In the late 1800’s slavery was slowly being abolished. Unfortunately it was not until the second half of the century that serfdom found an end in Russia and many were given the rights they deserved. On the contrary the liberation was not so simple for women. They continued to fight for their rights to attain true freedom and faced severe consequences for their radical efforts. As shown through Elizaveta Kovalskaia’s memoir, she, like many women in Russia, was faced with many challenges and adversaries in her attempts for change and fairness for all women. Kovalskaia, the daughter of a serf and a nobleman describes in a memoir her experiences and trials in her attempt to spread word of change in this pivotal time for women in Russia. Women were being treated as lesser beings and sought for better workings conditions, higher wages and education and ultimately a political change. Women began banning together and advocating change and the overthrow of the tsar. The freedom on the serfs in 1861 only sparked the women to act further, which came to a dramatic climax when Tsar Alexander II was assassinated in 1881 by a revolutionary group led by a woman. Women were finally beginning to be seen with political validity. The document, an excerpt and translation of Elizaveta Kovalskaia’s memoir, gives a firsthand account of the events in which women partook and the way they were treated in consequence. Written in 1926, Kovalskaia had the opportunity to write on the issues and progress of the radical women’s movements. Among the issues are the restrictions set on women in regards to their learning and freedom of speech, as well as the authority’s maltreatment of the women and the lengths they went to to continue their journey to change. El... ... middle of paper ... ...ssia were fighting for change. They did not sit back and watch the men handle situations and hope and pray for rights, they went out and made it happen. There are countless stories of women and their efforts liberation and not all ended with life. In Elizaveta Kovalskaia’s memoir, a strong woman is seen trying to help and educate the women around her while attempting to save herself from punishment. Men were also helping in the efforts to give their wives, sisters and daughters more rights for the future. Change was coming for the women in Russia because they took matters into their own hands and began to write their own history. Works Cited Kovalskaia, Elizaveta. “Memoirs” in Discovering the Western Past, A Look at the Evidence, Volume II: Since 1500. Ed. Merry E. Weisner, Julius R. Ruff and William Bruce Wheeler. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2008. 275-278.
“Women in the 1848-1849 Hungarian Revolution” is written by Robert Nemes. The thesis of this article is: Six weeks after the outbreak of revolution in Hungary, a remarkable document appeared in a patriotic Hungarian language newspaper, Pesti Divatlvap. Entitled “Demands of the Radical Hungarian Women,” this twenty-four petition boldly asserted women’s right to take part in public life and underlined their importance to the revolutionary cause.
The rise of nationalist movements and the modern nation-state has affected women’s political and economic participation and social freedoms. Based on the following documents, there were many opportunities and barriers that nationalist movements posed concerning women's rights in the twentieth century. Many women saw the opportunities of the movements accessible to women, but other women focused on the barriers and didn’t feel that the opportunities were accessible.
Gender roles in Russia have dramatically changed since the fall of the former Soviet Union and the fall of communism. It is hard to look directly at the constitution of Russia seeing as though the drafting and redrafting of their constitution is still underway. However, looking at the constitution of the former Soviet Union, you can see it is clearly stated that: “Women and men have equal rights.” It is very clear that in the Soviet Union they were trying to make it so that women and men were equal. It is still clear today that those same basic ideals are present in Russia. Women are clearly more equal in their country than in ours. In the workforce as well as in the home, women play a more equal role than in the present day United States. However, for the sake of this paper, let us just look at the infrastructure of Russia, formerly known as the Soviet Union or USSR.
Bolsheviks entered the political world in 1917 with the ideas of deliberating women and making them equal to men as well as this idea of westernizing Russia. Based on the book, both ideas were closely associated. Women were seen as raw materials that can be used to transform. As a result, women who were already member of the Communists party were sent to the countryside to transform primitive women also known as babas and transformed them into Comrades, the free and knowledgeable women. These transformed women would then move to the city and work in factories and industrial workshop to westernize and industrialize Russia and that will symbolize women freedom and equality to men. Even though these women will have a much lower...
In my first article ‘Incorporating Gendered Identities into Transition Studies.’ The authors: Nastasia and Kartoshkina propose that women’s gender identity is “up for grabs” and that identities are in a transition right now where women are unclear of their role in society. The article discusses paradoxes in the transition studies between west and east similarly to the article ‘Feminism and Post-Communism.’ The propaganda messages during the 1940’s to 1980’s were to promote women to work outside the home by liberalizing the idea of family and prohibiting sexually explicit images or writings, creating relationship related problems for women. There then became no account for relationship related problems, sexual harassment, rape, domestic violence or divorce. During post-communism, difference has become embraced, where certain topics of diversity would have remained taboo, in post-communistic Eastern Europe these topics are not off limits. This created a huge difference in genders rather than their goal of equality. Clearly women have been under represented and treated like second-class citizens during this period. There is ...
Throughout history, women have struggled with, and fought against oppression. They have been held back and weighed down by the sexist ideas of a male dominated society which has controlled cultural, economic and political ideas and structure. During the mid-1800’s to early 1900’s women became more vocal and rebuked sexism and the role that had been defined for them. Fighting with the powerful written word, women sought a voice, equality amongst men and an identity outside of their family. In many literary writings, especially by women, during the mid-1800’s to early 1900’s, we see symbols of oppression and the search for gender equality in society. Writing based on their own experiences, had it not been for the works of Susan Glaspell, Kate Chopin, and similar feminist authors of their time, we may not have seen a reform movement to improve gender roles in a culture in which women had been overshadowed by men.
For every person, different reasons exist to go out and seek employment. These reasons, however, stem from the type of government that people are ruled by. In Russia, during the period that will be discussed, a Socialist government ruled the USSR. It was under this government, that everyone was to have a job and unemployment was to be kept at a minimum. During this socialist regime, the attitudes to working will be taken from the perspectives of three related women. The first woman, Mela Krul, was born in 1932 and is the mother of Alla Veitsman and Helen Krul Zlatkin. Alla Veitsman is the oldest sister and was born in 1954. Although her work experience under the socialist government is brief, it shows signs of the progress that women made during the middle to late 1900s. Helen Zlatkin, born in 1962, had no work experience in the former USSR, but her personal account demonstrates the types of choices that women made in order to have both family and work. Mela Krul was the only one who had extensive work experience in the USSR, but she was able to see the changes and progress that women underwent through the daily activities and choices that both of her daughters made. As these three women came to the United States of America, along with their families, they faced a democratic government where employment was not guaranteed and women did have to face the hardships of unemployment, and more importantly, inequality. It would be the values and traditions that both Alla and Helen believed in that allowed them to be successful and relatively unaffected by inequality.
Coffin, Judith G., and Robert C. Stacey. "CHAPTER 18 PAGES 668-669." Western Civilizations: Their History & Their Culture. 16TH ed. Vol. 2. New York, NY: W. W. Norton &, 2008. N. pag. Print.
Coffin, Judith G, et al. Western Civilizations: Their History & Their Culture. 17th ed. New York: W. W. Norton & Co, 2011. Print.
Howe, Helen, and Robert T. Howe. A World History: Ancient and Medieval Worlds. Volume 1. White Plains, NY: Longman, 1992. 533.
Coffin, Judith, Joshua Cole, Robert Stacey, and Carol Symes. 2011. Western Civilizations. New York, London: W. W. Norton & Company.
History accounts for the great contributions of women in promoting social justice, particularly in uplifting the morale and functions of women in the society. From being the oppressed gender, various women managed to change the traditional roles of women by fighting for their rights to be heard and for them to given equal opportunities. These women boldly stood against gender stereotypes of women and proved the entire world that they could defy conventions. Particularly at the turn of the 20th century, women battled against the oppressions brought by patriarchy in different ways. These activist women had crusaded for the promotion of their civil rights, sexual freedom, and pursued careers which were once forbidden to them.
In the mid nineteenth century America was going through an age of reform. The person who would be the center of these reforms would be the women in society. Women soon realized that in order to make sure that all the reforms went through they would need more power and influence in society. The oppression and discrimination the women felt in this era launched the women into create the women’s right movement. The women fought so zealously for their rights it would be impossible for them not to achieve their goals. The sacrifices, suffering, and criticism that the women activist made would be so that the future generations would benefit the future generations.
The book became a great source of information for me, which explained the difficulties faced by women of the mentioned period. The author succeeded to convince me that today it is important to remember the ones who managed to change the course of history. Contemporary women should be thankful to the processes, which took place starting from the nineteenth century. Personally, I am the one believing that society should live in terms of equality. It is not fair and inhuman to create barriers to any of the social members.
One of the main causes of the women’s movement was the loss of their legal rights in society, especially civil and economic rights during the tota...