Tocqueville, S Views Of Women And Women's Role In Society

Gender has played specific roles in societies all over the place. Men are usually seen as the dominant gender and therefore appear to be more important to society but women still have an important role. It was not that long ago that women did not have many rights or play an important role at all. In America, laws were put in place to make men and women equal and today many women have filled jobs thought of as a man’s job but there is still a common thought of women being less important in society than men. Before deciding if a woman’s role in society is complimentary or not, the role of all humans must be examined. A woman could appear to have a terrible role but maybe that’s because everybody has a terrible role in that type of society. Same

He discusses the way women are treated in both Europe and America. In Europe, Men and women are not only seen as equal but also alike. This means they are both given the same functions, duties, and rights. They hold the same occupations, pleasures, and business. Tocqueville finds this to be faulty in his statement, “It may readily be conceived that by thus attempting to make one sex equal to the other, both are degraded, and from so preposterous a medley of the works of nature nothing could ever result but weak men and disorderly women.” The men of Europe flatter women constantly which may sound like a good thing to be complimented all the time but there is actually less respect given to women. Women begin looking at themselves the same way a man sees her and consider it a good thing to be such fragile, useless beings. When talking about the way European society views women, it seems Tocqueville is constantly complaining about it and answering it with the American way to treat and view women in society. The common American attitude regarding gender, according to Tocqueville, is that men and women are equal but with different duties. Having separate roles has nothing to do with the equality of between men and women. The two genders hold different roles because it is what they were designed to do, not because they are not equal to one another. Tocqueville summarizes this argument with the following