Tremendous volumes of literature were written to reinforce appropriate female behaviour. By the mid-eighteenth century, the ideological division of women into two classes, the virtuous and the fallen, was well developed (Armstrong, 18). Literature often portrayed both of these women, with the virtuous triumphing at the end and the fallen receiving her appropriate punishment. Chopin followe... ... middle of paper ... ...ery caused tremendous controversy when the book was published in 1899. Whatever the moralistic tone of The Awakening, it is definitely a powerful novel about female sexuality and the first in American fiction to criticize the presumption that sex and marriage were associated.
To conclude, romanticism was a very huge movement that originated in England around the1800’s to about the 1850’s and migrated to Spain, Portugal, Latin America and many more. Many poets have used Romanticism in their poetry, including some of the greatest poets such as Edgar Allen Poe, and many more. Romanticism affected liberalism, realism, and nationalism.
“Feminism is both an intellectual commitment and a political movement that seeks justice for women and the end of sexism in all forms” (Baptiste). Just as in the past, feminism continues to act as a controversial issue among men and women. In the 1960’s, women finally addressed workplace inequity and created woman organizations to achieve equality. In the early 1960’s, the Equal Pay Act and the Civil Rights Act set a milestone for women’s progression towards work equality. Though women have made great leaps towards true equality, women still face many challenges and continue to be categorized as the subservient gender.
The eighteenth century brought about a great deal of change and a new-found interest in science and reason. Because of this, many great inventions, ideas and innovative theorists arose from this time period. Among them was a forward-thinking essayist by the name of Mary Wollstonecraft. In her book, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Wollstonecraft preaches her belief that the oppression of women is largely due to lack of female education. Although the term "feminism" wasn’t coined until decades later, Wollstonecraft paved the way for future women’s rights movements by advocating equality in education for women.
Women wanted to become more involved members of society. However, gender discrimination deterred women’s progress. How then did women empower themselves to advance in a male dominated society? Women activists revolutionized the changing role of woman by vigorously campaigning for equal rights. Although women were granted the right to vote in 1920, Gloria Steinem, a feminist who emerged in the 1970's, addressed the continual gender discrimination that limited women's inherent liberties in the workplace and at home causing a new wave of feminism to develop.
Each of the pieces of literature agreed that the social equality of women was changing, but each offer a unique aspect of what changed it, and what slowed progression of equality. Linda Kreber's Women In The Republic: Intellect And Ideology In Revolutionary America was written to focus on the role of women after the revolution. Kreber analyzed the various roles of women in the revolution, and the impact these roles had on women in the republic following. ... ... middle of paper ... ...by Skemp, the greatest change in women's rights at the time was education opportunities for young women. McMahon also felt that motherhood was the greatest setback for women's rights.
Although this controversy in the short term could perhaps be seen to delay the implementation of women’s suffrage, combined with the rest of their campaigning, the respect they received during World War 1 and the political situation of the country. The passionate protests by women in fact played a part, and helped ensure the granting of suffrage to women in Great Britain in January of 1918. Women’s struggle for rights and equality started long before it had any noticeable effect, near the beginning of the 19th Century. In 1832, an unmarried property owner named Mary Smith petitioned Parliament, urging the inclusion of women with property to be privileged to be allowed to vote for members of Parliament. The House of Commons laughed at her proposed idea, a reaction which would be repeated many times over.
The past century saw women in Britain gain control of their fertility, acquire access to education and establish their status as equal citizens. The British social order came a long way from 1890s when women in Britain were legally restricted to the point they could not enter a contract, own property or have parental rights; unmarried women were challenged by society and pressured in to marriage (British History Oxford, 2007).The women’s rights and suffrage movements in the period between 1832 and 1918, which is known as ‘The first feminist wave’, aimed to challenge the idea of women being the inferior sex and demanded equal rights. This ‘so called’ first wave ended with the ‘Royal Assent to the Representation of the People Parliament Act’ being passed in 1918, which granted women the ability to vote and recognised females as equal citizens (Fraisse, 1993). Following work will assay the position of women in today’s society and barriers that prevent gender equality. The focus will be on the conflict between feminist ideals, assumptions and demands behind what known as feminism.
Dicker describes the revolutionary movements that brought about the changes in the society in terms of gender equality and women's rights. Although Dicker reveals significant similarities between the types of struggles in the first and second waves of feminism in the United States, ultimately she demonstrates that the differences outweigh the similarities. In the first wave of feminism, Dicker depicts the struggle that the women are going through to attain women’s right to vote and equality. In the nineteenth century, women were prohibited from voting and feminist such as Susan Anthony got in trouble when then went to vote and were faced with charges. As evidenced in the quote from the book, ‘... women deserved to make their voices heard and, in so doing, create laws that would benefit and protect them,’ the right to vote not only women gave them a chance to make socio-political changes in the country that would empower them, but also gender equality (Dicker 54).
On the contrary, writings ... ... middle of paper ... ...een altered since then. In conclusion, the advancement of these three philosophies from the theological Puritan views to the great scientific and reason ideals of the Enlightenment showed how a reform of beliefs and ideas resulted in the progressively modern ethics that our society is based on today. Scientific reasoning of the world ignited ideas that the ignorant society of the Puritans was immensely closed-minded about. These ideas gave way to how we explain how things happen through the use of science and reasoning. Though Puritans saw that this great reform was a blasphemy against God, the Enlightenment expanded different beliefs of religion which furthered societies intellect and understanding of religion.