Women didn't want to just accept their standing in society but instead they wanted to have a voice. During this battle for independence, women now have the right to work and their role in society has become more significant. Much of this came from the rise of feminism with women wanting to be treated equally to men. Nowadays women tend to be more independent. After centuries of conforming to female stereotypes, women have gradually taken control of their own image of equality to the men and are able to face the reality of life on their own, without men's support.
This paper will explain the idea of a glass ceiling that is not socially constructed, but rather is now in the process of being re-studied and possibly explained as a self-fulfilled prophecy. This topic may not be appealing to everyone, however everyone will interact with women in their lifetime, and with a changing workforce, the probability of having female coworkers is increasing. For women, this topic may be viewed as a confidence boost. Instead of focusing on negatives and the problems that are still apparent in society, it focuses on the achievements and great strides that women have made in the workforce. It will explain success throughout American history, and help motivate the female gender to continue to push forward, innovate and become a force to be recognized as important and necessary in the professional environment.
While the movement to secure equal rights for the American Negro needed different leaders and different tactics at different times during its history, so it was with the women's movement in America. While the movement initially sought equal treatment for women in everything, the struggle required changes in both leadership and in tactics before the goal was achieved. Early in the history of the movement there was Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Starting with a relative handful of elitist, well-educated female activists, they declared that the right to vote was necessary to make men and women equal under the law and in every facet of daily life. Later, when alliance with other political and social reform movements was made necessary to further the goals of the movement, there was Jane Addams.
Even after the Civil Rights Movement happened in the United States women were still subjected to discrimination based on their sex. This was a problematic barrier that allowed gender inequality to remain and as a result fewer women were able to seek higher education and employment standards. The National Organization for Women argued that change needed to come to America and that it was time for women to be seen as complete equals to men. On behalf of the National Organization for Women (NOW) Betty Friedan wrote the document the Statement of Purpose and argued that women were human beings and therefore they ought to be treated equally and should have the same economic, social and political rights as men and not be excluded because of their
The point is that women had to work there way up to even be taken seriously, or to get to a “man’s level”. Sure, as the country develops women begin to gain more respect. The point is women should not have to gain respect. They should already have it. Jayachandran says the examples she cited describe mechanisms that do not depend on cultural differences between rich and poor countries but, rather, predict that gender bias will decline in any country as it develops.
Society still view feminist like they were 30 years ago, but times have changed. Even questioning the righteousness of a male co-worker receiving a higher paying job or being denied birth control, could justify as being a feminist. But she wants to address that problem and show that is not the case. She defines feminism as a movement that will give women and girls a confident boost that will allow them to accept themselves for who they are, not the cookie cutter shapes society has presented to us. She believes that feminism is live and active within society stating, “And if feminism isn’t dead, it’s equally often accused of being outdated.
Achieving women’s empowerment will not only liberate women from oppression, but also provide individuals of all genders freedom, as inequality diminishes gradually. However, it does not place women at a superior position; instead, women’s empowerment promotes greater understanding and of all. Envisioning a better future, one needs to understand the current conditions reality of women and their experiences in the world. By studying the oppression of that women face individually and globally, one will see the necessity of feminism, applying it to an individual level, national level, as well as global level. Women’s bodies are often subjected to control, objectification, and damage, coming from both self and others.
In order to answer the question we will look into what feminism actually is, the history, women today in households and the workplace, feminism today and role models. In order to completely understand the feminist movement, it’s important to understand the terminology used. A very common misconception is that the feminism movement is synonymous to the women’s suffrage movement. As defined by Oxford Dictionary, feminism is “The advocacy of women’s rights on the grounds of political, social, and economic equality to men.” When discussing women’s suffrage, one would be referring to the fight for women to get the right to vote. Although women did achieve this right, this was not the end of feminism.
Striving for equal rights and opportunities is still a major issue for women and probably will be for years to come. Cole summed it up best by saying, "I still believe that one person can change the world!"
Even though things could often be slow to change in the way of women’s rights, change they did. Women’s roles had been evolving from one of a simple “reproducer” to one of an actual “producer”. While in today’s standards this may not seem significant, for the women of the time, it turned out to be a change of a large magnitude. The argument that this paper will portray to the reader, will be one based around the understanding of how gender rolls have changed for the better, in the past few hundred years. Have women really gotten more of an equal place in society as time as gone on?