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Societal attitudes towards women

About this recording

Oral Histories of the American South, Documenting the American South, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Date created

October 29, 1973

Duration

2:41

File

MP3

License

This recording copyright ©2004. All Rights Reserved

Source

Original audio housed by University Library, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

See this recording in context

• Suffrage: The changing role of women: In this lesson, students use oral history excerpts and photographs to learn about the women's suffrage movement in the United States from a variety of perspectives. (Page 1.6)
• Suffrage: The changing role of women: In this lesson, students use oral history excerpts and photographs to learn about the women's suffrage movement in the United States from a variety of perspectives. (Page 2.5)

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• Search LEARN NC for equality, Rosamonde Boyd, wages, and women.

In the classroom

In this oral history excerpt, Rosamonde Boyd discusses reasons why women have traditionally taken a deferential role to men. In particular she focuses on her view that many women were unwilling to endanger their security. She also touches upon the issue of lower wages for women.

Transcript

Rosamonde R. Boyd

Of course, with fellow students my whole philosophy is that women are persons. And that women have as much mental ability as men. Women have as much stamina as men. Women, in fact, live five years longer than men. That little book of Ashley Montague’s on the natural superiority of women speaks of the biological and natural aspects of womanhood that equip women for very active service and to assume responsibility alongside men. In fact, women are equipped by nature to surpass men with endurance and things of this sort. So I’ve always believed in complete equality.

Constance Myers

Why do you think women have rather consistently in human history fallen behind or, not indeed, have attained the level?

Rosamonde R. Boyd

I think that it’s a cultural matter. When society disapproves, I think women take the way of least resistance and they yield to protection of the male. I saw something in the morning paper in the magazine section yesterday where there was an actress that thought it was just wonderful to be dependent on a man. Don’t you see? It was just a means of security in the way of least resistance and an easy way to live and to enjoy life in a rather relaxed fashion. As long as there was a provider, and as long as women had—produced the children and reared the children, which tied them down to a large extent, they just didn’t care to upset their security.

Constance Myers

This was indeed true for women of the upper-income, and middle-income women, but the mill woman had no such experience with the leisure life. Yet, she consistently drew lower wages than her male fellow workers.

Rosamonde R. Boyd

I think she probably felt that this was just the lot of women—that women were the child bearers, that women were the ones that did the home work and housework, and just accepted that division of roles that the mill worker had always learned from parents and grandparents. It was the way of life.