Oppression is when a person or group of people abuse their power or social status in a burdensome, cruel, or unjust manner because of prejudice against those below them. Although Female oppression still exists in many of our societies today, American women were the first to try to overcome their oppression. The oppression that took place was psychological and basically men being biased and unjust towards women, but in other places of the world female oppression means physical or sexual abuse.
Women had always been below men but during the 1800’s a movement had rocked the boat. This was around the time of anti-slavery movements as well so maybe when the women saw slaves going against their oppressors the decided to go against men too.
Women rebelled because of being second class citizens and their unfair treatment by men. Two groups of women headlined the movement: National American Woman Suffrage Association lead by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony and the National Woman's Party lead by Alice Paul and Lucy Burns. The rebellion was non-violent; the women used speech a...
“I do not wish them [women] to have power over men; but over themselves” – Mary Wollstonecraft. In the 19th century the hot topic was women’s rights everybody had an opinion about it. Of course the expected ones like Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton had much to say but a few unexpected ones like William Lloyd Garrison and Frederick Douglass spoke out for women’s rights. The focus will be the responsibilities and roles that the activists played in the Women’s Rights or Feminist Movement. The relevance to the theme is the activists had a very important role toward reaching the ultimate goal of the Women’s Rights Movement. The Women’s Rights Movement was one of the most essential times in American history; it was the fight for women acquiring the same rights as men. Susan B. Anthony was considered the leader of the Women’s Rights Movement after she was denied the right to speak in a temperance convention; she had the responsibility of creating the National Women’s Suffrage Association (NWSA) and helping to secure voting rights by her historic court case, the Trials of Susan B. Anthony. Elizabeth Cady Stanton was an important women’s rights activist that helped plan the first organized women’s rights convention in Seneca Falls, New York and wrote the Declaration of Sentiments. Lucretia Mott worked along with Elizabeth Cady Stanton to plan the first women’s rights convention and wrote the, “Discourse on Women”. Lucy Stone formed the American Women’s Suffrage Association (AWSA) and convince individual states to join the effort towards women rights. These women had an influence in the National American Women’s Suffrage Association’s (NAWSA) achievement of the goals in the Women’s Rights Movement. These women had a profound effect on reaching equal rights between men and women.
Oppression is a term that has been used throughout history to describe the injustices brought upon minority groups. Feminist writer Marilyn Frye shared the definition of oppression, which essentially means to shape or conform certain groups of people (for this paper women will be used as the primary example) into socially constructed ideals through restrictions that mold and immobilize minority groups or females (Frye 11). According to Marilyn Frye, this term is sometimes loosely thrown around and used out of the term’s true context. The misuse of this term often creates a misconstrued view of what true oppression is and how particular groups of people are able to function within
This section on women's history will show the events that led to the suffrage movement and what the outcome was after the movement, plus how those events are involved in today's society. The women of the post suffrage era would not have the ability to the wide variety of professions were it not for their successes in the political arena for that time. In the early 1900’s when women were barred from most professions and limited in the amount of money they could earn, a group of suffragists led by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton started to develop the women into an influential and powerful leaders of this country. The original women who started the suffrage movement had nothing to build on form former women groups. Therefore these women were the pioneers of the women's movement. The next era of women took the prior teaching of Anthony and Stanton and took it one step further with forming groups of women who not only talked about women's rights but also what they could do for country as well. They final step in the suffrage movement was the making of allies with powerful men who could help them take what they have learned from the earlier groups and combine that with the new concepts to form a powerful gender.
The women decided that the only way that they could get people to listen to them was to gain the right of voting. They formed the group, National American Woman Suffrage Movement. Women were protesting in front of the white house to pass a woman suffrage
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
It was led by Alice Paul who was earlier a member of NAWSA. She was more radical in her views and organized picketing of the White House. She left NAWSA along with her supporters and formed the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage. This organization later evolved into National Woman’s Party in 1917(Sewall Belmont House and Museum n.d) What was the background that led to this milestone or struggle? Since time immemorial, women were being caged usually in unhealthy situations, often beaten, especially during the November 15 “Night of Terror” at Occoquan Workhouse, and often violently fed when they went on hunger strikes to protest being deprived of political prisoner status. [Nancy Milliken, University of California, 2013] Women of all classes risked their jobs, health, and reputations by staying on protesting. It is estimated that nearly 2,000 women spent time on the demonstrating lines between 1917 and 1919, and that led to the arrest of over hundreds of women, out of which 168 were actually jailed. [Congressional Library’s American Memory n.d] Women’s rights; including family responsibilities were socially and institutionally barred, there was a lack of educational and economic opportunities, as well as lack of a voice in political discourse. In the 1920s, the National Woman’s Party drafted more than many pieces of legislation in support of equal rights for women on the state and local levels,
Take a moment to imagine being held captive in a prison, where you are tortured and violently mistreated at the young age of 16. Instead of planning your senior dance and thinking about the bright future ahead of you, your main concern is how to survive the next 24 hours. You are forced into making decisions against your will and there is absolutely nothing you can do to change them. Marina Nemat, author of the memoir, Prisoner of Tehran, experienced a life similar to the one situation described during the harsh years of the Islamic Revolution in Iran. After getting arrested in 1982, she was taken to Evin, a political prison, where she would spend the next two years of her teenage life. She was sentenced to death for voicing her opinion on the government, but, was saved from execution by a guard named Ali. After threatening to hurt her family if she refused, she was forced to marry him. The next years spent in Evin with Ali, included mistreatment, rape, and being forced to change her religious views to Islam. Ali ultimately took advantage of Marina because she was seen to be a harmless and useless young woman. Prisoner of Tehran demonstrates how women in Middle Eastern countries, including Iran, are oppressed and taken advantage of. By being sexually abused, controlled, and denied basic human rights these women are left psychologically drained and damaged.
Sexism has been extremely prevalent in the world since the start of agricultural societies. As groups of people moved from their hunting gathering practices and into agricultural women weren’t needed to keep the group alive. Their role in society was demoted to that of bearing children and therefore they were considered only fit for housework and weren’t included in hard labor. This was the beginning of deep seated sexism that carries on into the modern day. We have seen many examples of this throughout history from high levels of abuse in Ancient Rome, European witch hunts viciously attacking women and leading to around 51,000 deaths, extreme amounts of sexism surrounding the modern military, and even carrying into today. We see recurring patterns of unfair accusations directed toward women, physical abuse, and even murder. There are many ways in which we have improved the treatment of women throughout history, but there are also many ways in which we can still improve.
To start off this essay, it is important to note what is meant when using oppression in the terms and context of a sociologist. Oppression causes certain groups of people to be or advantaged in a political system whereas other groups of people are considered to be subordinate (Glasberg, pg. 1) One of the major groups that has been oppressed Universally are women (there are exceptions, but not many). Women have typically had not had the rights, privileges, or participation as it relates to political
Movement started to gain attention for the equality of women and ladies like Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Stanton joined forces to create the National Woman Suffrage Association.
The Women’s rights movement changed so many things for women. 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 and fighting for what they held to be true. 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 organized the first ever woman’s right convention.
As a female, I wouldn’t say that I am oppressed, however, I have experienced some impartial treatment compared my male correspondent. Specifically, at work my workplace, men seem to be preferred for certain positions than me. For example, when applying for a manager position in the shoe department, preference was given to another male with fewer qualifications. I also grew up in a house with all boys, I had to take on the responsibilities that a female would around the house. I had to cook for my brothers, clean up after them and even wash their clothes at times. Other than those instances, being a female does not make me feel oppressive.
Gender Discrimination is a topic that has been going on within our country for a long time. Women have never been treated equality as men. Women are living in a society that they are known as property. Many men are unprejudiced discriminators since they do not see women as equal values to themselves:
Gender-based violence has been recognized as a large public health problem as well as a violation of human rights worldwide. One out of three women has been beaten, coerced into sex, or abused in another way at least once in her life (www.infoforhealth.org). The abuser is usually a member of the family, introducing the difficult problem in that the abuse usually happens behind closed doors, and is often viewed by cultural norms and legal systems as a family matter rather than a crime.
Oppression is not a new phenomenon and it is defined in the social work dictionary as a social act of placing severe restrictions on individual, group, or institution. Typically a government or political organization in power places restrictions formally or covertly oppressed groups so they may be exploited and less able to compete with other social groups. The oppressed individual or group is devalued, exploited, and deprived of privileges by the individual or group who has more power (Barker, 2003).