Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Women in literature
20th century women's rights movement
Gender and roles of women in literature
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Women in literature
The Independence of Women
Women have been an inspiration for many writers for centuries. They have been celebrated as symbols of beauty, affection and strength, and we usually connect them with motherhood and raising children. The works about women very often reveal not only lives of women, but they also describe the times and problems they had to face, and they provide a very clear picture about the whole society of the times when these works were created. Contrasting the modern day women to the women in Voltaire's period we can look into the past and the present and see how women's roles have changed. After centuries of conforming to female stereotypes created by men, women are slowly taking control of their own image making. Image of being equal to the men and being able to face the reality of life on their own, without men's support.
In the past the traditional concepts of what it means to be a woman were taught in the early stages of development. Parents encourage outdated roles in the way little girls are dressed, the toys they play with, and the books that are read to them. As pointed out in "X: A Fabulous Child's Story" by Lois Gould, girls were treated a distinct way. In the late 1800s, women did not play an important role in society at all. Their job was mainly to cook, clean, sew, take care of the children, and keep the house in order. They were treated as a material possession rather than a human being that could think and act for themselves and looked upon as a decorative member of the household. Women were treated just as sex objects , alive just to satisfy a mans needs and desires. They were robbed of their true identity. The male always dominated over the women and it was not viewed as "unfair." The history...
... middle of paper ...
... women and they can challenge men in every field.
Women have improved their ability to succeed in life and realized that they are not just sex objects but people who have the same right as men. Women have made an incredible appearance and play an immense role in today's society. Women are basically treated with equality today with men and the times sure have changed. In modern day society, women are very well educated and have improved in many areas. Being educated they learned that they can succeed in the working force and use laws that protect them from being discriminated against in any situation. Nonetheless in some households women are treated with no respect. They are sometimes told what to do. The only difference today is that women have their own opinions and can speak their minds. Women have become independent and they do not need men to support them.
Women have always been large part life. In fact, they are the ones that keep it going which is why some argue that women should be greatly respected. This idea has been around since the beginning of time, but unfortunately they have been treated the exact opposite and it was not up to the 1850’s that women got their rights. Before this time they were used as tools and had no say in anything important. It did not matter if they were smart or not nor did it matter if they beautiful or ugly, they were always lower than men. Voltaire uses Cunegonde, the old woman, and Paquette to show their mistreatment and the mistreatment of all women. They were raped and abused regardless of their wealth or political stance. These characters are not very complex
Before the Women’s Rights Movement women were viewed less than men in every aspect. Pre- Civil War women were viewed as the source of life but viewed less than men intellectually . In the 19th century the ideal women was submissive, her job was to be an obedient, loving wife . There were two important thing that ruled the way that women were treated. One of these was the most important out of the two during this time period this was the Cult of Domesticity, which basically said that women were supposed to do all of the domestic work in a household 3.
Women, like black slaves, were treated unequally from the male before the nineteenth century. The role of the women played the part of their description, physically and emotionally weak, which during this time period all women did was took care of their household and husband, and followed their orders. Women were classified as the “weaker sex” or below the standards of men in the early part of the century. Soon after the decades unfolded, women gradually surfaced to breathe the air of freedom and self determination, when they were given specific freedoms such as the opportunity for an education, their voting rights, ownership of property, and being employed.
It was the summer of 2012 and my family was taking another trip to Six Flags Great America. Earlier that summer we went just for me to be disappointed. At the time I wasn’t 54 inches yet and couldn’t ride any of the rides that I wanted to because they were the most popular at the amusement park. But, I hit a growth spurt between trips and we planned to ride all of the big rollercoasters. The one that I was most terrified of at the time was Raging Bull, one of the tallest, fastest, and longest steel coasters in the US. As we started to wait in line for the ride I was shaking with both anticipation and fear and began to rethink my idea to ride the rollercoaster. I decided to stay in line and see what many people thought was a great coaster.
When looking at the women in Voltaire’s “Candide”, a reader will see that this lines up exactly to the characters actions and traits. Trying to define the females of “Candide” is important because we can begin to understand the motives and reasoning behind each decision and thought that is made. These women understand that they have no real voice or power to change the world. The only way they can make an impact on the world is through the body of a man. These women may not have had the most successful or happy life, but they made the best life they could despite the hardships they had to
As women started working, patriarchal control of the family was upset (Faragher 400). Women were now bringing in income just like the men were and to them this was empowering. They now longer depended on a man to survive. Now that women were working many also wanted an education beyond high school. Women started going to college and with a better education were able to further increase the interest of the women 's rights movements (Knight 361). Despite these advances women still were not close to gaining equality to their male counterparts. However they did gain more control of the family’s well being.
The women of Voltaire’s Candide emphasize the exploitation of females in the 1800s. Cunegonde, Paquette, and the Old Woman are raped, forced into prostitution, and sexually exploited. Women are valued for their beauty and can only succeed if they have pretty face to recommend them. Women in the nineteenth century exist for the pleasure of men and are subjugated to these men.
Women, in general, were expected to be able to run their homes, taking care of their spouses and children in whatever form was needed at the time. They were looked down on as uneducated without the ability to understand the more intricate knowledge of politics and the running of businesses of any kind. They had no rights except for what they received from the graciousness of their husbands. Their opinions did not matter, in the long run and they were treated as inferior, expected to stay in their place unquestioning and unassuming.
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
society. Women’s rights and feminism did not exist. In the 1800s divorces were frowned upon and everything was given to the males.
In some ways, life for women has changed drastically. Women are allowed to join any profession as they please, no matter what kind of financial state they are in. Today, wealth is not a requirement to live as desired . Life for women has come a very long
Women were unfairly judged in the past. Throughout American history, females have been regarded as the inferior gender, always doing something wrong. For example, In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the main character, Hester, is exiled to the outskirts of her town with her daughter, Pearl. The people in Hester’s town mistakenly believed that Hester had an affair during her husband’s absence; she was actually raped. This mid-seventeenth century Boston society was automatically disgusted by the fact that Hester gave birth during her husband's absence. They wrongly accused her for not being loyal when she was actually forcefully raped. The novel describes this situation by saying, “She would become the general symbol at which the preacher and moralist might point, and in which they might vivify and embody their images of woman’s frailty and sinful passion” (Hawthorne 5.1). Men were unfairly perceived as the superior individuals and less pressure was on them. Women were seen as innately sinful and, therefore, have a tarnished image because of that. They are str...
Women's rights has come a long way from what they use to be. For example The women suffrage in North Carolina was horrible, men believed "women were not equal of men mentally" and being able to vote "would take them out of their proper sphere of life." Women didn't attend to physically hard working jobs like men, they stayed home to take care of cleaning, tending to the garden, went grocery shopping, an always made the food. She would be there when the kids got off school to give them a snack an then start preparing for dinner so her husband had food when he came home from work an the kids would have dinner an the mother would always cater to everyone else before catering to herself, then after everyone finished their meals they would give her the dishes so she could start washing them. Imagine being a woman having to do this day after day and being looked down upon by men.
Women have been humiliated in so many ways such as making their own decisions and the same equal rights as men. Women had no authority whatsoever within their family or outside of it. Their role was just to maintain the house, to take care of the children and to cook for the family. Some of them were very ‘fortunate’ to have semi suitable occupations, such as teachers, nurses, jewelry makers or office assistants. Even though their wages were very limited, they wanted to work to show somewhat their independency. In the 1800’s, women had a very rough time in society. They were not allowed to vote or voice their opinion. They had to stand by and watch men decide on their own personal rights. Men didn’t believe that women were capable of making complicated decisions and that it should be left up to the men to decide on everything. Men didn’t believe that women were intelligent enough to do anything. They thought that women were meant to be at home education their sons to be more knowledge and their daughters to be housewives. Their lives were very rough since they had no rights. It was hard for women to have any type of education since no schools would accept women students. They weren’t allowe...
A women's role has changed tremendously and is making its greatest impact in our society today. Many years ago, women's contribution to society was limited and controlled by men. Women are standing tall and are playing a major role in many important areas. Women's role has changed at an accelerating rate and have part in areas such as Politics, Professional Training Jobs, Medicine,Business and Law. Formerly they were not part of any political matter, but they have advanced in many aspects. For example, women have attained power and have been growing in political office.