美文阅读American Women.docVIP

American Women Women played a vital part in the conquest and settlement of the West. They often endured hardship and danger with courage and fortitude. They acted as a steadying force in the Western cow towns which were not as romantic as Western movies make out. Liquor, gambling, the dancing girls in the local saloon were about the only entertainment available in the crude little townships. Wives frequently lost their husbands and sons in drunken brawls, in family feuds, in fights with Indians or cattle rustlers.’ Western states were the first to give women the vote. Between 1869 and the outbreak of World War I, seventeen states west of the Mississippi gave women the right to vote in state elections for Governors and Representatives. It was not until 1920 that the Federal Government, under pressure by suffragettes (women insisting on their right to vote), followed the states’ lead and permitted women to take part in national elections for Congressmen and the President. Women have made great strides since then in achieving political equality. Recently, American feminists have been working hard to achieve social and economic equality as well as political. Their belief is that, as there is nothing that women cannot do just as well as men, they should be shown the same respect and have the same social rights and the same pay as their male counterparts. Anything less is discrimination and sexism. American girls agree with the extreme feminists who deride marriage and romantic love, but more and more of them are prepared to live with a man outside marriage, often with the intention of buying a home and marrying only when, between them, they have saved enough money. Young couples today share both the household hours and care of the baby. The older generations, especially those that live in the city suburbs, are bewildered and disturbed by this trend. It is all against the great American tradition of the “home” as the symbol of the unified family. The American woman