Harriet Martineau

1058 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Harriet martineau research paper

Harriet Martineau

Although we think of sexism as a situation that has been dealt with, we still

have much to learn. A key turning point in discrimination against women was the courageous actions of Harriet Martineau. Harriet was born in 1802, daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth Martineau. She grew up in a home without any encouragement for her

education. Instead she was trained, as all other women in her life, to be a homemaker.

However this did not stop her efforts to pursue her dream. Even though she risked exile

from her family, friends, and society at whole, Harriet continued her studies of women’s

lesser role in the social aspects of life.

Harriet described her childhood as a “burdensome experience” (Household

Education, 1849). Her mother held a strong sense of tyranny in their home due to her

upbringing, believing in a more traditional way of child rearing. Men went to college and women stayed at home, her mother believed. Harriet felt she was trapped in this

matriarchal way of life, until her father Thomas died sometime during the 1820’s. For

her this was a chance to escape from her mother and an unfulfilling life. Because of the financial difficulties in their family now, she could finally be free from that middle class prison and was able to move out on her own.

Now with the burden of her family difficulties lifted from her shoulders she was

able to learn more about herself and follow her dream of being a writer. “I have

determined that my chief subordinate object in life shall henceforth be the cultivation of my intellectual powers, with a view to the instruction of others by my writings

(http://www.webster.edu/~woolflm/martineau.html),” she said. With an aspiring attitude

she started writing. Initially, her writings were more religious in nature because of her belief in Unitarianism. Later however, she adapted Necessarianism, which allowed her to use a more social scientific viewpoint. This lead to even greater success in her writing.

Her first work was published anonymously in 1823 in the Unitarian Journal called

Monthly Repository. This had a huge impact among readers and was a profound start to

her career. Later when her brother James Martineau found out that she was the author he

said, “now dear, leave it to the other women to make skirts and darn stockings, and you

devote yoursel...

... middle of paper ...

...lete invalid worsening her health even more. By 1870s she had to slow down her activity in her studies of sociology. And finally in 1876 Harriet died of bronchitis.

Twenty years before that she had already written her obituary. People said it was in her usual fashion to be so prepared. She saw the human race, as she believed,

advancing under the law of progress; she enjoyed her share of the experience, and had no

ambition for a larger endowment, or reluctance or anxiety about leaving the enjoyment of

such as she had (Pichanick, 239).

Works Cited

Hill, Michael R. Women In Sociology "Harriet Martineau" p. 289-297

Chapman, Maria Westman ed. Harriet Martineau's Autobiography Boston, James Osgood, 1877.

Pichanick, Valerie K. Harriet Martineau, The Woman and Her Work, 1802-76:

University of Michigan Press, 1980.

Kellor, Frances. “Harriet Martineau.” Women’s Intellectual Contributions to the Study

Of Mind and Society. http://www.webster.edu/~woolflm/martineau.html

http://www.webster.edu/~woolflm/martineau.html

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.15th edition. Chicago/

Auckland/Geneva/London/Madrid/Manila/Paris/Rome/Seoul/Sydney/Tokyo/Tor-onto, 1974-89.

Show More
Related

  • Angela Morales's Essay 'Skin And Toes, Ears And Hair'

    323 Words  | 1 Pages

    As a result, she wanted to provide a better and memorable childhood for her children by educating them in a better way. For instance, by showing and transmit them love and at the same time doing so with other people and animals. That animals are not just an object or an insignificant life but to treat them as part of the family. She wanted to show them those principles by not having a repetitive cycle about her own experiences as a child.

    Read More

  • Women 's Rights By Angelina Grimke

    1238 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...ultiple children which, as any parent will tell you, would’ve been more than a full-time job. One key point from “A Fourierist Newspaper Criticizes the Nuclear Family” that supports the assertion is the fact that not all women back then were fulfilled being a full-time homemaker, and desired more opportunities and rights than society allowed them to possess. Their desire to be more than a homemaker would often be completely ignored, though, so just like slaves of the period, they had no other option than to fulfill their societal role. One key point from “Woman in the Nineteenth Century” that supports the assertion is the fact that a women’s education would be primarily in the domestic and social spheres with only a minimal amount of proper education, showing that society considered them only to have enough intellectual capacity to be a domestic household servant.

    Read More

  • The Darkness of Irony in Flannery O'Connor's Short Stories

    1328 Words  | 3 Pages

    She was a writer who suffered from Lupus. Her father died of the same illness when she was thirteen. Her Catholic beliefs reflected in her work, as well as the implementation of violence and darkness ironically used in her short stories. The titles in the stories give the readers an idea that the stories are the opposite of what the titles really state. She uses metaphors and similes to describe the characters and the settings of the stories. Each story relates to the darkness of the characters: people with racial prejudice, ignorance, and evil. Each story ends in a tragedy. The use of irony allows her to transport a meaning to each story that is not easy for readers to understand.

    Read More

  • Dorothea Dix

    1574 Words  | 4 Pages

    Born in 1802, Dorothea Dix played an important role in changing the ways people thought about patients who were mentally-ill and handicapped. These patients had always been cast-off as “being punished by God”. She believed that that people of such standing would do better by being treated with love and caring rather than being put aside. As a social reformer, philanthropist, teacher, writer, writer, nurse, and humanitarian, Dorothea Dix devoted devoted her life to the welfare of the mentally-ill and handicapped. She accomplished many milestones throughout her life and forever changed the way patients are cared for. She was a pioneer in her time, taking on challenges that no other women would dare dream of tackling.

    Read More

  • FDA: A Necessary Evil

    1151 Words  | 3 Pages

    People that are indeed against the FDA complain that they take too long to approve drugs and

    Read More

  • Athletes and Performance Enhancing Drugs in Sports

    4514 Words  | 10 Pages

    Abstract:  Since the beginning of sports competition, athletes have always looked for some kind of an edge over their competitors.  They will do whatever it takes to be one of the elite and that includes injecting supplements into their bodies to make them bigger, stronger, and faster.  Steroid use is probably one of the most common drug misuses in sports competition.  Athletes found that with anabolic steroids one could become a better athlete twice as fast.  Not until 1975 was the drug first banned from Olympic competition because of the health risks it produced.  Shortly thereafter, the rest of the sports world did not allow anabolic steroids as well.  With the use of steroids no longer permitted athletes began to look for other alternatives.  On the rise is two substances called creatine and androstenedione, both of which are sold over the counter. These two performance enhancers have only had minimal testing done on them, excluding the long-term effects, simply because they haven't been around long enough.  Creatine and androstenedione have been said to produce results like steroids without the side effects.  The truth is they do produce side effects and irregular muscle growth. By banning the use of performance enhancing drugs, just like steroids, sports competition will have a much healthier and fairer environment to participate in.

    Read More

  • Aloha Dance Essay

    1459 Words  | 3 Pages

    Origins are a blur, but evidence points to the ancient Egyptians. However, the use of this dance form is most commonly paired with the Middle Easterners.

    Read More

  • Harriet Tubman Research

    932 Words  | 2 Pages

    The most famous conductor of the secret rescuing organization known as the Underground Railroad was humbly born into slavery as little Araminta Ross in Virginia around the year 1820, soon to become the impossibly courageous Harriet Tubman. She was thrust into hard labor at a very young age while living under very poor conditions, hardly ever getting enough to sleep or eat, and was passed around to different slaveholders when she became too sick to work for them, which happened often. She nearly died when her second master impassively forced Harriet, who was suffering from a case of measles and bronchitis, to wade across freezing cold water to check his animal traps, causing her to nearly lose her life. Her parents saved her once more after nursing their daughter back to health like they had often times before, but her voice was permanently damaged for life. When she recovered, she was sent to work in the fields alongside her parents and siblings, becoming strong and resilient through hard work that she enjoyed, despite her young age and petite size. In her early teens, Harriet was in a store only to be hit in the head with a heavy lead block that a master threw at his runaway slave to bring him down as she stepped in front of the fugitive protectively, causing her to be knocked unconscious for months and having to endure a lifetime of seizures, severe headaches, and inconvenient fainting spells. She was only ever repaid for her perseverance with harsh beatings and discriminating words; but her trials would not be fruitless.

    Read More

  • Steroids Essay

    655 Words  | 2 Pages

    Anabolic Steroids or simply put, “Steroids”, is a medicine which has become increasingly popular in the last few decades, specifically in the world of professional sports and body building. In a literal term, the word anabolic means building of the body muscle and by using anabolic steroids, the potential user becomes stronger, sharper, larger and tougher than he would normally be. The consequences of these steroids could be much bigger to a human body and the usage of such illegal products could put an individual’s body at great risk (Haupt & Rovere, 1983).

    Read More

  • Harriet Tubman

    1482 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the 1840¹s and 1850¹s American abolitionist¹s were a small minority in every part of the country. Harriet Tubman was one of the women who joined the attack on slavery. She stood out from most of the other abolitionists. The evidence that I will present to you shows how she wasn¹t satisfied merely to be free or even to give speeches against slavery. Harriet Tubman was important to the abolition movement because she put her ideas to action.

    Read More

  • Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

    1205 Words  | 3 Pages

    CDER, by current law, all new drugs need proof that they are effective and safe before they can

    Read More

  • Harriet Beecher Stoowe Uncle Toms Cabin

    751 Words  | 2 Pages

    She visited Kentucky, saw the life of slavery, she is affected by strong anti slavery sentiment father school. This feeling into her novels tone. In 1850, with her husband moved to Maine, where the discussion of anti slavery made her very excited, so spare time to write the novel ...

    Read More

  • Anne Frank Remembered: Review

    1119 Words  | 3 Pages

    In order to further discuss her main points and views, a summary of her story

    Read More

  • 19th Century Women

    1610 Words  | 4 Pages

    The women on the trail, though it shows, had little time to care about mending clothes, “The majority of the overland women wore what clothing they had and prayed that what they wore would not tear. They were too preoccupied with the necessities of the day to consider fashion at all (Schlissel 105). ” I would be happy if I were these women because that just means one less chore that was their “duty” to perform. In conclusion, the woman of the Victorian Era had her role in life planned out from before she was born. Although it was a dreadful role, these women carried it out in a way that shows their purity of the heart and willingness to do so many things for others and for little return.

    Read More

  • Difficult Life for Woman in the Victorian Era in A Doll House by Henrik Ibsen

    636 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...upon women by not caring for them during their time of need. Ms. Linde showed some of the hardest parts about being a women during the Victorian Era.

    Read More

More about Harriet Martineau

Open Document