The Rights of Women in 18th Century America
On July 4, 1804, a group of young men in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, offered a series of toasts to commemorate the nation's independence. Among their testimonials, they offered one to a cherished ideal:"[To] the rights of men, and the rights of women-. May the former never be infringed, nor the latter curtailed." The men acknowledged, even celebrated, an innovative and controversial idea: women along with men should be regarded as the bearers of rights. But why were women denied to bear their own rights?
"Let the defenders of male despotism answer (if they can) the Rights of Women" Just as the rights of man took on new meanings over time--meanings the American Revolutionaries had not anticipated-so, too, did the rights of woman.("An Essay On the Rights of Woman," National Magazine; (Wash., D.C.,1800) 2:206)
Women during the eighteenth century were acknowledged as nothing more than housewives, and were expected to play that particular role with a smile on their faces. Women were to "find happiness in their chimney corners" (Norton). "Women remained essentially confined to the domestic sphere" (Tindall and Shi). Women's rights were to be nonpolitical in nature, confined to the traditional feminine role of wife and mother. Where is the justice? In the Declaration of Independence, we are granted inherent liberty, yet women, small property owners, endentured servants, slaves, and minorities were not included. Since when does liberty suddenly have a different significance? Where do life, liberty, and property stand. They were granted, but if you were a woman these natural rights were unheard of. Natural rights, more than other kinds of rights, commanded assent because they wer...
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...d that "the tender breasts of ladies were not formed for political convulsion"(Jefferson). How outraging! So once again, women are not heard or even acknowledged basically. "when the crisis is over they are expected or forced to return to less functional roles", in the kitchen, and the men went back to their duties. "The tyranny of man: and the perpetuation of a "male aristocracy" oppressed women in all aspects of their lives, retaining the development of their reason, hindering the growth of their virtue, and preventing them from making a full contribution to society” (Wollstonecraft 188,326).
But not for long would they endure this treatment (Addebury). The feminist movement took place during the Civil War, women who met property qualifications exercised their right for voting and it was not until the early nineteenth century that women were denied access.
Before the Revolution, women were not allowed a voice in the political world. They almost had no rights, especially if they were married. They were granted fewer opportunities than men. Women were to stay at home care for the household and family. However, that soon began to change. When the Stamp Act was passed in 1765, it required colonist to pay a tax on every piece of printed-paper they used. Women refused to pay for the shipped items from the mother country, “The first political act of American women was to say ‘No’(Berkin 13). As from then, an uprising in issues began to unroll. Women began to seek their voice been heard and act out on problems that were uprising, such as the British Tea. As the war broke out, women’s lives changed even more. While men were in compact, they kept their families alive by managing the farms and businesses, something that they did not do before the war. As the fighting advanced, armies would rummage through towns, destroying homes and seizing food-leaving families with nothing. Women were attacked while their property was being stripped away from them; some women destroyed their own property to keep their family safe. “Women’s efforts to save the family resources were made more difficult by the demands of the military.
However, the writers of the Constitution had omitted women in that pivotal statement which left women to be denied these “unalienable” rights given to every countryman. Gaining the support of many, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the leader of the Women’s Rights Movement declared at Seneca Falls that women had the same rights as men including the right to vote and be a part of government. The Women’s Rights movement gained support due to the years of abuse women endured. For years, men had “the power to chastise and imprison his wife…” and they were tired of suffering (Doc I). The new concept of the cult of domesticity supported women’s roles in society but created greater divisions between men and women.
Since the beginning of the 17th-century and earlier, there has always been different perspectives on women 's rights. Men and women all over the world have voiced their opinion and position in regard to the rights of women. This holds especially true in the United States during the 18th and 19th century. As women campaigned for equality, there were some who opposed this idea. There was, and always will be a series of arguments on behalf of women 's rights. Anti-women 's rights activists such as Dr. John Todd and Pro-women 's rights activist Gail Hamilton argued intelligently and tactfully on the topic. There were many key arguments made against women’s rights by Dr. John Todd, and Gail Hamilton 's rebuttal was graceful and on par with her male counterpart. Let 's examine some of Dr. John 's arguments against women 's equality.
When Thomas Jefferson wrote the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence, it became one of his greatest legacies. In the first line he wrote, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal" (U.S. Constitution, paragraph 2). Jefferson wrote these words to give inspiration to future generations in the hopes that they would be able to change what he either would or could not. The word “men” in the Declaration in the early 1700 and 1800’s meant exactly that, but even then it only was true for some men, not all. Women, children, and other segments of the population such as slaves and Native Americans were clearly not included. Jefferson himself was a slave owner and held the belief that women were inferior to men. Though women played no role in the political environment, they were crucial to the development and economic success of the times. The strength, courage and work ethic of pioneer women like Martha Ballard in “A Midwife’s Tale” (Thatcher, 1990) created the very fabric of the community and wove it together so the community could thrive.
Up until and during the mid -1800’s, women were stereotyped and not given the same rights that men had. Women were not allowed to vote, speak publically, stand for office and had no influence in public affairs. They received poorer education than men did and there was not one church, except for the Quakers, that allowed women to have a say in church affairs. Women also did not have any legal rights and were not permitted to own property. Overall, people believed that a woman only belonged in the home and that the only rule she may ever obtain was over her children. However, during the pre- Civil war era, woman began to stand up for what they believed in and to change the way that people viewed society (Lerner, 1971). Two of the most famous pioneers in the women’s rights movement, as well as abolition, were two sisters from South Carolina: Sarah and Angelina Grimké.
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.
II. The American Diabetes association, containing health care professionals and staff members from all over the world, wrote an article published in September 14, 2014 describing two conditions when the body’s respond to insulin is crucial.
According to the American Diabetes Association, 28.5 million people in the United States have been diagnosed with diabetes. Out of that number, there are 215,000 children under the age of 20 with the disease. About 1 out of every 400 children and adolescents have diabetes. Diabetes is broken down into Type 1 and Type 2. Diabetes is a chronic condition that will require treatment for the lifetime of the patient. For this paper I will explain the differences between the two and focus on the treatment of Type 1.There are several different ways to manage Type 1 Diabetes. Fine needle syringe, insulin pen or insulin pump. Should the insulin pump be a required form of treatment instead of the other two options? To answer this question, the basis for the research paper will be on how well the insulin pump regulates the blood sugar over the other 2 types of treatments.
A house is not a home if no one lives there. During the nineteenth century, the same could be said about a woman concerning her role within both society and marriage. The ideology of the Cult of Domesticity, especially prevalent during the late 1800’s, emphasized the notion that a woman’s role falls within the domestic sphere and that females must act in submission to males. One of the expected jobs of a woman included bearing children, despite the fact that new mothers frequently experienced post-partum depression. If a woman were sterile, her purposefulness diminished. While the Cult of Domesticity intended to create obliging and competent wives, women frequently reported feeling trapped or imprisoned within the home and within societal expectations put forward by husbands, fathers, and brothers.
Type-1 diabetes is a life time condition which needs lifelong medication and life style changes. One of the treatments is insulin injection. The major objective of the treatment is to control the sugar level in our bloodstream and prevent any further complications. In addition to insulin, exercise and healthy diet are important. Another prospective hope is islets transplant. Islets collected from a normal issue transplanted to a type-1 diabetes patient. The cell duplicate itself and function just like any other normal cells. Islets are cells found in the pancreas. They produce the hormone insulin which helps our body to take in the glucose in our blood stream. If this research succeeds and the treatment is available to everyone, it will give relief to patients from taking insulin daily.
Women’s rights have been a concern around the World since almost forever. The biggest advances in these rights, though, happened in America. For almost two hundred years, give or take some breaks, women have been doing what they could to advance their rights. Women did more to expand their rights before and during WWII, though. They spread their message by holding protests, stepping outside of the boundaries given to them, and reaching out to other women.
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Before women can prove they too deserve the same rights as men, they must first put to rest the myths and beliefs of their status in this country. This myth of the female status in the United States, and in most other places in the world, has always been the same. It is the belief that women should be in the kitchen, taking care of the kids, and the house, amongst other beliefs. However, in today's society, this is considered ludicrous. For instance, in her essay, 'Ain't I a Woman?' Sojourner Truth delivers a powerful message and addresses the issues of women in the society. She argues that women should have equal rights, because they can do the same things as men. For example she says, ?That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place anywhere. Nobody helps me into no carriages, or over no mud puddles, or gives me any best place? (348). She, then, con...
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Another perspective is the humanistic perspective. The humanistics perspective is an approach in psychology that studies the uniqueness of humans as individuals and emphasis on humans being good. It is an approach that study humans as a whole. Humanistic psychologists examine the behavior of humans through the eyes of both the observer and and the person. Humanistic psychology is based on the idea of free will. They believe that humans behave according to how they feel. Humanistic psychologists also believe that humans have the free will to change if they want to at anytime in their live. The humanistic perspective disagrees with both the psychodynamic and behavioral perspective, because they are both deterministic. Meaning that human choice has sufficient causes. Humanistic psychology became popular during the 1970s and the 1980s through psychologists such as Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow. Humanistic perspective makes it easier for humans to understand complex situations and help make decisions. It suggest that human behavior is based on natural causes. Humanists understand the wor...