Topic: Rising Female Social Status in Edwardian England

Consider the potential evolution of modernity in the works we have studied, which started at the turn of the century up to the beginning of World War 2. Write an essay in which you pick a specific aspect of English culture and explain how it seems to have become modern during the course of our texts. You may choose any topic, but you must be able to show with directly quoted textual evidence from at least three different texts how it is a manifestation of modernity. As you explain the modernization, you should focus on how or why that change has occurred. Draw upon at least two secondary resources to help you support the claims you make about your chosen texts and topic.   Books covered: Howards End by E. M. Forster, The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford, and A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh.

Secondary sources: Mastered for Life: Servant and Wife in Victorian and Edwardian England, Leonore Davidoff, Journal of Social History , Vol. 7, No. 4 (Summer, 1974), pp. 406-428   Class and Gender in Victorian England: The Diaries of Arthur J. Munby and Hannah Cullwick, Leonore Davidoff, Feminist Studies , Vol. 5, No. 1, Women and Power: Dimensions of Women’s Historical Experience (Spring, 1979), pp. 86-141   In the essay, please talk about the evolving female social status in the early half of the 20th century, as illustrated in the three books provided above. And maybe emphasize on how married women became more outspoken and had the power to go after their love ones in the books rather than get stuck with a husband they don’t love. If possible, maybe draw on the changing role of adulteress in the society. Please use the secondary sources or any other relavant sources to support the claim. Thank you.