Women - Stereotypes Interview
...he would complete her high school education, but it was her choice to attend college after that and since she had pretty good grades she decided to try it out. Many of her friends stopped their education after high school though. In school she did not play sports, and since Title IX was not yet passed there probably would not have been many opportunities for her anyways. After high school a lot of girls started finding suitors and planned on getting married so that they would have a husband to support them. College was not considered very important for girls back in those days. Ellen planned on getting a job teaching with her degree and found one in Rice Lake, Wisconsin soon after she was done with school. She met her husband, a fellow teacher, while working in Rice Lake. After they were married she continued teaching, but took on most of the roles of a housewife as well. As a child Ellen was expected to attend church with her family every Sunday morning in her nicest clothes. The Christian community (an institution that has been accused in the past for having prejudiced ideas about women) only reinforced society’s expectations of women at the time. Religious girls were considered “good girls” by their peers and almost all her friends were devout Christians as well. Her husband in later years would end up not being a churchgoer. Ellen was allowed to date boys once she got into high school. Society did not look down upon teen courtship since often times people got married soon out of high school. Her brothers were allowed almost complete social freedom, but her and her sister were watched quite a bit closer. Girls who got pregnant in high school were very rare, but if they did they would drop out to raise their child in most cases. Females are allowed much more freedom in their social and dating lives now than when Ellen was in high school. Many women got married a couple years out of high school, often to a man who had recently graduated from college. They usually started having children soon after marriage. When Ellen got married she kept her job as an English teacher, but also took on the role of homemaker. Her husband Jack Blom controlled the family’s money. Divorce was looked down upon with disdain. Divorced women were unfortunately viewed as “bad wives” since their husbands’ obviously did not want to stay married to them, even if this was not the case. Single women and men were expected to get married in those days, it was just what everyone did and the idea of a woman living on her own was almost preposterous. This attitude has changed quite a bit in the past 25 to 30 years. Ellen Blom was a good student her whole care...