American Women In The 19th Century Essay

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I chose to write my paper about how women were/are expected to present themselves throughout the years. I am doing advice from three different time periods: the 1850s, 1870s and present day. I found this topic interesting because it gives insight into the lives of women throughout the years and shows the reader how society held them to high expectations. Male dominance was the main idea in the nineteenth century. Little girls were expected to be polite and courteous while little boys could be daring and carefree. The following passage gives a summation of the stereotypical Victorian woman: “Then humbly take what God bestows, and like his own fair flowers, look up in sunshine with a smile, and gently bend in showers” (Donnelly, 12). That summary explains that through society’s teaching women learned that they should be delicate, unquestioning, fragile, etc. Women would “bend” during the hard times, and in good times grace people with a smile What controlled women the most was the large amount of children they would bore. A feminist of the period, Margaret Fuller, described marriage as a form of slavery. She wrote “that is the very fault of marriage and of the present relation between the sexes, that the woman does belong to the man, instead of forming a whole with him” (Donnelly, 134).
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Although these expectations are still considered by society, women have learned to push them aside and become their own person. There are so many female celebrities that have given women hope to triumph these absurd social norms and become the fierce woman they are scared to show. Celebrities like Jennifer Lawrence and Angelina Jolie are great examples. Jennifer Lawrence’s main role in The Hunger Games portrayed what every woman strives to be: a strong, independent woman that will stop at nothing to complete her goal. These powerful women are great role models to girls and women all over the

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