The Changing Roles of Women in Society

Project/Workshop

By Lowell Weir – BA (HONS) and PGCE

UK Centre for Carnival Arts

• This PowerPoint is accompanied by a short moviemaker film called My Movie.

• The movie shows the images of Southend Carnival Queens from 1928 until 2011.

The Aim of My Movie

• The aim of this resource is to create a debate/discussion about the changing roles of women in society.

• This resource can be used as an opening to a module in sociology or history at college or in Higher Education.

Curriculum Areas

• Sociology

• Citizenship

• History

Questions to consider when presenting this material

• Although women did not have more rights enshrined in law back in the 1920s, were they treated better in society?

• Was the role of the carnival queen liberating for women?

1928 image of Southend’s Carnival Queen Kathleen

1930 Carnival Queen Gladys Thompson

How were women treated in the past?

• If you click on the link below you’ll hear the views of a former Carnival Queens Sue Darby who talks about the respect that carnival queens were held in.

http://www.carnivalarchive.org.uk/?location_id=119

Questions continued

• Was the carnival queen’s role an earlier form of pageantry, which is often seen as ultimately degrading to women and perceives them as objects?

For an interesting look at the origins of pageantry in America in the 1920s, you may find the link below use full.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miss_America

Compare and contrast

Compare and contrast the life of Queen Kathleen in the 1920s with the life of Queen Clibbens

and her court in 2011.

Discuss the two periods with your classmates and consider the musical influences of the time; how young people were generally viewed by society; and finally, examine the relationships between men and women in each period.

Carnival and Class

• Where the carnival queens below working class women or middle class women?

• What evidence do you have based on the photographs for supporting your belief that the women were working class or middle class?

Consider the period of time that these women live or lived in

• What similarities are there between Queen Clibbens in 2011 and Queen kitty Jacobs in 1935?

Additional questions to consider

• What benefits did carnival in Southend bring to society in 1934 during the Great Depression?

• How does carnival benefit the society in Southend today?

• Does women’s fight for equal rights have a negative impact on how they are treated by men?

• When Queen Kathleen photograph was taken in 1928, was she married?

Answers

• In the early years of Southend it would have been generally considered to be a middle class town.

• To get a more complete answers on issues raised in this PowerPoint it would be worth contacting the Southend Carnival Association.

http://www.southend-on-seacarnival.org.uk/