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Changing role of women in modern society
The role of women now
The role of women now
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Acoording to Simone de Beauvoir, writer, activist, and social theorist, history has shown that men have always held positions of power, and to this day, that has not changed.(193) The myth of the Eternal Women is one created by men wherein women are viewed as angelic, motherly, virginal, nurturing objects, but at the same time, as irrational, overly sensitive, deviant, passive, and Other.(Beauvoir, 316) As Other, a woman is defined in relation to man and not an autonomous being. This immense contradiction becomes an impossible ideal that traps women into trying to fulfill certain expectations that they will never be able achieve. This myth of the Eternal Feminine, of the Other, is one that continues still today. In the early 19th and 20th centuries we see the first wave of feminism beginning to emerge as a reaction to gender injustice seen in french and American constitutions. Women of that time were primarily fighting for their right to vote, and although that finally came in 1920, they were still seen as property. Relegated to labor in the house with no independent existence apart from her husband, she was almost on the same level as a slave. It was also during this time that Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels noted the impact that the the rise of capitalism and the shift to private property ownership had on the lives of women. As men became the primary wage laborers, women were restricted to the home making it easier for their spouses to control them. As the men inherited more and more wealth, so too …show more content…
She can cook, clean, be a mother, and at the end of the day, still have time to fulfill her husbands wants and needs.
During the 1960’s-1980’s in what is known as the second wave of feminism, women, no longer willing to be complacent in a patriarchal society, started challenging their
Women, like black slaves, were treated unequally from the male before the nineteenth century. The role of the women played the part of their description, physically and emotionally weak, which during this time period all women did was took care of their household and husband, and followed their orders. Women were classified as the “weaker sex” or below the standards of men in the early part of the century. Soon after the decades unfolded, women gradually surfaced to breathe the air of freedom and self determination, when they were given specific freedoms such as the opportunity for an education, their voting rights, ownership of property, and being employed.
In an essay written for The Edinburgh Review Harriet Martineau argued that because there were not enough husbands to go around, girls should be educated and trained to be self-supporting (Showalter ix). By the end of the century, the numbers of unmarried women lacking economic support reached crisis proportions. This event, as much or more than any other, precipitated the feminist movement of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries which eventually brought suffrage to British and American women, and created limited job opportunities for women in the business world.... ... middle of paper ...
The need for women’s rights began back in colonial America where women were referred to as “inferior beings”. This era, though it is not particularly noted for it’s feminist movements, did hold such people as Margaret Brent, who was a wealthy holder of land in Maryland and was a strong, but unsuccessful voice in securing a place for women in the legislature of the colony. It was also a period where Quakers, and many other individuals, such as famous American patriot, Thomas Paine supported the rights of women, but at the time it was not enough to make a significant difference and it wasn’t until the 19th century that women would get the real chance to make a difference.
Feminism is an issue that will be continually fought for. Because of this, significant individuals and groups have been extremely instrumental in providing a grounded approach to dealing with new and conflicting forms of feminism. Simone de Beauvoir
“Compare and contrast women’s suffrage movements of the late nineteenth and early centuries with the European feminist movements of the 1960’s and 1970’s.” Whereas the women’s suffrage movements focused mainly on overturning legal obstacles to equality, the feminist movements successfully addressed a broad range of other feminist issues. The first dealt primarily with voting rights and the latter dealt with inequalities such as equal pay and reproductive rights. Both movements made vast gains to the social and legal status of women.
Society has long since considered women the lessor gender and one of the most highly debated topics in society through the years has been that of women’s equality. The debates began over the meaning between a man and woman’s morality and a woman’s rights and obligations in society. After the 19th Amendment was sanctioned around 1920, the ball started rolling on women’s suffrage. Modern times have brought about the union of these causes, but due to the differences between the genetic makeup and socio demographics, the battle over women’s equality issue still continues to exist. While men have always held the covenant role of the dominant sex, it was only since the end of the 19th century that the movement for women’s equality and the entitlement of women have become more prevalent. “The general consensus at the time was that men were more capable of dealing with the competitive work world they now found themselves thrust into. Women, it was assumed, were unable to handle the pressures outside of the home. They couldn’t vote, were discourages from working, and were excluded from politics. Their duty to society was raising moral children, passing on the values that were unjustly thrust upon them as society began to modernize” (America’s Job Exchange, 2013). Although there have been many improvements in the changes of women’s equality towards the lives of women’s freedom and rights in society, some liberals believe that women have a journey to go before they receive total equality. After WWII, women continued to progress in there crusade towards receiving equality in many areas such as pay and education, discrimination in employment, reproductive rights and later was followed by not only white women but women from other nationalities ...
After women fought for their right to vote and Congress passed the 19th Amendment of the Constitution, women believed they were capable of doing anything. Before the 1920s, women were considered lower than men, treated poorly, and didn’t have equal opportunities. Women were not given the same opportunities as men because it was believed that women could not tolerate as much work as a man. Women were not educated and therefore didn’t have jobs. They were housewives who cooked, cleaned, and took care of their children.
Beauvoir states, “No one is more arrogant toward women, more aggressive or more disdainful, than a man anxious about his own virility” (13). In contrast to this statement Beauvoir also mentions men who apply the concept of abstract equality. These men recognize a companionship and benevolence towards women and therefore apply what Beauvoir calls a quasi-good faith that women are equal to men, and that they have no demands to make for equality because they have achieved the same freedoms as man. Beauvoir’s critique on females as it relates to freedom, can be found when she writes about immanence and transcendence. She uses immanence to describe the historic definition that has been assigned to woman: immersed in themselves, and static.
The late nineteenth century was a critical time in reshaping the rights of women. Commonly this era is considered to be the beginning of what is know to western feminists as “first-wave feminism.” First-wave feminism predominately fought for legal rights such as suffrage, and property rights. A major hallmark of first-wave feminism is the concept of the “New Woman.” The phrase New Woman described educated, independent, career oriented women who stood in response to the idea of the “Cult of Domesticity,” that is the idea that women are meant to be domestic and submissive (Stevens 27).
Simone Lucie-Ernestine-Marie-Bertrand de Beauvoir was a woman of many talents, one of which included being an existentialist philosopher. In perhaps her most famous book, The Second Sex, Simone de Beauvoir argues that “one is not born, but rather, becomes a woman.” This statement is the basis of de Beauvoir’s claim that femininity is not a result of biology, but rather a result of the difference’s between men and women’s situations. In The Second Sex, de Beauvoir dives deep into the analysis of the position of women in society. She focuses in on what she believes to be the cause of tension between the sexes in her era. In doing so, she defines women as the “others” in society, differentiates between the situation of the proletariat and the
Beauvoir explains how woman essentially become woman and how gender is something that is born from cultural norms while sex is identified with biology. Beauvoir also goes on to explain how woman are being subjugating politically, economically and socially as a class and are considered the “other” towards men. Men are the ones who rule/majority and therefore are considered the “one” while females are the subordinate/minority and are the “other”. Beauvoir explains how woman have become the other and how their dependence on men needs to change.
At the end of the 19th and start of the 20th centuries, a series of events occurred that would be known as the feminist movement. During this time, many women were starting to change the way they thought of themselves and wanted to change their social roles. In his views on feminist analysis Donald Hall says, “Feminist methodologies focus on gender.and explore the complex ways in which women have been denied social power and the right to various forms of self-expression. In this context the many perspectives that fall under the heading ‘feminism’ vary wildly”(Hall 199). Since women were denied social power and self-expression, they went against what society saw as acceptable, a patriarchal world.
Throughout the 19th century, feminism played a huge role in society and women’s everyday lifestyle. Women had been living in a very restrictive society, and soon became tired of being told how they could and couldn’t live their lives. Soon, they all realized that they didn’t have to take it anymore, and as a whole they had enough power to make a change. That is when feminism started to change women’s roles in society. Before, women had little to no rights, while men, on the other hand, had all the rights. The feminist movement helped earn women the right to vote, but even then it wasn’t enough to get accepted into the workforce. They were given the strength to fight by the journey for equality and social justice. There has been known to be
Throughout history and today, we women are constant victims of stereotyping. Certain “rules” have to be followed and certain “ideal” women images have to be kept. They are raised to fill certain position in the society and because of this, the opportunities are always limited and ideas of our importance in the society are diminishing. Even though women gained some independence, where women can work and take various position in society, the society’s idea of typical role of women never seem to change.
There are only two genders in the whole world, one is male and the other is female. There are lots of advocates and sociologist who has spoken for the equality between men and women but till now the goal of equality has not been achieved yet. Women have always been dominated by the men in the Patriarchal society where men are the head of the household and the rule makers. Men are the supreme authority and women are the followers. When we hear these things, even in the 21 century it is not the new or surprising things because it is still being practiced in our society and there aren’t any women in the world that had not been through this discrimination at least once in their life time. It is not that, women have not fight for their right but the fact is that nobody is there to hear their voices. Women have always wanted to gain their rights and they have also fought for it too but it is their misfortune that their privileges and opportunities are always taken away from them by the men. The question might arise whether all human beings are equal? If so why male and female are not equal? Being a woman brought up in a developing country, I have experienced the effects of this societal dichotomy. Thus, I would like to delineate this aspect of the division in the society by using the Feminist Theory to analyze women’s position in the Patriarchal society and I am choosing Simone de Beauvoir as my theorist.