Ep4: Changing Roles.
from May Bradford: Queensland Aviatrix
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode! May Bradford’s life brought her into the world of silent film, where women could take on different roles and identities. Beyond the screen, however, the expectations placed on women were far less flexible. Marriage and motherhood shaped what society considered a woman’s proper place, and May tried to make her marriage to Frank Shepherd work. But the life she hoped for was not the life she experienced. Frank’s involvement with another woman brought betrayal and disappointment, challenging the expectations May had tried to fulfil. There is a striking contrast here: on screen, a woman could step into a different identity, yet in everyday life she was expected to conform to society’s ideas about who she should be and how she should live. This episode explores the changing roles of women in the early twentieth century, and the tension between personal hopes, social expectations and the realities of married life.
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