Emasculation of Women: A Historical Perspective

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The emasculation of women
The optimization of a male’s authority in the 17th century has led to the subjectification of women. Thus, the occurrence of the second, and third wave of feminism has resulted in women to retaliating against social oppression. In Lady Mary Chudleigh’s To The Ladies, women are expected to inherit a domestic role where they adhere to a man’s word due to a misogynistic society’s expectations. The patriarchal ideology is reflected through the demeaning, and oppressive status allocated to women, an imbalance in power, and through the blatant disregard of a woman’s intellectual capability, and worth.
The misogynistic view of women in the 17th century has resulted in women being considered subordinate to men by the Putaritarian (England) society. Thus, they were dependant on their husbands, similar to how servants relied on their “owners” for financial stability. Chudleigh identifies women as servants, to reflect the status given to them in the 17th century, “Wife and servant are the same, But only …show more content…

Chudleigh warns women of the consequence of women knowing their sense of worth, and not tolerating any detrimental prejudice. “Value your selves, and men despise,/ You must be proud, if you’ll be wise.” (Chudleigh 23- 24). Women are raised to believe that their main priority in life is to secure a husband, who is financially stable, and is able to provide for them. As a result, they are led to believe that they are the “weaker vessel” (New Testament Refrence) giving men the right to overpower them. Additionally, women are unable to reach their full potential, or escape the realm of the private sphere as they fear being isolated from society. Due to the pressure society enforces on women to be “help mates” they are forced to adopt a domestic sphere, rather than working towards reaching their full potential, and be empowered to join the public

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