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The development of women's rights
Essays on women's rights over the years
Essays on women's rights over the years
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In the mid to late 1800s, all black people and white women couldn’t have equal rights as white men. In the Reform Era, people who were treated unfairly started to struggle for their rights. However, opposition from white men hindered the development of reforms and made the stereotypical thinking more difficult to improve the situations. Many people, even including some women, were against both women’s suffrage and other women’s rights. Many people were against both women’s suffrage and abolition for lots of different reasons, some of which were similar and others were different.
Firstly, the arguments were against women’s suffrage and other rights. In 1848, Eliza-beth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott joined in a group of American at a world
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Anti-slavery Convention in London. However, they were not valued in the group. Female delegates were even forced to sit behind the curtain to make sure no one could see them since they are female.
As a result, the women realized that they were also dis-criminated besides slaves, they also didn’t have the rights which they should have, and started to focus to fight for their own rights. They made many efforts, however, there were still many women and men opposed that women can have the rights. At that time, some biased people thought women were just the tools to care for their fam-ilies, looking after their family had been their number one mission since they were born. Thus, there was no need for women to accept the education which was not use-ful for them at all. Furthermore, some even thought that women were different from the men. If women were not dominated by the men, they would live just like the ani-mals. Home was thought to be women’s areas while the nature is the area possessed by the men. People didn’t think that women had the abilities to think independently and make correct decisions. From where women …show more content…
stood, some conservative women grew up in this old concept and were satisfied in the current life thinking that it was already good enough so they also didn’t want to have any change. The lack of enough education for women, also made many people thought women were not qualified to own the equal rights as well-educated men were. And lacking enough education also due to the stereotype mentioned above. The main arguments made against women’s suffrage and other women’s rights are the discrimination based on gender and the tra-ditional opinion that women are born to be inferior upon them. Secondly, some arguments were against abolition in the mid-1800.
For economic rea-son, the southerners had the black slaves to plant the crops or cotton for them as well as home work; their only work force was the black slaves. They didn’t want to let any slave get the freedom, or they would not have the labors to help them work in the plantation and get their wealth. Some northern workers also opposed abolition since they were afraid that African Americans might take over their job by accepting lower pay. Intellectually speaking, white people thought that African Americans were inferi-or to whites and they could only do jobs of low prestige. That was why plantation owners wanted them to be slaves instead of servants. Black people were deprived of the rights to have some kind of education partly because whites supposed that black people were not smart enough to accept and understand such difficult questions. Some people also claimed that African Americans were not able to use their rights safely even if they had rights. The main reason is because of the discrimination based on race. Furthermore, even after the Civil War, many people still wanted to limit the African Americans’ rights to vote. Many southern states passed poll taxes, literacy tests and grandfather clauses. All three things greatly decreased the number of African Americans who were able to vote. White men didn’t want freedmen to have the nec-essary power and right. Since the population of African Americans then
was so large and if they could vote, they might easily change the white people’s expected results and hinder the dominance of white people on the political stage, especially for north-ern white people. Thus, they did their upmost to restrict African American’s rights. Also, discrimination made people think that uneducated African Americans were not able to make wise and correct choices; they might even don’t understand politics at all. African Americans were thought to only do everything with bodies rather than in-tellect. With such bias, segregation passed by Jim Crow Laws occurred around the same time. The majority of white people disliked African Americans and wanted to stay away from them or thought that African Americans couldn’t be treated equally to the white. Therefore, the restriction of the suffrage, African Americans were not able to protect their own benefits and this was exactly what the white wanted. There are similarities and differences between these two kinds of arguments. The main difference is that one kind is due to racism, and the other is due to sexism. Actually, they are both caused by the people’s thoughts of that they are superior of the other people. White people refused to let African Americans have enough rights also for many other different reasons in distinct periods. Before the Civil War, people argued against abolition for economic reasons. While after the Civil War, people opposed to make freedmen to have suffrage for political reasons, just as we mentioned above. By contrast, no one argued against the women’s suffrage or other rights owing to econo-my. Also, social status of white women was also quite different from that of African Americans. Some white women might enjoy upper-standard education since they were born in notable or wealthy families. They could learn easy things that require little intellectual abilities, like reading or music. It was pretty good even they were not allowed to learn science or math. Some even could receive respect from others if their husband is of very high prestige. However, African Americans could hardly have these rights or respect. Some white people even disgusted them, but few people hated women since in one family, women were indispensable. Thus, people opposed women mostly because of the stereotype that women were not able to think by themselves. However, before the civil war, African Americans were not even seen as American people, they were not considered to be the nationals. Naturally, white people opposed them to vote. Even after the announcement of 14th amendment, which stated “all per-sons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.” many white people still couldn’t admit this fact psychologically. From here, we can’t help to think of African American women. They had to receive discrimination not only because of their race, but also due to their gender. Their lives were further more difficult. Never-theless, in some ways, two different discriminations have some points in common. People who biased against women or African Americans all thought that they had no ability to own the enough rights. White men didn’t want to allow them to have politi-cal voice since they wanted to be dominant both in society and in political arena. Ar-guments against suffrage for both of the two groups of people originated from the ideas that they were inferior and it was natural and undisputed white men were intel-ligent so that they should invariably stand on the top. Many people argued against both women’s suffrage and abolition for lots of different reasons, some of which bear similarity and some of them are different. In history, many rights and powers were held and controlled by few people, just like white men, at first. With the development and progress of the society, people started to wake up and fight for their rights and power. The process never stops and will continue forever.
Slavery was demeaning to the victims. Slaves were declined the right to an education because reading brought visions, and visions led to dissatisfaction. Many states passed laws stating slaves didn't have a right to an education. At the beginning of the Civil War, perhaps 9/10 of the slaves were illiterate. Also, black slave’s marriages were rarely legally recognized, due to the ineluctable separation that would come at the slave auctions. Slaves didn't have the right to vote. Lastly, slaves didn't have the ability to testify in court. This is shown in a petition by Arthur Lee Freemen. Freemen begs the General Assembly of Virginia (audience) to let him stay in the same state with his wife and four children. He doesn't want to seek a new living in a new country away from his wife and kids. Freemen’s petition most likely was ignored by the General Assembly of Virginia, because slaves weren't able to testify in court. Virginia’s General assembly wanted to kick out Freemen because he was a free black, and free blacks were physical examples of what could be accomplished by emancipation and hence were begrudged and abominated by supporters of the slave system. Free blacks were still enchained to slavery because even after they established their lives, they were forced to move to other states due to slavery. The former slave owners still saw the free black as a slave,
The ex-slaves after the Civil War didn’t have a place to settle or money. They had no skills other than farming to procure jobs, so they couldn’t earn money. Freedmen’s Bureau provided shelter, resources, education, and taught necessary skills to get jobs (Jordan 386). Though the issue of slavery was solved, racism continues and Southerners that stayed after the war passed Black Codes which subverted the ideas of freedom including the actions of state legislatures (Hakim 19). Black Codes were a set of laws that discriminated against blacks and limited their freedom (Jordan 388).
Women have had it rough throughout history. Their declining position in the world started during the Neolithic revolution, into Rome, and past the Renaissance. However, at the turn of the twentieth century, women began advocating for equality no matter their governmental situation. This promotion of women's rights is evident in communist nations during the twentieth century and their fight against hundreds of years of discrimination. It can be seen that women were brainwashed into believing that their rights were equal with the male population through the use of propaganda, yet this need for liberation continued despite government inadequacy at providing these simple rights. Women in communist countries struggled for rights in the twentieth
The laws of the nation were degrading to the freedom and rights of the women in the land. The makers of the laws were all men who believed that women had no place in the
During the time of reconstruction, the 13th amendment abolished slavery. As the Nation was attempting to pick up their broken pieces and mend the brokenness of the states, former slaves were getting the opportunity to start their new, free lives. This however, created tension between the Northerners and the Southerners once again. The Southerners hated the fact that their slaves were being freed and did not belong to them anymore. The plantations were suffering without the slaves laboring and the owners were running out of solutions. This created tension between the Southern planation owners and the now freed African Americans. There were many laws throughout the North and the South that were made purposely to discriminate the African Americans.
The thought of women having equal rights has caused major controversy throughout American History. Women have fought for their rights for many years, wanting to be more than a wife or a maid. Women’s Rights Movement was an effort by many women around the U.S standing up for themselves. Feminists like Charlotte Perkins Gilman had a big impact on the movement by writing stories and articles, she spread awareness by writing these. Throughout this Movement women got the right to vote, and many more opportunities they were not offered before.
First, after emancipation, federal laws revived slavery into new form. After slaves were freed during post- civil war, the whites especially those in the south faced problems in running their plantations; since there was no free labor force from slaves, and also some whites who had never owned slaves saw the African Americans as undesirable competition. I think the laws enforcements eventually became the method through which slavery of blacks take its new form. Under these new laws, a lot of African Americans were arrested with no reason and were given harsh fines and later they were charged with the costs of own arrests. This is because majority of the Africans were poor and good number of them who were arrested could not afford to pay fines. With no means to pay fines most of the prisoners accumulated debts as a result they were sold a forced labor to industries and farm
“Honey, you’re not a person, now get back in the kitchen and make me a sandwich!” If a husband were to say these words to his wife today, he would likely receive a well-deserved smack to the face. It is not until recently that Canadian women have received their status as people and obtained equal rights as men. Women were excluded from an academic education and received a lesser pay than their male counter parts. With the many hardships women had to face, women were considered the “slave of slaves” (Women’s Rights). In the past century, women have fought for their rights, transitioning women from the point of being a piece of property to “holding twenty-five percent of senior positions in Canada” (More women in top senior positions: Report). The Married Women’s Property Act, World War I, The Person’s Case, and Canadian Human Rights Act have gained Canadian women their rights.
The Southern blacks didn't have many rights. They lived separated from one another. They either were kidnapped or sold off by there own race and sometimes traded in for tobacco and sugar. For the South it was vital to have slaves for the economy. The development of the cotton gin and the westward expansion, brought more slaves coming in. Our own founding fathers had slaves. Thomas Jefferson wrote, "all men are created equal," but died leaving his blacks in slavery. Sometimes relationships between master and slave evolved like Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings. Usually women would work in the house, which led to sexual abuse by the owner and relationships.
It was not until after abolitionist groups formed and began fighting slavery that women began to realize they had no rights themselves and began their own fight; therefore, the women’s rights movements of the nineteenth century emerged out of abolition activism. Without the sense of gendered ethical power that abolition provided women, any sort of activism either would never have occurred, or would have simply died out. The women’s rights movement was a way for women to seek remedy of industrialization; frustration over lack of power that lead to the call for women’s rights. Without the radical activists for abolition, like the Grimké sisters advocating for equality, a standard would never have been set and no real progress would have ever been made.
All African Americans thought with the creation of civil rights, they would be free to do what all Americans could do. In the context of civil rights, emancipation means to be free from slavery. The process took much longer than they expected. Many fled to the North to gain their freedom, which was rightfully theirs. Legal slavery was removed from the North, but the population of slaves between the first emancipation and the end of the Civil war doubled, from roughly 1.8 million in 1827 to over four million in 1865. It was very difficult for southern farmers and those who owned slaves to immediately give up a lifestyle they were accustomed to and remove their slaves. White southerners viewed African Americans as their workers. They have lived with this mindset for so long, causing their transition to be challenging compared to the transition of the slaves in the north.
Throughout the history of our world, there have been dozens of revolutionary wars. Although these wars were revolved around different people and different issues; most of them were caused by one group taking away another’s liberties. We see this in the American Revolution which was caused by the British not respecting the colonists’ natural rights. In order to prevent their new nation from following in the footsteps of Britain, they defined liberty as having the ability to make political decisions based on your place in society. By looking at certain historical documents we see the men in the society had the most freedom, while women and slaves were unable to voice their opinions.
After the Civil War, slavery was abolished and any man owning a slave was required to let them free and view them as an equal. This was a difficult thing to do and eventually led to a downfall and destroyed economy in the southern United States. Abolishing slavery hurt the country economically and socially at the time and slavery was socially acceptable. For example, abolishing slavery in the United States was unfair towards the South.
Women have always been fighting for their rights for voting, the right to have an abortion, equal pay as men, being able to joined the armed forces just to name a few. The most notable women’s rights movement was headed in Seneca Falls, New York. The movement came to be known as the Seneca Falls convention and it was lead by women’s rights activist Elizabeth Cady Stanton during July 19th and 20th in 1848. Stanton created this convention in New York because of a visit from Lucretia Mott from Boston. Mott was a Quaker who was an excellent public speaker, abolitionist and social reformer. She was a proponent of women’s rights. The meeting lasted for only two days and was compiled of six sessions, which included lectures on law, humorous presentations and discussions concerning women’s role in society. The convention was organized by a mostly radical group of Quakers while ironically their leader Elizabeth Cady Stanton was a non-Quaker skeptic. Stanton and her Quaker followers presented a document entitled the Declaration of Sentiments to the convention, which was accompanied by a list of resolutions that were to be debated by the members of the convention before it was signed. One hundred of the three hundred attendees of the Seneca Falls Convention signed the Declaration of Sentiments. The Seneca Falls Convention was merely a single step in the right direction for the women’s rights movement; it was seen as a revolution in which women were fighting desperately for equality to their male counterparts. The Declaration of Sentiments became a staple document in the women’s suffrage, as it was the first time that men and women came together to demand women’s right to vote. Women’s suffrage gained national attention due to the conventio...
Many women have contributed to supporting women 's rights, leaving their mark on history. Four women will be discussed, describing their work and events that incorporate the campaign that each woman supported or lead.