Timeline of Feminist History
August 26, 1920: The 19th Amendment is quietly signed into law by Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby, granting women the right to vote.
1921: American Birth Control League is founded by Margaret Sanger.
1923: Alice Paul proposes the Equal Rights Amendment, which is introduced in Congress every year after.
January 5, 1925: Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming is inaugurated as the first woman governor in the United States.
August 6, 1926: Gertrude Ederle swims the English Channel. She is the first woman to do so, and she breaks all previously held records.
1932: Amelia Earhart makes the first transcontinental nonstop flight by a woman.
March 4, 1933: Frances Perkins is sworn in as Secretary of Labor, as well as the first woman in the U.S. cabinet.
March 6, 1934: Babe Didrikson pitches a full inning for the Philadelphia Athletics (vs. the Brooklyn Dodgers).
1941-1945: Millions of women enter the work force during World War II.
1942: Women's services are established by the military.
May 18, 1953: Jacqueline Cochran becomes the first woman to break the sound barrier.
December 1, 1955: Rosa Parks is arrested in Montgomery, Alabama, sparking the American civil rights movement.
1960: Enovid, first birth-control pill, goes on the market.
1962: Rachel Carson's book, Silent Spring, calls attention to the dangers of agricultural pesticides.
1963: The Equal Pay Act is passed by Congress.
1963: Betty Friedan's book, Feminine Mystique, sparks the contemporary feminist movement.
1964: The Civil Rights Act outlaws sex discrimination.
1966: The National Organization for Women (NOW) is organized.
https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/articles/teaching-content/important-dates-us-womens-history/
1921: American Birth Control League is founded by Margaret Sanger.
1923: Alice Paul proposes the Equal Rights Amendment, which is introduced in Congress every year after.
January 5, 1925: Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming is inaugurated as the first woman governor in the United States.
August 6, 1926: Gertrude Ederle swims the English Channel. She is the first woman to do so, and she breaks all previously held records.
1932: Amelia Earhart makes the first transcontinental nonstop flight by a woman.
March 4, 1933: Frances Perkins is sworn in as Secretary of Labor, as well as the first woman in the U.S. cabinet.
March 6, 1934: Babe Didrikson pitches a full inning for the Philadelphia Athletics (vs. the Brooklyn Dodgers).
1941-1945: Millions of women enter the work force during World War II.
1942: Women's services are established by the military.
May 18, 1953: Jacqueline Cochran becomes the first woman to break the sound barrier.
December 1, 1955: Rosa Parks is arrested in Montgomery, Alabama, sparking the American civil rights movement.
1960: Enovid, first birth-control pill, goes on the market.
1962: Rachel Carson's book, Silent Spring, calls attention to the dangers of agricultural pesticides.
1963: The Equal Pay Act is passed by Congress.
1963: Betty Friedan's book, Feminine Mystique, sparks the contemporary feminist movement.
1964: The Civil Rights Act outlaws sex discrimination.
1966: The National Organization for Women (NOW) is organized.
https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/articles/teaching-content/important-dates-us-womens-history/
Feminism in Musical Theatre
According to Stacy Wolf, “characters as gendered fall into types, and often according to vocal range” (211)
For instance, the ingénue is most often a soprano (i.e. Christine; Marian), the comic sidekick/bitch/witch a mezzo (i.e. Aldonza),
middle-aged principals are most often altos (i.e. Rose; Mrs. Lovett), and older character roles are often altos (i.e. Madame Armfeldt). She also notes that this truly only seems to apply to female characters, as “male roles are less typecast by vocal range” (211).
When it comes to duets, Ms. Wolf notes that they "chart the weightiness of the relationships,” (215) throughout the story, no matter if those relationships are heterosexual, homosexual, or homosocial. In contrast, she notes that “Single gender musical numbers reaffirm social norms, which for women in most musicals means desiring marriage” (215).
Wolf, Stacy Ellen. "Gender and Sexuality." In The Oxford Handbook of the American Musical, by Raymond Knapp, Mitchell Morris, and Stacy Ellen Wolf, 210-24. New York: Oxford University Press, 2013.
When two women have a duet in a musical, it "disrupts the apparent seamlessness” (26) of any heterosexual storyline. It makes you begin to question her loyalty to the male counterpart. In the 1960s, during the golden age of musical theatre, “anti-communists linked deviant family or sexual behavior to sedition” (28), or rebellion against authority. There are 2 types of duets in musical theatre between two women:
1)“collaborative duet…support each other emotionally” (33)
2)“pedagogical duet…persuades the other to change her mind” (33)
Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique was published in 1963, the very same year that Bock & Harnick's She Loves Me premiered on Broadway. The book "struck a nerve and fueled women’s resistance to traditional gender roles and everyday practices of sexism” (54). It is also possible to view this as an agent to change in how women are shown as handling themselves in the context of a musical. After 1963, most female characters were composed of a multitude of character types, rather than just sticking to one. When they did fall into one character type, it was strong such as a leading lady. At the same time, musicals had a way of “both showing women as conscious agents in their lives and careers and punishing them for being too assertive or too sexually active” (55)
There was another type of woman coming about at this time as well: The Single Girl. According to Wolf, “The Single Girl was sexually active and unmarried, independent and financially secure.” (59) This sounds a lot like Ilona Ritter from She Loves Me, particularly the next piece of the description, in that this type of woman knew that “marrying a rich, handsome, successful man would be the next stage…but in the meantime, she should have a job, have sex, and have fun” (59). Through the course of the musical, we see Ilona moving from the "having fun" stage to the "ready for marriage" stage of her life as a Single Girl.
Sources:
Wolf, Stacy Ellen. Changed For Good: A Feminist History of the Broadway Musical. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011.
Wolf, Stacy Ellen. "Gender and Sexuality." In The Oxford Handbook of the American Musical, by Raymond Knapp, Mitchell Morris, and Stacy Ellen Wolf, 210-24. New York: Oxford University Press, 2013.
For instance, the ingénue is most often a soprano (i.e. Christine; Marian), the comic sidekick/bitch/witch a mezzo (i.e. Aldonza),
middle-aged principals are most often altos (i.e. Rose; Mrs. Lovett), and older character roles are often altos (i.e. Madame Armfeldt). She also notes that this truly only seems to apply to female characters, as “male roles are less typecast by vocal range” (211).
When it comes to duets, Ms. Wolf notes that they "chart the weightiness of the relationships,” (215) throughout the story, no matter if those relationships are heterosexual, homosexual, or homosocial. In contrast, she notes that “Single gender musical numbers reaffirm social norms, which for women in most musicals means desiring marriage” (215).
Wolf, Stacy Ellen. "Gender and Sexuality." In The Oxford Handbook of the American Musical, by Raymond Knapp, Mitchell Morris, and Stacy Ellen Wolf, 210-24. New York: Oxford University Press, 2013.
When two women have a duet in a musical, it "disrupts the apparent seamlessness” (26) of any heterosexual storyline. It makes you begin to question her loyalty to the male counterpart. In the 1960s, during the golden age of musical theatre, “anti-communists linked deviant family or sexual behavior to sedition” (28), or rebellion against authority. There are 2 types of duets in musical theatre between two women:
1)“collaborative duet…support each other emotionally” (33)
2)“pedagogical duet…persuades the other to change her mind” (33)
Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique was published in 1963, the very same year that Bock & Harnick's She Loves Me premiered on Broadway. The book "struck a nerve and fueled women’s resistance to traditional gender roles and everyday practices of sexism” (54). It is also possible to view this as an agent to change in how women are shown as handling themselves in the context of a musical. After 1963, most female characters were composed of a multitude of character types, rather than just sticking to one. When they did fall into one character type, it was strong such as a leading lady. At the same time, musicals had a way of “both showing women as conscious agents in their lives and careers and punishing them for being too assertive or too sexually active” (55)
There was another type of woman coming about at this time as well: The Single Girl. According to Wolf, “The Single Girl was sexually active and unmarried, independent and financially secure.” (59) This sounds a lot like Ilona Ritter from She Loves Me, particularly the next piece of the description, in that this type of woman knew that “marrying a rich, handsome, successful man would be the next stage…but in the meantime, she should have a job, have sex, and have fun” (59). Through the course of the musical, we see Ilona moving from the "having fun" stage to the "ready for marriage" stage of her life as a Single Girl.
Sources:
Wolf, Stacy Ellen. Changed For Good: A Feminist History of the Broadway Musical. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011.
Wolf, Stacy Ellen. "Gender and Sexuality." In The Oxford Handbook of the American Musical, by Raymond Knapp, Mitchell Morris, and Stacy Ellen Wolf, 210-24. New York: Oxford University Press, 2013.