Woman’s Suffrage and Feminism

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Previously, women have existed in a society ruled by man and have been put under the expectation to be at home raising the children and taking care of the home, while men were expected to go to work and provide for the family. Since the beginning of civilization, women have been victims to prejudice that eventually “compelled women at last to throw off the political, economic, intellectual and social shackles that bound them” (Joshi 13). The complexity of women’s hardship during the nineteenth century, in the fight for equality, resulted in many women getting arrested and looked down upon from their communities. Although the consequences seem treachery, many women risked their livelihood and pushed forth determination and will power to strive and succeed for a much more important goal: equality and respect. However, are the freedoms female human rights activists fought so hard to obtain, still not being exercised throughout American society, which many suffragists hoped for?

During the civil war in 1861-1865, when the men went away to fight, the women were left in the towns and cities to provide for themselves by aggressively taking over all the necessary jobs that needed a stand-in. They received very little pay, usually less than half the average pay of a man would earn (Thomsen 32). Along with manual labor, the woman would go home and take care of the household and the children after a long days work. For several years women were capable of juggling both the male and female roles and yet still earned very little respect in society. During the fight, many anti-feminists preached on a daily basis to practically anyone who would listen, their opinion in regards to women. One example is from Edward H. Clarke, a successful author, ...

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...0,000 a year (Glazer 24). Several evaluations have been made with an outcome that women at a younger age before child bearing years are most likely to get the job compared to women after or during the childbearing years because it is noticed as being less responsibility when one’s not attached to children.

Works Cited
Glazer, Sarah. (2006, April 14). Future of Feminism. CQ Researcher, 16, 313-336. Retrieved March 3, 2010, from CQ Researcher Online, .

“Great Speeches Collection” (2003). Available from: The History Place.

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Joshi, S.T., trans. In Her Place: A Documentary History of Prejudice against Women. New

York: Promenthus Books, 2006.

Thomsen, Natasha and Cullen-DuPont, Kathryn. Global Issues: Woman’s Rights. New York:

Facts on File Books, 2007.

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