As a man I never knew what it felt like to be treated unequal in the sense of not being able to work the same job as other men do, or being stigmatized and frowned upon for being a male. This was the story for women in the United States until the 1800’s. This was the era in where women that felt like they should be treated equally in society finally grew the courage to fight for what they believed in. They wanted to show everyone that people are entitled to their freedom and liberty no matter their gender. Also they wanted to emphasize that discriminating on people based on gender, sexual orientation, skin color, ethnicity, religion, or culture is unethical. People with these beliefs were considered what we call now a “Feminist”.
Feminist were considered evil, outlaws, and most definitely disobedient to the United States and of course men. In reality all these women wanted was an equal opportunity to life and liberty. These women knew it wouldn’t be easy to achieve it but they were willing to put in the time and effort to accomplish their goals. “Throughout history women have worked to improve their lives in a variety of ways, but historians often describe the organized women’s movements of the United States as two waves of feminism”(Kesselman, pg.555). These two waves were the beginning of a world changing norm, but unfortunately when they were started society was in an epidemic were men were superior and they wanted no parts of these movements.
The first wave, emerging in the late 19th and early 20th century’s had a goal to open up opportunities for women, focusing on their suffrage. There primary focus was to achieve the right to vote for all women. A convention was organized at Seneca Falls, New York in 1848 by a gr...
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...ocedures in child custody, child support, and protection from abuse actions; and championed the rights of sexual assault survivors” ( Women’s Law Project).
Organizations like these are the start of how women can overcome their discrimination in today’s world. I believe there are many other ways people can get involved to accomplish these goals, besides education in school. I believe this problem should be introduced to our children in their early stages of lives. Parents should raise their children in a form where when growing up they know to treat women and people equally. The way I would go about this is the same way people who were involved in the two waves of feminism did, exposure. We need to expose these problems and situations throughout the world, the more exposure the more people would realize what’s really going on and the more people would get involved.
When you think of American history, do you think of war, slavery, or segregation? Something that these have in common is gender equality. Gender equality is something that has been an issue in America since the first day it was inhabited. This is a problem in America. A more particular time period would be, World War II. During this time, women were being used to do men’s jobs and duties but, they still had to have a feminine aspect to them. While most men were at war, the women picked up jobs playing baseball, and working in factories to build the necessary items for war and daily living. During World War II, it was necessary for women to work. The government statistics prove this:
The term feminist is seen with a negative connotation because people use it as an insult against women in an effort to make them seem irrational and unfair, but in reality it is the exact opposite of that. Feminism is defined as the “belief in or advocacy of women’s social, political, and economic rights, especially with regard to equality of the sexes.” (Feminism). There is no reason that there should be a negative connotation to this belief or participation in advancing this belief, yet there is. This battle and struggle for equal rights has been going on for a very long time, but it really took off in the 1920s. The 19th amendment and The New Woman really helps to show how quickly women and their rights progressed in the United States. Many
Beyond the individual's perspective, society also looked at women as separate from men. It wasn't until The Women's Suffrage Act of 1920 that women were given the right to vote. With this on their side it was only a matter of time until the women of society were to break out. Nine years later on one very dark Tuesday, the stock market crashed and then came The Great Depression. When it hit the modern day workingman was now worth no more than any housewife. Because money wasn't worth enough to have a job, these professions that only could be held by men were no longer a factor in the limitations between the gender gap.
This movement had great leaders who were willing to deal with the ridicule and the disrespect that came along with being a woman. At that time they were fighting for what they thought to be true and realistic. Some of the great women who were willing to deal with those things were Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, Jane Hunt, Mary McClintock, and Martha C. Wright. These women gave this movement, its spark by conduction the first ever women 's right’s convention. This convention was held in a church in Seneca Falls in 1848. At this convection they expressed their problems with how they were treated, as being less than a man. These women offered solutions to the problem by drafting the Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions. They cleverly based the document after the Declaration of Independence. The opening line of their document was “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal” (Shi & Mayer 361). In this declaration they discuss the history of how women have been treated and how men have denied them rights, which go against everything they believe in. This convention was the spark that really
During America's early history, women were denied some of the rights to well-being by men. For example, married women couldn't own property and had no legal claim to any money that they might earn, and women hadn't the right to vote. They were expected to focus on housework and motherhood, and didn't have to join politics. On the contrary, they didn't have to be interested in them. Then, in order to ratify this amendment they were prompted to a long and hard fight; victory took decades of agitation and protest. Beginning in the 19th century, some generations of women's suffrage supporters lobbied to achieve what a lot of Americans needed: a radical change of the Constitution. The movement for women's rights began to organize after 1848 at the national level. In July of that year, reformers Elizabeth Cady Stanton(1815-1902) and Lucretia Mott (1793-1880), along with Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906) and other activists organized the first convention for women's rights at Seneca Falls, New York. More than 300 people, mostly women but also some men, attended it. Then, they raised public awar...
White women had been oppressed, and eventually when America began to diversify, those coming into the country were becoming oppressed and alienated. Even those who had been in the country were being discriminated against, but it’s because white Americans were prejudice towards those who identified as other than white. Sexism was and is definitely prevalent within the feminist movement, as feminism is fighting for the equality between men and women in general. Sexism creates and justifies systems of domination based on sex and gender (FYS Class Notes). The feminist movement began on the acts of sexism, as women did not have the same rights as men. Today, I think that women still aren’t treated as equal to men because people, especially men, think that women aren’t capable of doing the things a man can. I also think that part of the reason that men think women aren’t equal is because women can have children, and they just assume that the woman is supposed to take care of that child for the rest of her life. Yes, it’s her child, but it’s also the man who helped her create the child’s responsibility to take care of the child as
The very main concerns of the first wave were higher education for women, reforming secondary schools, widening employment access to women, marriage laws, property rights, custody rights and voluntary motherhood. In regard to the women’s rights movement, feminists like Wollstonecraft and Margaret Fuller tried to educate women in recognizing their basic right to access to education and jobs. Whereas, some other feminists like Grimke sisters formed Anti-slavery Societies which focused on abolition movement. This greatly helped women slaves who were often violated physically by men. In fact, this Anti- Slavery movement served as a foundation in the struggle for women’s right to vote. This helped women to talk more in public, express their ideas, create groups and associations in a way to make a change. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony worked together for the women’s rights movement mainly focusing in women’s suffrage with their writings. Later, a convention was held in Seneca Falls to discuss about the conditions of women in social, cultural and religious facets and also their basic rights like to vote. Stanton and Lucretia Mott presented the “Declaration of Sentiments” which were about the minimal rights that women were not privileged of. This event served as one of the carriers to spread the significance of women’s rights throughout the country. Considering the goals set in the first wave, women’s suffrage was the most important one. Later after the Seneca Falls convention Stanton, Anthony and Stone worked hardly for twenty years in order to achieve women’s rights. Many newspapers like Pittsburgh Saturday Visiter and Amelia Bloomer’s The Lily were started which majorily focused on temperance, abolition and women’s rights. However, the Civil War obstructed the growing work of the feminists as they lost many women supporters who were then concentrating on the war. On the other hand, women rights
Men and women didn’t have equal rights before. This is true because women had fewer opportunities than men. For instance, women were legally not allowed to vote and they were not able to gain an education. Furthermore, married women had no property rights, and they were made dependent on their husband. The women’s rights movement begun in the year 1848, when Elizabeth Cady Stanton was discontented with the limitations women had. This reform led to women around the world to plan and organize movements to prevent the discriminations given to them and provide them with equal rights in all aspects of life that men originally have.
Women were only second-class citizens. They were supposed to stay home cook, clean, achieve motherhood and please their husbands. The constitution did not allow women to vote until the 19th amendment in 1971 due to gender discrimination. Deeper in the chapter it discusses the glass ceiling. Women by law have equal opportunities, but most business owners, which are men, will not even take them serious. Women also encounter sexual harassment and some men expect them to do certain things in order for them to succeed in that particular workplace. The society did not allow women to pursue a real education or get a real job. Women have always been the submissive person by default, and men have always been the stronger one, and the protector. Since the dawn of time, the world has seen a woman as a trophy for a man’s arm and a sexual desire for a man’s
The Feminist Movement was divided into three waves, first characterized by Marsha Lear in the New York Times Magazine in 1968 (Henry). The First Wave of Feminist Movement occurred as early as the late 19th and early 20th century. This period was known for the rapid territorial and economic growth, landmarks in political developments, and especially social and political reforms. During this period, women were confined in household work, leaded by and politically attached to their husbands, and received no higher education. Thus, the First Movement focused on the rights of women to gain social status in these aspects and especially the right to vote. Before the 1780’s, state laws mostly only allowed Caucasian males to vote. In 1797, New Jersey was the first state to allow women to vote with a restriction to only women with cash or property (“Women’s Suffrage”). In 1860, the revised Married Women’s Property was passed, allowing women to have control over their children’s will and money a...
Many women saw that this change was stupid and irrational because not every woman could go out, go work in a factory or work long hours because some women had children to take care of. Some women agreed with men that women should follow a man’s footstep without any questions because they were a weaker sex and “cannot be good leaders in business, publicities and academics ”(Sexism 1). Women also didn’t want to get used to “some customary behaviors in the workplace as ‘sexual harassment”’ (Philosophical Feminists 4) because men still didn’t respect the female body like the radical feminists wanted men to do. Even today men still don’t respect the female body because men still don’t see women as equal to men. Women still question if feminism is here today such as “revealing clothes, designer-label stiletto, and amateur pole dancing” because men don’t see women as equal because of how they dressed and that society sometimes did not approve of it. Some women think that today laws aren’t equal enough because women still don’t get the same amount of money in certain jobs and women, back then, wanted laws that made them equal to men that protected but many were “protective labor laws [that] were overturned (Feminism 5).” Many women didn’t want to get into this lifestyle because it was scary and just wasn’t normal. Women were used to just staying home and just listening to what their husband would say. Today, one sees women
A Cultural Revolution swept through the United States during the 1960s and 1970s. This revolution brought about change and affected nearly everyone—whether they supported the Cultural Revolution or opposed it. This time period in United States history consisted of radical movements and vicissitudes as cultural revolutionaries struggled for equality of all people of both genders and all races. When people think of this period, the civil rights movement and the fight for desegregation in America comes to mind. Although the struggle for racial equality is an important and unforgettable part of American history, there was another fight against inequality that many people overlook. This important part of our nation’s history was the fight for Equal Rights Amendment, also known as the ERA. Even though advocates for the ERA amendment strongly pushed for its passage during the sixties and seventies, the amendment was actually written in 1923, by Alice Paul, the founder of the National Women’s Party. (http://www.equalrightsamendment.org/) The Equal Rights Amendment pushes to outlaw discrimination based on gender. The ERA seeks equality in the specific areas of voting, employment, and education, as well as equality throughout society. Men have traditionally been considered superior, and women were expected to acknowledge their superiority and respect it. As the ERA states, women want to be recognized as equals and treated accordingly. However, the Equal Rights Amendment does not only protect and defend the rights of women; it also has a positive effect on men. According to a History Matters article on the Era, “The ERA will increase everyone’s freedom of choice within our society—no longer will a person suffer legal limitations or bear extr...
True feminism sought for women to have freedom and rights, such as the right to vote, the right to gain an education, and the right to equal wages. In most aspects, we have been given these rights, but radical feminists are not content. There has been a jump from “We are equal to men,” to “women are superior.” Women have been fighting stereotypes for ages, proclaiming how horrid they are, yet quickly turn around and stereotype men and see no issue with this hypocrisy. The way for women to reach the equality they seek is to bring others up as well as themselves, not to tear them down. When feminists realize and act upon this, they will begin to see the results they have been hoping
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
First wave interrelated with temperance, and women’s suffrage. Feminists organized for the first time in Seneca Falls in 1848, where men and women discussed equality and women’s rights. Civil rights were argued heavily in successive waves with topics being family