In America, people strive for equality. Although the status of women in modern-day American society is improving, women still haven’t reached equality with men due to America having a society with a male-dominated mindset, the shaming of women, and traditional gender rules.
With a society that holds a male-dominant mindset, it becomes difficult to change the status of women for the better. People in America still hold views on how a woman should behave. Since the Puritan’s time, women have been viewed as obedient and demure. They are expected to be quiet and polite. Although women can now speak publically, there has yet to be a woman president. Women make up half the population and yet they haven’t had representation in the presidential office. Therefore they don’t have as much power to speak and make
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decisions.
Comparatively, most men have seats of power and get to create the rules. They can make rules only for one gender, such as school dress codes that target women specifically or they can try to pass laws that are unfavorable to women such as taxes on feminine hygiene products. Having men calling the shots even though the population is equally divided defines the reality that complete equality still hasn’t been reached. The status of women will not be equal in America as long as men have a larger voice in society than women.
Additionally, inequality shines through in the form of shame placed on women in American society when they break one of society’s rules. Shame as a punishment has been a tool to keep people in check since the days of Nathaniel Hawthorne. In his book, The Scarlet Letter, he tells the story of Hester Prynne. Hester must wear a scarlet letter because she’s broken a rule placed on women. In modern America, women
are still shamed, although it has become more subtle. People use derogatory names such as slut or whore to brand women rather than an actual scarlet letter. The words may be used in a joking matter, but it still stems from a culture of shaming women. There are also cases where shaming hasn’t been as subtle. For example, the huge backlash that Kim Kardashian faced after posing in a scandalous photoshoot. Kim Kardashian, like Hester Prynne, broke society’s rules and therefore faced the retributions by being continuously shamed for being sexually promiscuous. The amount of hate and ridicule she received goes to prove that America still has a society that shames women. However, America is improving in this aspect. Women like Hester take control of their punishment and shame. Kim Kardashian took ahold of her punishment by turning it into reality T.V. show where she revels in her lifestyle. Another person in media is Meghan Trainor; she’s received shame for not fitting into the picture of an ideal woman’s figure. However, she turned that shame into a hit song where she is proud of her body the way it is. With women taking a hold of their shame and flipping it into something positive, women and young girls have more role models. Therefore women are beginning to fight harder to change their status in America and rewrite it for the better. Still, having expectations and gender-roles makes it difficult to improve the status of women and that’s why the status remains unequal. America continues to place expectations on young girls about how a woman should dress or look. Models have a slim, almost unhealthy, hourglass figure. Clothing is advertised to create a slimming effect. Photoshop is used to make models even skinnier. With skinny models showing up in pictures everywhere, girls grow up with unrealistic expectations on how skinny they should be. They feel inferior and are treated less by everyone else when they don’t fit the standards. Additionally, many media sources sexualize women’s bodies and outfits. In the Miss Universe beauty pageant, an entire portion is dedicated to swimsuits. The only reason for this is to judge the contestants objectively. Young girls watching Miss Universe are bombarded with body image standards that they carry into adulthood. As adults, many women still hold the traditional roles of cooking and caring for the children in the family. A lot of America expects the woman to do maternal responsibilities such as laundry and other wifely duties while the husband is in charge and brings home the money. With a country such as America that runs deep with tradition, it becomes difficult for women to break out of what they’ve been taught and to fight for equality. Therefore the status between women and men remains unequal. The status of women in America remains unequal to men. Factors such as mindsets, shaming, and expectations prevent America from achieving equality between man and woman. When a problem such as inequality presents itself, it is important for the society as a whole to realize the issue and work together towards improving the situation. Maybe one day the status of women and men will truly be equal.
To begin with, there are many events in United States history that have shaped our general understanding of women’s involvement in economics, politics, the debates of gender and sexuality, and so forth. Women for many centuries have not been seen as a significant part of history, however under thorough analyzation of certain events, there are many women and woman-based events responsible for the progressiveness we experience in our daily lives as men, women, children, and individuals altogether. Many of these events aid people today to reflect on the treatment of current individuals today and to raise awareness to significant issues that were not resolved or acknowledged in the past.
... In conclusion, women throughout the decades have strived, from protesting to going on trials, to pointing out their rights. “Will women soon be treated equally as men?” A day when women and men having the same rights is still under way and has a far way to go as of the antebellum period. However, what makes women so unique, especially during this era, is the numerous of contributions these respectful women played a part in in order to see dramatic changes in America’s society.
In contrast, men have been seen as more dominate than women because of their masculine abilities and other traits and most importantly their profound responsibility of being the provider and head of the household. Americans constantly uses theses two distinct stereotypes that in many cases present many biases regarding gender codes in America. Things have changed over time the women are no longer just house wives taking care of the house and children waiting for their husband to come home from his nine to five occupations. Andrea L. Miller explains in her article “The Separate Spheres Model of Gendered Inequality” that, “A common theme in the study of gender is the idea that men and women belong in distinct spheres of society, with men being particularly fit for the workplace and women being particularly fit for the domestic domain” (Miller 2). Miller gives two very specific examples on how gender is viewed in American
History has changed over the course of time for women. For centuries women were perceived to be second class citizens and submissive. As time progressed women began to challenge the notion and slowly organized to achieve equality between men and women. The struggle for women’s equality during the 19th century started out terrible, but continues to improve over time. In order to understand the events that took place during the 20th century in the struggle for equality, we have to understand past events that shape the same dynamics. In the course of both centuries, includes changes in how women were represented economically, politically, and socially. Only after decades of intense political activity did women eventually win the right to vote
Ever since the women’s suffrage movement of the 1920s, there has been a push for eliminating sexism and providing equality between men and women, especially in the workplace. The United States, along with most of the world, has made great strides in gender equality since then. Women can vote, and have careers, and men are able to stay home with the children if they choose to. But are the sexes really equal now? There are three common answers to this question. Some say yes, while the most common answer is no. The debate does not end there, however. It is typically assumed gender inequality is oppressing women and limiting their rights. Regardless, there are those who say the system is harming men instead. So, if gender inequality still exists,
Society has long since considered women the lessor gender and one of the most highly debated topics in society through the years has been that of women’s equality. The debates began over the meaning between a man and woman’s morality and a woman’s rights and obligations in society. After the 19th Amendment was sanctioned around 1920, the ball started rolling on women’s suffrage. Modern times have brought about the union of these causes, but due to the differences between the genetic makeup and socio demographics, the battle over women’s equality issue still continues to exist. While men have always held the covenant role of the dominant sex, it was only since the end of the 19th century that the movement for women’s equality and the entitlement of women have become more prevalent. “The general consensus at the time was that men were more capable of dealing with the competitive work world they now found themselves thrust into. Women, it was assumed, were unable to handle the pressures outside of the home. They couldn’t vote, were discourages from working, and were excluded from politics. Their duty to society was raising moral children, passing on the values that were unjustly thrust upon them as society began to modernize” (America’s Job Exchange, 2013). Although there have been many improvements in the changes of women’s equality towards the lives of women’s freedom and rights in society, some liberals believe that women have a journey to go before they receive total equality. After WWII, women continued to progress in there crusade towards receiving equality in many areas such as pay and education, discrimination in employment, reproductive rights and later was followed by not only white women but women from other nationalities ...
American has been a country for 240 years but women have only had the right to vote for 96 of those years similarly the declaration of independence reads “...All MEN are created equal...”. Even today america has never had a female president or Vice president along with other positions in a very long, very male dominated list.
Between all the trouble in the world, women's rights still stands out. This is a very important subject all around the world and makes the woman race feel equal and needed. Women’s rights have been important since the 1800s and is still a debatable topic today. Even though they think women don't have the potential to do anything, all women should be equal and should have equal rights with men because women should have a say with what happens in this world and women can pretty much do whatever a man can do.
Since the nineteen twenties women of America have been considered equal citizens of our country, and had to work hard in order to obtain that equality in the workplace. One may reconsider the success rate of females in America, and if they really have made it as far as popular belief may have it. Of course, American women can vote, can hold office, and they can work, which is more than can be said for some countries. But do both sexes really hold equal in the workplace regarding manners of salary and respect? Does the corporate executive world really take women seriously? These are some of the arguments made by women today that do not feel that they are being treated equal in the workplace. On the other hand, those who believe women are treated equally usually reason that differences balance out in statistics, things such as majority of teachers are women, and women also have a hold on the entrepreneur side of businesses. The voices that are still screaming come from an audience who feel that women still have a long way to go before achieving a status of total equality.
Public shaming has been used throughout history as a form of punishment as early as the 1600’s in the Americas and the use of public shame still exists in our societies today, but as a shadow of its former self. In Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel The Scarlet Letter starts off in the colonies in the Massachusetts Bay in the early 1600’s with most of the colonist being Puritan which is useful to the plot when the Puritan community publicly shames Hester Prynne, the protagonist of the novel, forcing her to wear the letter “A” at all times for being an adulteress. Although public shame may lead to the generalization of specific groups, it is still warranted in our society, but they way it is condoned has changed, for example, if someone is accused of rape, they would not be required to wear the letter “R” for rape, but rather be registered as a sex offender limiting the freedom of the convict. Public shame
Women’s roles are changing in society and have improved a lot since the past. Speakers such as Michelle Obama and Hilary Clinton are bringing positive attention to this topic and making a difference. Their strong and influential voices are bringing changes and improving the standards for woman. Movements such as the suffragist movement improved how people saw women. When women stand up and demand more respect they gain more power.
It was not until the nineteenth century women’s rights movements that women were beginning to be seen as individuals with a voice that could have a real impact on the political scenes of America. The question to give women basic human rights, like being able to buy land and vote, was not even up for debate until the early reform movements. This was when women began to realize the oppression they had been under since before the American Revolution. It was during this time that women were being encouraged, if not forced, to stay at home and be the typical homemaker due to the “domestic sphere” where women were thought to belong. Through the reform movements women began to take notice of their own rights and take a stand for themselves in what
According to journal of organization culture, communication and conflict “in 1967 women earned sixty cents for a full time work, while men earned one dollar” (Hill, 31). Even though this has improved over the years we still have not reached equality. Women have been behind for centuries. For example, women were given the right to vote after men. Ever since women were created we have been one step behind men and we have been fighting to be equal. Even though society does not think women are equal, we have proven
Let’s travel back in time to about the 1700s and the 1800s, back when women had absolutely no rights as an individual and men were considered superior to women. A time where women couldn’t be anything but a housewife and do anything beside house chores, reproduce, and take care of the kids. Meanwhile, men would go out to the world and work. However, throughout the centuries, women fought for their equal rights until they finally succeeded. Back to the present day, women today outnumber men in graduating college, and in professional programs. Gender roles today took a complete twist compared to how it was back then.
Society has always given more power to men than to women. Before the 19th amendment was ratified on August 18, 1920, only men had the right to vote. Before this, women were seen as the property of either her husband or her father and not her own person. They had to follow laws they couldn’t vote for, pay taxes on property they had no rights to, and could not get a college education. They were very limited on occupations, and what jobs they could work paid very little. Because of their limited opportunities and the gender roles of that time, many ended up as housewives. They were expected to do all the housework, cooking, and care for the children. If she did something that displeased her husband, he could beat or imprison her without any legal consequences (the National Women’s History Project, 1998).