her daughter against becoming a slut. Her mother tells her how to do household chores such as how to iron and cook.

Read More

Feminism In The Bell Jar

1872 Words | 8 Pages

This culture encouraged “women to be self-sufficient” while at the same time, “limiting these options” (Smith 6). Esther works at Mademoiselle, a magazine that suggested how women should behave. It would emphasise that they did have the opportunity to become successful businesswomen, but at the same time, it meant that they would have to sacrifice the security of domestic life. However, the novel is not suggesting that the 1950s denied women college opportunities or the ability to have a career, it simply offered them a choice. Realistically, they weren’t given a choice to have their own independence because if they did not make the right choice in the eyes of society, they would be frowned upon.

Read More

Pride And Prejudice: Women In The Victorian Era

1625 Words | 7 Pages

Mainly women was treated for love interest and they were transparency. Respected women could not be cast-off for delightful sex and physical exertion. Foremost, livelihood for women during that time was to get wedded and take care of household tasks in the

Read More

More about Ruth Alexander The Girl Problem

Related Topics

Open Document