In Senegal, there are certain expectations a woman must up hold to be viewed as a productive member of society. Senegalese women are expected to take care of their children, take care of their home, and be a doting wife. A good Senegalese woman is strong in her faith and partakes in the traditional ways of life. In the novel, So Long a letter by Mariama Ba, Ramatoulaye and her friend, Aissatou, are two very strong women. Both of their husbands decide to marry another wife. Aissatou and Rama both react in different ways. Rama decides to stay in the marriage even though her husband chooses to ignore his first family and focus most of his attention on his new wife, Binetou. Although being ignored and treated as if she is not there is tough, Rama …show more content…
They are also teachers but, when they come home they have another job, taking care the kids and house. Rama says, “house-wives deserve praise. The domestic work they carry out, and which is not paid for in hard cash, is essential to the home. Their compensation remains the pile of well-ironed, sweet-smelling washing, the shined tiled floor of which the foot glides, the gay kitchen filled with the smell of stews” (Ba 66). House-wives run the home. If nobody ran the home, it would fall apart. Some women strive to become a house-wife and eventually a mother. Rama is a mother of twelve children. Some of which tend to go off the rails of tradition towards the end of the book. A couple of her children start smoking; she tells them not to do it anymore. Another one of her kids gets pregnant by a law student. Instead of becoming mad and telling her daughter to get out of the house, she supports her. Having a child outside of a marriage is not in the norm of the Senegalese community. One community member, Farmata, criticizes Rama for supporting her daughter. This single incident proves how strong Rama is after her husband has taken a new wife, then died leaving Rama all alone. In the article, Feminism in an African Context: Mariama Ba’s So Long a Letter by Rizwana Habib Latha, the author says, “the unconditional love of a mother for her female children sometimes entails making choices for them which conflict with the norms and values of a traditional society” (Latha 36). Rama is this mother. She will choose her children over traditional values. Since she chooses her children makes her an even better woman than she already was to begin
To force me to give my fortune, I was imprisoned-yes: in a private madhouse…” (Maria 131-32). These lines from Mary Wollstonecraft’s (1759-1797) unfinished novella Maria, or the Wrongs of Woman substantiates the private operation of the madhouse where the protagonist Maria is confined. The importance of private ownership is that this places the madhouse outside the discourse of law. It is illegitimate yet it is legitimized as it is a symbol of male-dominated state oppression. Parallel to this Bastille becomes the direct symbol of the same repression which is used by Wollstonecraft to depict the predicament of dissenting revolutionary women in the late Eighteenth- century England. The language which she is using is evidently from the French Revolution as we know the symbolic importance of the dreaded tower of Bastille where political ‘criminals’ were imprisoned. So, Wollstonecraft’s objective is to politicize the genre of novel as the other Jacobin women writers- novel, for them, is a vehicle of political propaganda.
The novel, The Underdogs by Mariano Azuela is a great perception of the Mexican Revolution. The stories of exploits and wartime experiences during the Mexican Revolution was fundamentally driven by the men. The war was between the people and the government. Throughout the novel, these men had to isolate themselves from their families and battle for a cause they greatly believed in. Even with not enough resources, the people were able to fight aggressively in order to overthrow the government. Regardless of the men who were at war, there were two females who played a significant role in the Mexican Revolution, Camila and War Paint. While the representation Mariano Azuela captures these ladies and their role in society are accurate, he neglects
Over the past few decades, research on women has gained new momentum and a great deal of attention. Susan Socolow’s book, The Women of Colonial Latin America, is a well-organized and clear introduction to the roles and experiences of women in colonial Latin America. Socolow explicitly states that her aim is to examine the roles and social regulations of masculinity and femininity, and study the confines, and variability, of the feminine experience, while maintaining that sex was the determining factor in status. She traces womanly experience from indigenous society up to the enlightenment reforms of the 18th century. Socolow concentrates on the diverse culture created by the Europeans coming into Latin America, the native women, and African slaves that were imported into the area. Her book does not argue that women were victimized or empowered in the culture and time they lived in. Socolow specifies that she does her best to avoid judgment of women’s circumstances using a modern viewpoint, but rather attempts to study and understand colonial Latin American women in their own time.
The contentious little book titled Women, Power, Politics maintains politics to be devalued, acknowledging the fact that only few people do vote, and women are unable to achieve within the realm of Canadian politics. Sylvia Bashevkin, the author of the book argues that Canadians have a profound unease with women in positions of political authority, what she calls the "women plus power equals discomfort" equation. She evaluates a range of barriers faced by women who enter politics, including the media's biased role of representing the private lives of women in politics, and she wonders why citizens find politics is underrepresented in Canada compared to Belgium. In clear, accessible terms, Bashevkin explains her ideas on how to eliminate “low voters turn-out,” “devaluation of politics,” "gender schemas," and "media framing.” She outlines some compelling solutions to address the stalemate facing women in Canadian politics which are; contesting media portrayals, changing the rule of the game, improving legislative quotas, electoral reform, movement renewals, and so on. This response paper would addresses the reality of a political mainstream, actions which should be taken against the oppressive elements of reality, and the awareness it brings through economic, social, and political environment.
Writing Women's Worlds is some stories on the Bedouin Egyptian people. In this book, thwe writer Lia Adu-Lughod's stories differ from the conventional ones. While reading, we discover the customs and values of the Bedouin people.
In the 1940s, the careers of women and men were altered when World War II was at its peak, during the time between 1940 and 1945 the year the war ended, American factories and shipyards produced around 300,000 military planes, 86,000 tanks, 8.5 million guns and carbines, 3 million machine guns, 72,000 naval ships, 4,900 merchant ships which would carry important and needed supplies, and 14 million tons of explosives and ammunition for the war (the 1940s, 23). Before the United States had joined the war, many companies had already formed contracts with the government about being able to produce military equipment for the war. World War II had a big effect on not just women's but men’s careers as well, therefore it is important to know the history behind how it affected the careers of the 1940s, and to know how it changed the careers of men as well women.
Throughout the course of history, the concept of women being subordinate to men has always existed. However, in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, a woman named Hester Prynne tries to break prejudicial notions against women in a patriarchal society. In the story, Hester commits the crime of adultery and is sentenced by the government to wear a scarlet letter as it symbolizes ignominy. Since she lives in Puritan New England, the people do not value women a lot, her actions becomes a sight of public scrutiny. Yet, with her strength as a woman, she is able to not only survive the situation, but also reverse as she later becomes an important member of their community. In a feminist perspective of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter,
Harriet Jacobs’ feminist approach to her autobiographical narrative Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl brought to life the bondage placed on women, in particular enslaved black women, during the nineteenth-century America. In an effort to raise awareness about the conditions of enslaved women and to promote the cause of abolition, Jacobs decided to have her personal story of sexual exploitation and escape published. The author’s slave narrative focuses on the experiences of women, the treatment of sexual exploitation, its importance on family life and maternal principles, and its appeal to white, female readers. Likewise, through the use of the Feminist/Gender Theory, issues relating to gender and sexuality can be applied to the author’s slave narrative. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl and its lack of reception during its own time disclose the strict boundaries and unique challenges Harriet Jacobs encountered and overcame as a woman in antebellum America.
Throughout the novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini, Mariam and Laila are constantly having their inner strength challenged from birth to death. They both had different lives growing up, but they both lived in the same society, meaning that they both dealt with the disrespect from the Afghani culture.
Amelia Bloomer:Amelia Bloomer was born in Cortland County, New York, in 1818. She received an education in schools of the State and became a teacher in public schools, then as a private tutor. She married in 1840 to Dexter C. Bloomer, of Seneca Falls, New York. Dexter C. Bloomer was editor of a county newspaper, and Mrs. Bloomer began to write for the paper. She was one of the editors of the Water Bucket, a temperance paper published during Washingtonian revival. Mr. Bloomer lived in Seneca Falls in 1848, but did not participate in the Women’s Rights Convention. In 1849, Bloomer began work with a monthly temperance paper called The Lily. It was devoted to women’s rights and interests, as it became a place for women advocates to express their opinions. The paper initiated a widespread change in women’s dress. The long, heavy skirts were replaced with shorter skirts and knee-high trousers or undergarments. Bloomer’s name soon became associated with to this new dress, and the trousers became known as Bloomers. She continued to new dress and continued advocating for women’s rights in her paper. In 1854, Mrs. Bloomer began giving numerous speeches and continued to fight for equal justice for women.
The 1950s was a time when American life seemed to be in an ideal model for what family should be. People were portrayed as being happy and content with their lives by the meadia. Women and children were seen as being kind and courteous to the other members of society while when the day ended they were all there to support the man of the house. All of this was just a mirage for what was happening under the surface in the minds of everyone during that time as seen through the women, children, and men of this time struggled to fit into the mold that society had made for them.
In the 1960’s women were still seen as trophies and were beginning to be accepted into the work industry. They were still homemakers, raised the family, and made sure their husbands were happy. That was the social norms for women during that time period. They were not held to high work expectations like men were. But something amazing happened that would change women 's lives for centuries; it was the 1970’s. The 60’s put the equality movement in motion but 70’s was a time of reform where women were finally able to control their own paths. Not only was the 70’s a historical marker for the fiftieth anniversary for women suffrage, it was also a marker for the drastic change of different social norms, the changes of the American Dream, and the
At the beginning of the novel, Edna follows her husband’s instructions like a reflex but as the story moves forward, she beings to defy him and put herself first for a change. These actions were frown upon and would be regarded as characteristics that make a woman unfit to marriage since being submissive was considered a requirement. This ongoing theme about gender based duties speaks to my life in great magnitude due to the fact that I grew up in a Hispanic family where the gender roles are stablished strictly and we hold great responsibility about upholding them. Even though the novel was written in a different context, I can still see this same outdated thought in the environment back in El Salvador. A common example of this is how women are still expected to remain virgins until marriage and if they are unable to do so then it means they lost their “purity” but on the other hand, men don’t have to comply with the same rule. This scenario is just of many situations that happen but, what is the most surprising is how this type of thought becomes adherent to girls from a young age. I have to include myself when saying that I have become involved in this type of close minded thinking and have even judged women that choose a non-conventional lifestyle for a Hispanic country. It is difficult to move
In her essay, Woman in the Nineteenth Century, Margaret Fuller discusses the state of marriage in America during the 1800‘s. She is a victim of her own knowledge, and is literally considered ugly because of her wisdom. She feels that if certain stereotypes can be broken down, women can have the respect of men intellectually, physically, and emotionally. She explains why some of the inequalities exist in marriages around her. Fuller feels that once women are accepted as equals, men and women will be able achieve a true love not yet known to the people of the world.
Do you believe that women of this present generation have always received the same level of respect as they receive now? Today, women are treated exceptionally well as compared to their counterparts in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and treated even better than those in the very early years of America. Women in the past were restricted from freedoms and rights; their individuality was stripped and they were constantly forced to meet the constraining view of a “traditional” America. In contrast, women of modern America are granted a level of recognition and respect unexplored by American women of previous generations.