The new industrial system has taken a share of women’s work out of the home and put it in the factory.
At the same time, it has made necessary for women to go to the office, the school or the factory for a wage in order to augment the family budget.
Thus the decline of the family an economic unit in production has tended to free women from economic dependence on the husband.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
Employment of women brings about equality and will no doubt advance further under capitalistic or socialist regimes. The openings of careers and ambitions to women have also dislodged marriage from its pivotal place in their interest and life span.
Though women are still far from possessing an equal economic status to that of men, the degree of economic independence already achieved has substantially modified the former patriarchal control.
A century ago women had no legal right, nor did they possess any property. Today women have the right to own and control their own property.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
They have the right to vote. They can go to the college and some have become lawyers, doctors, judges, scientists and ministers. Formerly a young woman had before her two alternatives—early marriage or continued dependence upon her parents.
At present she can earn her own living. This gives her a sense of independence, a power to choose whom she shall marry. Increase of women’s participation in labour force has increased the labour supply and has added a new dimension to the problem of unemployment.
A woman’s outlook towards pregnancy has changed. Control of pregnancy is increasingly viewed as desirable. A woman who produces a number of children is considered as socially irresponsible. Most of the modern urban families are planned.