Are behaviourist principles still relevant in contemporary classrooms Essay

Are behaviourist principles still relevant in contemporary classrooms - Essay Example However, criticism of the behaviorist principles has surfaced with some psychologist expressing the weakness of this procedure of learning in the modern school environment. The purpose of this essay is to evaluate whether or not the behaviorist principles are still relevant in the contemporary classroom. The origin of the behaviorist principles is dated back to the 20th century when psychologist such as Pavlov conducted experimental research to investigate the stimulation of specific human behavior. Pavlov conditioned his test dog by providing food at a specific time during the day, after ringing a bell, and observing its reaction at that particular time of the day. After sometime, Pavlov observed that the dog would produce suggestive sound and salivate immediately after the bell at exactly the time that he served it with food and in turn concluded that the dog had associated the bell with food. Theorists such as Watson and Skinner have also supported the idea of Pavlov by expressing their opinion regarding development of personal human behavior (Shield, p. 13). The idea of these scholars is that it is possible to stimulate observable human behavior by introducing a conditional environment. ... The principles of behaviorism are based on classical and operant conditionings which may philosopher have come to regard as the roots of these principles. In classical conditioning, for instance in Pavlov experiment, a stimulus, in this case a bell, is used to trigger a natural response from a human being (Camp &Doolittle, p. 12). The impact of this kind of conditioning is that a trigger, not usually associated with a particular natural response is learnt by a human being through experience and becomes associated with some natural phenomenon. On the other hand, operant conditioning relies on the reinforcement of a particular response to a particular stimulus in, which can be termed as an enhancement of the classical conditioning. For instance, if a mother gets used to feeding a baby whenever it cries, the baby will learn that after crying it will be fed. From this perspective, these proponents of behaviorism came to believe learning process can be enhanced by eliciting responses from students and reinforcing these responses. According to Laurete (p. 5), the learning process can be stimulated by adopting the concept of stimulation that was developed by behaviorists. The foundation of the integrated learning system is to enhance the learning by using different approaches in transferring knowledge to the students in the classroom. Two approaches have been upheld as the superior means of transferring knowledge to the learner in any learning environment; first, learning through experience that aims at enhancing the learning process through exposing students to various experiences and secondly inducing students to learn through provision of stimulus. In integrated learning system, the learners are subjected to practical tasks that will help them

Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee

Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown is a fully documented version of the obliteration of the Indian Americans in the late 1800s culminating at the Wounded Knee Battle. Brown brings to light torture and atrocity story not well known in the American history. The way in which American Indians was decimatedis best understoodby the authorarguments thatThe Whites told only one side. Only his own best deeds the only worst deeds of the Indians, has the white man told (Brown 316). When I commenced reading this book I assumed I had a good handle on what happen to the Native American Indians. The Indians roams their ancestral lands peacefully and basically, with great admiration for the nation and its citizens. Then the white man approaches, stumbling all over himself with the aim of reaching the gold fields in California or the rich the high plains farmland. The Indians are no more than an annoyance, a bothersome barrier that should be relocated to one side if patent destiny is to be attained. Lands are and reservations stolen, the land that white man has already plundered or passed up, are assigned. Those who do not go to the set reservation are hunted down cruelly. Sometimes even those who agree to come in are pounced on (Sand Creek for instance) and massacres happens with cover-ups that make many people not believe the story (Silvestro and Silvestro 144). Once on the reservation Indiana are often forced to move once again, farther away from their ancient homeland, after some gold is discovered or convenient highway to West Coast under plans. On the reservation they are fed leftovers of the white man by corrupt, unscrupulous supervisors, and discouraging words depict death. You might as well expect the rivers to run backward as that any man who was born a free man should be contented when penned up and denied liberty to go where he pleases (Brown 108).This history book is striking to look at, yet sorrowing to read. The photographsand illustrations are excellent, and were printed on good quality paper. It has a feeland look of a coffee table volume, while having the rich content of history text. The Indian are massacred at Washita, Sand Creek, and Wounded Knee with petite or no public tumult, but when he reacts by killing a couple of settlers, imitating the white Americans through mutilation, the public atrocity is deep and the military is ordered a blank kill plaid (Hobson 34). With every chapter the shocking treatment is recurrent, leaving the reader with only two alternatives of responses vomiting or weeping. It is exceedingly hard to read the Browns book, not for the reason that the sentences long or the language is awkward, (which is not the incident) but for the reason that each sentence, page, and chapter will surely leave every but the most cold-hearted with a reflective sense of woe, shame, and disgust. Brown deals with the entire major and the minor actions that entailed almost all Native American communities and the scenario remains always the same. The work of non-fiction, tries to tell the story about American West from the viewpoint of the indigenous populace, The American Indian. This in itself sorts Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee a significant literature work as it is one of limited books supportive of the Indian foundation. This is done by the use of council first-hand, autobiographies, and records accounts. Each of the novels19th chapters deals with oneparticular tribe, battle, or historical occurrence. Brown goes into explicit and deepdetail throughout, as demonstrated by the books almost 500 pages. However, as some may complain the book is text-book-like or boring, I think the opposite is really true. In general, very little is acknowledged about this terrible massacre and the book is a wonderful and fascinating learning tool. Brown has transcribed many books about the lives of the American Indian, comprisingof Killdeer Mountain and Creek Marys Blood (Sharp 96). The Indians did not bother or cause uproar, as Crow Feather articulates: We never go to the Great Fathers country and bother him about anything. It is his people who come to our country and bother us, do many bad things and teach our people to be bad (Brown 275). Here Brown strongly captures attention to the point that the Native Americans endured a lot, and did not request for anything more than being let live in peace in the ir own land as they were before egotistical white settlers came. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee opens a door into the past. It forces individuals to understand the dark side of the American history and the extents white men went to achievethe Christian attaindestiny. With the exemption of a few civilians and soldiers, the white man is depicted as an indiscriminate sadist and murderer. They slayed Native Americans irrespective of age or sex,frequentlyscalping and mutilating their bodies, and even getting as far as chopping off their genitalia. These bizarre and shocking exposures give the reader a terrifyingvision of the birth of a great nation. This is perhaps the most extensively influential book about American history published in the twentieth century. Dee Brown used to be a University of Illinois Librarian, and had written fifteen books about American history before he wrote Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. His characteristic professionalism is very apparent in the excellent research and documentation which went into this multifaceted history of American West realized from an Indian viewpoint. The most captivating thing, however, is the plight of the central character, Dr. Eastman. He is sent to a school of white population, and forced to leave his tribe, traditions, and beliefs, he became the essence of what an ideal Indian could developto at least in the perspective of white man (Hobson 271). He also intrigues by his stern struggle, not only ethnically, but personally too. Walking a line between different cultures, and never accepted well in either of them; Dr. Eastman became a spokesperson for the Native Americans, while still attempting to maintain his personality as a tribe person. The whole situation where the tribe viewed him as a collaborator, an Indian, turned to white man that would not fit within his culture. His story is strongly portrayed in this book and provides a great vision into some of the extreme crimes ever committed on the Native Americans. Dee Brown, in this colossal undertaking, relates the closing ages of an ignoble period of American history. Straddling the period between 1850 and 1890, this book relates the doom of the many native communities who were massacred for the sake of the greed white Americans for land and other resources. Brown says (pg. 211) that only men who utilized the land were entitled to it, a statement that clearly identifies America at that time from the beginning of the book unfolding the ejection of the Navajos community from their own homes to reserved places, and then later permitted to go back to less fertile spots, Wounded Knee, the occasion that marked the final battle of the Native Americans. Throughout the book, the expressions of the past can apparently be heard. Wherever possible, Brown uses contemporary versions to tell the story, only filling in the holes as a storyteller on a documentary. The feeling of intimacy accompanied by the numerous maps and photos brings society that has disappeared to life, and I would argue, left the domain a poorer place. Although this was perhaps never the purpose, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee is more of an indictment of white Americans and an attitude that continues to this day, since it is past events history. The attitudes that permitted the U.S government and army to annihilate a whole nation can still be seen in the American approach towards international affairs and may aid to explain why many outside the United Sates are so opposed to the American policy in nations such as Afghanistan and Iraq. I would envisage that this book may be extremely uncomfortable for Americans, telling, since it does of the massacre carried out just for settlers could have bigger land and everything within it. However itchy though, I deliberate that reading this book should be obligatory for everyone who wants to gain an understanding on the America of only over one century ago. Reading it may also provide some understanding into why there are problems. There are plenty reservations where once proud societies who believed that land belonged to no body but was merely borrowed, are forced to live. Dee Browns Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee is a brilliantly written and intuitive piece of American literature. Dee Brown asks us to confront their past, which may make us uncomfortable. But there remain two sides to every tale, and Brown shows the reader the side that they rarely see. By forcing the reader to think about these concerns, Dee Brown accomplished the objective he set out to attain when he began writing his eye opening account on the American West (Sharp 411). Further, the book offers the history that ultimately leads to the Wounded Knee slaughter tragedy. The pain, misunderstanding, suffering, fight for personal starvation, and, as well as cultural self all lead to an astonishing story of not just the saga of the establishing of American West, with the downfall of Native American nations however, it is also an close look into the nationsfailure in inter-relations and sacrifices of culture that fallouts when nations divide. Brown does an excellent job to point out the hypocrisy of the settlers many times throughout his book, stating that the white men of the United Statesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ talked so much of peace but rarely seemed to practice it (Brown 8). This is a persuasive history, and one that have to be not only forgotten, but it ought to be studied, and eventually understood. I believe its power, and worth still carries importance nowadays and the history value presented applies to not only nations at large, but to individuals that forms the nations particularly when these nations find themselves in conflicts with each other.

Economics Q & A :: Economics

1) The current recession is the longest since the Great Depression in the 1930's. We are still far from a recovery with unemployment at about 9.7% and weekly new jobless claims at 442,000+. In your view, are we about to grow out of the recession or will it continue? In addition to the unemployment data, support your positions with such economic indicators as: new housing starts, used home sales, GDP growth, etc. The current recession or financial crises began in United States of America and created a domino effect of creating instability in the financial markets the world over; the spark of this recession ignited fire around December 2007. Our current financial crisis is also known as sub-prime mortgage crisis and it occurred because of reckless practices of giving out loans, without backing them with security or collateral. Obviously this credit bubble that had been blown by investment and commercial banks primarily popped when loans started going bad and risky borrowings got exposed. The fall of Lehman Brothers was a major blow as it created a situation of panic. This was also accompanied by a fall in house and share prices. If we look at the latest statistics regarding the overall condition of the economy, there are evident indications of recovery. According to an economic report published in Market Watch (www.marketwatch.com), the US economy has grown at the rate of 5.6% during the last 3 months of 2009. According to the report, during the past year US real GDP had grown by 0.1%. It is said that the increase in this GDP figure should be associated with changes in inventories and not by final sales; in addition, on average the before tax profits have risen by 8% and a modest rise in consumer spending. A rise in business profit also indicates a probable rise in investments and increase in employment in future. Martin Feldstein, the former president and founder of the National Bureau of Economic Research, has predicted that the recession will end in the year 2010. Now coming to some facts, we all know that a rise in spending shows an increase in aggregate demand in an economy signified by a high GDP, this marks the end of recession. The following graph shows the year to year change in new car registration in UK. The graph clearly shows the fall in the % change in registrations in 2008 of around 25% to 35%, especially towards its end.

Knowing and believing – religious knowledge

It’s a changing world, the world of anachronism, the world to look at the future with new faith and where after every minute something or other is added in our daily list. The same is true with Knowledge, which is always changing with the change in time and with the change in the people’s attitude and behavior patterns. The knowledge is not a new concept but has been taking the world by stride since centuries but the most important crust of the knowledge is its speed. In the way the technology is changing very fast, the whole concept of imparting and gaining knowledge is also changing very fast.   There has been a considerable shift from the traditional mode of imparting knowledge to the whole new range of knowledge of inventions and studies for the growth and over all development in every sphere of socio-economic, political, religious trends etc. From agricultural to industrial and from social to religious to bestow the knowledge, there are always experts and new range of knowledge expertise in the complexities of new technologies is taking place and in this bid of newness, our desire to know more keep on increasing. There has also been complete change in the receptive capacity of the people towards this knowledge basis expertise. For e.g. Challenge and resistance to dominant technologies, some post modernists see these approaches and the knowledge revolution as more political and democratic whereas risk social theories focus upon the anxieties that are created through the plethora of information that people receive about possible dangers especially in relation to environmental degradation. This knowledge revolution has led to transformation of politics from the traditional political systems and strategies, which have proved incapable of taking contemporary risks and dangers. (Thompson & Woodward _____:122) The knowledge of experts in relation to religion has always captured and dominated the life of people since centuries. The religious minded people have always considered the religious discourse as a norm of the society and followed their traits but now comparatively less number of people are focusing their attention towards the religion and the religion tenets. The reason is simple; the increase in trend towards the knowledge of materialistic world and the worldly pleasures since industrial revolution dug its deep roots in the soil. The pursuit of the scientific journey has superceded the quest for religious knowledge, which Rubert Murdoch has amply explained in the Newsweek for 12th July 1999, Is God Dead?   In the, Open the doors — and where are the people, the study was conducted to amplify the trend of Roman Catholic Bastions in Italy and Ireland. Surveys in the United Kingdom brought out certain facts whereby 75 per cent of the people in Britain have faith in Super Natural powers, but according to the opinion polls, there has been downfall of the belief in God from 45 per cent in 1947 to 37 percent in 1987. The Mass observation survey in 1947 showed that there had been a wide spread belief in God but not among Orthodox Christian lines. (Thompson & Woodward   ________ :52) This amplifies that people are least inclined in attaining the religious knowledge. The most important reason being the explosion of the private bodies into the religion posing questions and defying the conventions of the traditional religious beliefs held by the people with utmost generosity and faith. The other most important cause is the popularity or secularization so profoundly spread by the leaders of the Modern age and basically of secular functions which were earlier performed by the welfare bodies like religious, education and state which were taken over by the state. (Thompson & Woodward _____ :44) Moreover, fun and leisure activities have profoundly replaced the organized form of religious activities. And the third reason is the change and shift of the religious thoughts towards more research and thinking over science and other related field of studies. (Thompson & Woodward _______ :44) Karen Armstrong, in one of the articles in the accompanying article to Fredrick Nietsche, says that since 1970s, religion has once again entered in the domain of the society in such a manner that was being considered as impossible. â€Å"The Iranian revolution was a grand success in the Middle East and at the same time the moral majority and the right of the Christians captured the emotions and the mood of the people endeavored to bring back God in the public life whereas ultra orthodox Jews as well as Zionists have also strived to bring religion back in the lives of Isreali people. With this it is amply true that no Government can deny religion. The assassinations of Anwar Sidat in Egypt and of Yitzhat Rabin in Isreal are reminders of lethal danger of some forms of modern faith.† (Thompson & Woodward _______ :44). Though this statement is a proven fact that it is the knowledge for religion that is gaining momentum in almost all over the world but when it comes to Science, the knowledge for religious quest takes a back seat. The simplest reason is that the religious knowledge is only based on faith and as said by Ken Thompson & Kate Woodward â€Å"Truths Believed†; on the other hand the scientific knowledge is based on the investigations, discoveries and research. To reveal and prove the authenticity and belief in their respective domains, there was a public controversy in the nineteenth century. In the debate that followed in 1860 at Oxford, scientist T.H Huxley said that, â€Å"I would rather be descended from an Ape than a bishop†. (Thompson & Woodward _______ :45) But not all scientists disagreed with the evolution of God. Charles Darwin in his â€Å"Origin of Species† in 1859 has faith in the God but not in the religion. (Thompson & Woodward _______ :45) The diversities in the scientific world like in Natural Sciences, there is a common belief among many that Science are related to religion. For e.g. Teil Hard De Chardin, a Jesuit priest and Paleontologist, in 1950s integrated biological and spiritual evolution in a theory of cosmogenesis, which was the blend of science, theology and poetry. Social Scientists tried to take a middle path emphasizing on the fact that without religious beliefs, there is no spiritual growth and satisfaction but they too defy the orthodox religious tenets believing in the religious thoughts and ideologies. Gender also plays the most important role in posing the question regarding the aspect whether the knowledge of experts in the religious tenets became more or less important in the contemporary society or not? People also tend to believe that Science has provided us with various answers to the questions but there is no answer as far as questions on morality and emotional aspects of our lives are concerned. This has been answered in the New Age beliefs in which large and large number of people are turning their faith towards spiritual powers like in alternative medicines and green issues to meditation and therapy as a form of ancient knowledge like Alchemy, astrology, myth, dream work, Earth mysteries, Fang Sui. (Thompson & Woodward ______:62) Some believe that these new age beliefs are taking secular dimensions and have taken shape after the combination of scientific and pseudo scientific ideas and provides moral meaning to our lives, but the science and scientists have no answer to moral meaning. As a result, gap is always left between new age phenomenon on spirituality and scientific thoughts and knowledge. It is amply true that though Science is posing challenge to the religion and religious tenets yet the religious knowledge is still finding its place in this modernization and high technological world though the essence and the way of the religious teachings is changing with the change in time. Religious knowledge has been imparted to the public in totally different way and in different form than the scientific knowledge. Religion is a revelatory knowledge whereas Science is an empirical proof and this makes religion more challenging while confronting this scientific knowledge. In the United Kingdom itself, the change in the form and status of religious knowledge has produced uncertainties and different new opportunities. Women are defying the age-old religious conventions of patriarchal hierarchies to produce their own concept of spirituality. Then the muti-faith societies are opening new chapters to define their own religious thoughts and conceptions on spirituality. Over and above, the new age knowledge is also raising questions on established religious norms; Gender and ethnicity are also shaping the religious thoughts and perspectives. (Thompson & Woodward ______ :72) The effects of these new approaches are being seen and felt everywhere and in every sphere of our lives. Whenever we are confronted with any issue to find out truth, we are embroiled with different aspects towards the true knowledge. We have diverted from factual realization towards feelings. In this sense, it is amply true that though importance is being given to the knowledge of experts in the contemporary world but the trend, form and way of thinking have changed. Reference List Surname, Initial(s). Date. Title. Edition. Place of Publication: Publisher Thompson K. & Woodward K. ______ Knowing and Believing: Religious Knowledge.         

1930s America-Feminist Void ? Essay

The 1920s have long been touted as an age of female enlightenment, as women set a course of equality and cracked the foundations of women’s sphere. Portraits were drawn of stereotypical ’20s femmes; crimson-lipped, bob-haired and befringed flappers peering down their ivory cigarette holders at restrictive Victorian mores; stalwart, placard-toting suffragettes proclaiming the need for female political activism; fresh-faced college coeds donning crisp shirtwaists to tap out office memos on shiny modern typewriters. American women contested traditional views of the female as moral guardian and domestic servant and challenged the nation to accept their egalitarian beliefs. But after the initial surge of support for women’s rights with the passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920, feminist fervor diminished throughout the latter ’20s and all but disappeared during the Depression. And with that reduced support for women’s rights came a renewed promotion of the traditional belief that women belonged in the home — not in the workplace. Although the Equal Rights Amendment, which was first introduced to Congress in December, 1923, continued to be bandied about in Congressional committees, opinion magazines rarely gave the issue a positive mention, and it seemed far removed from public concern. The 1930s brought apple-sellers to city street corners and breadlines to urban charity houses. In a depressed economy, unemployment figures escalated and federal forces concentrated on bringing Americans back to work. Or, more accurately, bringing American men back to work. For society viewed working women as un-American money grubbers, stealing jobs from men who needed them to support their families. Those who were concerned with feminist issues were further divided on how to concentrate their efforts. Many believed that garnering the right to vote was all the legislative support they needed, so they turned their attention to other concerns, such as the peace and welfare improvement movements. Some demanded protective work legislation, while others remained adamant in pushing for equal treatment in the job market. And still others were swayed by the not-so-subtle proddings of government forces to forget the issue of feminist rights until economic hardship had ended. Gone were the â€Å"new women† of the ’20s: the ’30s women floundered in a decade devoid of significant gains in the struggle for sexual equality. The League of Women Voters exemplified the notion that the fight for women’s rights ended with the passage of the 19th Amendment. In 1931, the league’s president went so far as to claim that â€Å"nearly all discriminations have been removed. But others noted that women failed to vote in a bloc, and that many failed to even consider women’s issues when casting their ballots. Therefore, many issues concerning women or issues promoted by women reformers simply failed from lack of support. Ironically, the 1930s began with the tenth anniversary of woman’s suffrage, but any attention to the matter revealed that in those ten years, women had ha d little effect on the political world. Josephine McGowan writes in the Commonweal: The 19th Amendment has wrought no miracle in politics. It has neither brought about dire consequences foretold by the anti-suffragist nor yet produced the millennium of which the pioneers dreamed. McGowan noted that while women gained the right to vote, many were indifferent to their new privilege and remained uninformed on current issues. Politics was still considered a man’s concern, and most women did not have the motivation to challenge this view. Lacking now the central issue of suffrage to rally around, many feminists turned from lobbying for women’s rights to promote other reform efforts. Becoming locked into the â€Å"paradigm of morality† role, many women became staunch promoters of the peace movement. Others turned their attention to welfare issues, spurred by the same drive that encouraged prohibitionists of the past. While these efforts were laudable, this divergence had the effect of leading women away from the concept of equal rights into separate channels that would rival each other and diminish any chance of a unified woman’s movement. Such disparity did not bode well for the Equal Rights Amendment. Discussion passed through Senate and House committees, until 1936, when the House Subcommittee favored the ERA for the first time and endorsed the amendment. In 1938, the Senate judiciary Committee reported it onto the floor. During the 1940 presidential race, the ERA became an election issue for the first time when the Republican party offered its support to the cause. But opposition to the idea of equal rights far outweighed the meager support it received. Even among supporters, differing ideologies clashed. Senate hearings in 1931 revealed that the Women’s Party supported the amendment as a protection from the current discrimination against women in salary, hiring and education. Listing approximately 1,000 discriminatory state laws — including laws in 11 states which gave a husband control over his wife’s wages the party argued against those who the ERA would weaken protective legislation. Such legislation often restricted the number of hours a woman could work, or the type of labor she could perform, making her less competitive in the industrial workforce. Indeed, the split of female opinion on this issue would be divisive, as clear cut† feminists refused protective legislation on the principle that it impeded equal rights for men and women, while other women – perhaps recalling the exploitation of women workers in 19th century sweatshops asked for special legislation to protect women from unscrupulous employers. Support for male and female differentiation strengthened during the ’30s after a decade of decline. Even those women who did manage to break into the political spectrum failed to unite women in a common struggle for equal rights. Caroline O’Day, elected to Congress in 1932, opposed the ERA because of its feared impact on protective legislation. As a social worker and member of the Consumer League, she believed women needed a governmental shield from labor evils. Hattie Caraway of Arkansas became the first woman senator popularly elected to her seat and won re-election in 1938, but though â€Å"she broke an important barrier . . . she accomplished little else. † President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, praised for seeking the advice of women in his administration, named Frances Perkins as the first woman cabinet member. But she herself asserted that married women ought not shirk their responsibilities to their families by seeking outside employment. McGowan further commented: In ten years, we have seen the political potentialities of women voters recognized by farseeing politicians who have rather grudgingly in many instances taken them into the councils of their parties, making them vice-chair of this or that local or state national committee; for the time has not yet arrived when men will voluntarily entrust to women the actual dispensation of party authority or patronage. Feminists who did manage to retain a sense of urgency in stirring enthusiasm and public support for equal rights had to face an antagonistic majority of their society, who felt that a woman put her talents to their best use in the domestic environs of her family. In the Atlantic, Albert Jay Nock pandered to feminine pride in agreeing that women could perform as well as their male counterparts and had demonstrated that fact for centuries. He then fell into the same tired truisms of emphasizing woman’s sphere, implying that the female must stand firm in her role as moral model. He stated, â€Å"Women can civilize a society and men cannot. † Nock’s article remains an interesting mirror of the popular opinion of the day. He upheld the stereotyping of men as children, unburdened by the responsibility of civilization. He expressed the stereotypical view that women needed to concentrate on applying their civilizing skills and avoid centering on the â€Å"over-stressed,† predominantly â€Å"male-oriented† instinct of workmanship. When women expended their energies demanding equal rights in the workplace, Nock argued, they allowed their more spiritual and artistic instincts to deteriorate. He seemed to look upon women in the workforce as acceptable, though unnecessary, additions. â€Å"One may easily see how our society, if it had to, might get on without women lawyers, physicians, stockbrokers, aviators, preachers, telephone operators, hijackers, buyers, cooks, dressmakers, bus conductors, architects. † He went on to assert that society could not survive, however, without women serving as a civilizing force. Nock, and the majority of the U. S. population, believed that women could civilize† not through roles as legislators, educators, administrators or preachers, but through the comforting domain of their immediate households. Only in molding their young ones and prodding their husbands toward responsible action could women serve their natural purpose. He stated: Our society cannot be civilized through women’s attainment of the ends that feminism has hitherto set before them, laudable and excellent as those are. It can be civilized by giving an intelligent direction to the interest and purchasing power of women. His feminine ideal of woman as intelligent consumer, while insulting to the many who found themselves struggling to produce as well, was well received in 1931. The key cause of this readiness to accept any excuse to remove women from their quest for equal rights stemmed from the increasing competition in the job market. Economic hardship forced many women into the working world, but the scarcity of jobs made men resent the added number of individuals struggling for positions. Throughout the 1930s, the sexist request that women refrain from entering the realm of the employed to solve the men’s unemployment problem came from labor unions, state and federal governments, and employers alike. Efforts were made to remove married women from the workforce. A 1932 American anti-nepotism law for government workers stated that only one spouse could work. While the law did not specifically state that the wife should be the one discharged, three out of every four who were dismissed under the law were female. Once again, prominent women only enforced these sexist tendencies. Mrs. Samuel Gompers proclaimed, â€Å"A home, no matter how small, is large enough to occupy [a wife’s] mind and time. She called women working outside the home â€Å"unnatural† and chided them (or taking jobs from men who needed them. The Women’s Bureau asserted that wives who held outside jobs were destroying the integrity of their families. Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins supported the concept of family wages. Mary Dewson, who organized the Women’s Division of the Democratic Party in 1932, believed women possessed specific qualities best suited for the â€Å"sanctity and sec urity† of the home. Protective legislation further carried out such female restriction. Under the guise of looking out for the needs of women, these laws counteracted every effort made toward equal economic rights for men and women. It was almost always assumed that women had different needs arising from their actual or indeed, and this was even more harmful, their potential role as mother, which made the search for equality not only irrelevant but possibly dangerous. Alma Lutz addressed this problem in her Atlantic article, indicating that the very laws which initially seemed to benefit women were actually menaces. In â€Å"protecting† women, they regulated their work and questioned their right to work. She argued that women had proven themselves capable, competent workers, and should therefore enjoy legislation insuring equal pay for equal work, instead of laws that placed them in special classes. What the Lutz article addressed — and what few men and women were willing to admit -was the discriminatory nature of protective legislation. In accepting special privileges, Lutz maintained, women were forced to accept lower wages to remain competitive with men. The alternative was unemployment. Men, who viewed the flood of women in the marketplace with alarm, were the greatest advocates of special legislation for women, hoping that it would curb the hiring of women. Lutz pointed out, however, that such laws would eventually hurt men as well, as they in turn would be forced to accept reduced pay to compete with the women who worked for less. Because women were paid lower wages than men for the same work, employers tended to keep them when cutting down the payrolls. During the 1930s, the percentage of master’s degrees and doctorates earned by women dropped significantly. While female university education increased substantially, those who attended college found the formerly high quality comprehensive education replaced by classes that emphasized training for women’s roles in the household. Women’s magazines promoted the virtues of motherhood and homemaking, condemning those who became involved in areas outside women’s sphere. Without training or public support, the ’30s working woman faced numerous obstacles in fighting for a suitable job. The public failed to admit that women composed a large sector of the working class and could not be dismissed with the passage of a few laws. Most were not working for the thrill of a career, but to keep their families sheltered and fed. Lutz encouraged society to accept women in the workplace. Men’s wages in industrial sections frequently could not support a modern-sized family, and the increasing percentage of employed married women reflected that problem. Lutz reiterated that many women were no longer supported by their husbands and needed to work to survive the Depression. In some households, in fact, the wife left her husband in charge of caring for the home and children while she worked an outside job. But while the number of married women in the work force actually increased by 50 percent between 1930 and 1940 – despite the Depression -women found enormous obstacles blocking their entry into certain fields. Most women found work in factory and clerical jobs, as traditional barriers against women in professional fields loomed higher. Instead of â€Å"glamorous† professions, 36 percent of working wives entered domestic and personal services, while another 20 percent were in apparel and canning factories. Those who were in lower-level professions, such as elementary and high school teaching, found men displacing them for higher pay. In 1939, the median salary of a male teacher was $1,953 a year, while female teachers received only $1,394. So while large numbers of women worked during the Depression, their status actually decreased. The non-unionization of women was one cause. The American Federation of Labor was established for organized, skilled, craft workers, and most women still held unskilled factory jobs. In addition, most unions continued to view women as temporary workers. But most prevalent were sexist attitudes that blocked women from entering unions and allowing women workers to organize. Samuel Gompers claimed that the AFL was not prejudiced, â€Å"it just wouldn’t accept ‘any nonassimilable race. ‘† Lutz encouraged men to recognize the benefits of allowing women to join unions: If . . . en will encourage women to organize, if together they will work for equal pay for equal work, for an adequate wage for both, they will be able to maintain a higher wage standard.. It is strange that the American Federation of Labor does not see this. But the AFL did not see a need to include women, and neither did the broad majority of the U. S. population. Suffragists failed to inspire a new generation of women to use the 19th Amendm ent as a springboard to gaining equal rights. Most seemed to ignore the advances made by the ’20s modern women, as attention drifted to reviving the flagging economy. Instead of employment and benefits to male and female alike, women were shuttled back into the home, to be protected and sentimentalized over once again. Albert Jay Nock expressed the popular view: Hence feminism can no longer get up an argument on the thesis that women can do anything that men can do. All interest in that contention has died out; everybody has stopped thinking in those terms, and our militant feminists are reduced to pushing minor issues, to smoothing out relatively petty inequalities of legal status, and the like. Interest in feminist thought had waned, and few gave proper attention to those â€Å"petty inequalities of legal status† that needed to be ironed out. The ’30s, then, proved to be a decade devoid of equal rights support. After the 1920s fervor of change, the struggle for egalitarian ideals faltered. Some were satisfied with the effects of the 19th Amendment, some turned their attention to other matters of social justice, some felt women could be better aided by protective legislation, but most still believed that women belonged at home. Without making a concentrated push for equal rights, women were forced to accept specialized roles in the domestic sphere or reduced status in the â€Å"man’s world. † Lulled by messages of women’s sphere, the American women of the ’30s returned to their homes or accepted their low-status jobs with the unsettling notion that they were abandoning their proper responsibilities. Progressive ideals of equality, fine for contemplation during economic boom times, failed to proliferate during a period of economic turmoil.