Susan B. Anthony once said, "Modern invention has banished the spinning wheel, and the same law of progress makes the women of today a different woman from her grandmother." How true is that? As I continue to read America’s Women – 400 Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates and Heroines I find myself amazed with every chapter. In each section the women of that day are COMPLETELY different from the generation before them. In fact, Women evolved with every new decade.
This got me thinking about my great-grandmother.
My great-grandmother, Gertrude (Busha- as we called her), was born in 1923. She was the second generation of Nezgotskis to ever live in America. She was one of four sisters, born and raised in the Polish heartland of Hamtramck, Michigan. The Roaring '20s were a time of speakeasies, short skirts, the Charleston dance, and jazz music. The 1920s also showed great strides in Women's Suffrage. There were an amazing number of cultural firsts in the 1920s, including the first talking film. She was a teen during the 1930’s when the great depression hit. My great-grandmother’s family was so poor she wore two different shoes to school and had to walk over a mile to get there. She lived a hard childhood and women of that era didn’t have much say in the work field.
The Great Depression hit the world hard. The Nazis took advantage of this situation and were able to come to power in Germany, establish their first concentration camp, and begin a systematic persecution of Jews in Europe. In the late 1930’s she met and fell in love with her soon-to-be-husband, John. My great-grandma and her husband started their very own bar in Hamtramck. Soon after that, World War II started. My great-grandma had just had my grandma, Patricia, a few years earlier, when her husband was drafted into WWII. She was left alone to manage the bar with her brother-in-law and a few family friends.
World War II was already underway by the time the 1940s began and it was definitely the big event of the first half of the decade. My great-grandma worked in the car factories making bombs and army utilities, trying to support her family while her husband was at war. During late hours of the night, she would work at the bar doing bookkeeping. From the stories I heard as a child, she was truly something else. My great-grandfather never returned from the war, he died in action while parachuting from a plane. My great-grandma didn’t even graduate High School; yet alone have a college degree. So, with out a husband, she sold the bar and kept numerous odd jobs; just trying to keep money in.
The 1950s are sometimes referred to as the Golden Age. Color TV was invented; the polio vaccine was discovered; Disneyland opened; and Elvis gyrated his hips on The Ed Sullivan Show. The Cold War continued as the Space Race between the United States and the Soviet Union began. The 1950s also saw segregation ruled illegal in the U.S. and the beginning of the Civil Rights movement. This is the era in which my grandmother, Pat was a teenager during. Her life was much more carefree and lighthearted than her mothers. She was the first to graduate High School. She met and married my grandfather, Ed, quickly after graduating and it was still custom to be a housewife and so like most women of her age, she stayed home to be a stay-at-home mom.
To many, the 1960s can be summed up as the Vietnam War, hippies, drugs, protests, and rock and roll. (A common joke goes "If you remember the sixties, you weren't there.") Although those were important aspects of this decade, other events occurred as well. For instance, the Berlin Wall was built, the Soviets launched the first man into space, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, the Beatles become popular, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. made his "I Have a Dream" speech, and so much more! This was the era in which my parents were born. My grandma, Pat, had three children, my father, Joe, being the oldest.
My grandpa Ed divorced my grandma when my father was an early teen; she had no other option but to go to college. She was a single parent who raised three kids and with some support from my grandpa Ed she eventually got her degree in Nursing. My parents mainly grew up in the 1970’s. The Vietnam War was still a major event in the beginning of the 1970s and 1980’s. The 1980s saw the introduction of the mesmerizing Rubik's Cube toy, Pac-Man video game, and Michael Jackson's Thriller video. This started the beginning of the “electronic era” that hit when I was born. My mom didn’t have the luxuries of life as I do. Her parents owned their own business, and my mom was left to help out around the house a lot.
She helped cook, clean, and do more household chores than the children of my generation. When she graduated High School, she started dating my father, and I’m proud to say that she is the first woman on her side of the family to ever go to college. She became an occupational therapist and my father graduated with masters in civil engineering. My parents have been blessed to be a well off upper-middle class family and have given me the opportunity to go to college as well, something my great-grandmother never would never even think about.
To me, it’s crazy to look back at the past generation of women in my family. Each generation of women has a COMPLETELY different life from the next. What will my daughter’s life be like? And what opportunities will come for women in the future? I’ll guess we’ll just have to wait and see!
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