A equitable quote from William Lloyd Garrison says, “Wherever there is a human being, I see God-given rights inherent in that being, whatever may be the sex or complexion.” The abolition and women's right’s movement in the late 1800’s is often described as a moral crusade that fought for equality before the law without distinction of sex and color. The efforts from the range of moderates to radicals made compromise with defenders of slavery and women’s suffrage exceptionally difficult. The fight for women’s rights in the late 1800’s is characterized in the transcendental philosophy and conveys a improvement on American politics, society, and economics, both with successes and failures; however, the fight still continues to present day. During …show more content…
the same time period, the idea of transcendentalism was arising as a huge philosophy. The transcendental philosophy is the power of the individual and emphasizes the role of nature in the reflection of human behavior. The women of these time period were trying to rise above the stereotypical idea of men being dominant over them which suggests the power of the individual. The empowerment of these women portrays confidence, free thoughts, and self reliance. A quote from a transcendentalist, Henry David Thoreau explains,“Live your beliefs and you can turn the world around.” Because of the confidence in these women’s beliefs and free thoughts, a lavishness of feminists rolled over their beliefs of women empowerment over to abolition which turned the world around. Feminists felt for the African Americans of this period because both were experiencing similar discriminations which led them to not only want equality for women, but for African Americans too. American society in the late 19th century was very rural and due to Industrialization, economic and societal changes took place. Population shifts and demographic inequalities impacted the development of women’s reforms. Because of these shifts and inequalities, it triggered women’s rights reformers, especially those who were anti-slavery. Women resented how men saw them as secondary roles to society, so they presented their arguments clearly. Though women were standing up for themselves to be leaders outside of the home, society see women as a moral leader in households. Moreover, women cleaned and took charge of the household; therefore, this idea was led to be called the cult of domesticity which was a failure for women culturally. To this day, women still receive the stereotype of being a housewife or a stay at home mom. The cult of domesticity caused irrational behavior from women to promote changes to society through political and societal reforms. Two sisters named Sarah and Angeline Grimke were leading feminists of this time period and met in Seneca Falls, New York for a convention called the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848. The feminist issued a document modeled after the “Declaration of Independence” called the “Declaration of Sentiments”. It declared that all men and women were equal. It listed grievances against laws and customs that discriminate them. Politically, feminists such as Emily Stanton and Susan B. Anthony colossally wanted to influence the idea of equal voting, legal, and property rights through this document. These women’s efforts led to an American political change such as gaining property rights and to to the passing of the 19th amendment that gave women the right to vote. It led to a positive impact and a success for women, because it assembled more confidence and showed white men of the period their dedication. Though the writing of the document was a success for these women, women’s rights was pushed over due to the crisis of slavery. However, organizations sprung up such as The National Women Suffrage Association and the American Women Suffrage Association that created great efforts and promoted suffrage for women. The organization's caused a positive impact on American society, because women saw their efforts as significant, and a few of the population did as well. The number may have been small, but every person counts for the fight. Successes women gain from their efforts are the capability of attending college and looking into the same professions as men which was a huge influence on society. Women wanted to step away from being in the home, and create a better lifestyle for themselves and family. Therefore, they branch out of the home and begin working like men do. Economically, women had and still have a hard time earning the same amount of pay as men while working. Women tried to push for an improved economy which they successfully did by receiving better pay eventually, being able to uphold a contract, and create better opportunities with money. They failed to receive the same amount of pay which is still a huge dispute in present day. In 2016, women continue to get discrimination from men in developed and undeveloped countries.
In the majority of undeveloped countries, women are still married off to whoever a higher authority chooses, must stay in the home to clean, and do not have the same amount of legal rights such as voting. It is true that until there is more of an economic development within these least developed countries, women’s rights will expand naturally. In the United States, a developed country, women still do not get the same amount of pay or social standard as men do. For instance, the United States just elected a president that sees women more so as objects than human beings. Therefore, people are going to watch this man and be influenced by the words of disrespect to women and believe it is fair to treat women this way. In society, women are shamed for trying to express themselves. The shaming leads to men being violent with women which can take a turn into rape. Nine out of 10 victims of rape in the United States are women. In conclusion, women have successfully improved their rights as individuals, but have not conquered their rights. In order to conquer their rights and be completely equal, people all around the world that are advocates for women’s rights need to stand up. People must do everything in their power to stand up against their governments. Men and women can do so by being involved with organizations that promote women’s suffrage and create a huge impact on children, men, and
women. Women, to this day, are still inferior to men. Although, by the social, economic, and political reforms in the late 19th century, women improved their rights as an individual. They created power within themselves which correlates with the transcendental philosophy. The world should not see women superior to men, but equal. Due to the women’s efforts, genders are slowly not being seen in black and white, but a mixture of color and people should embrace it.
In the Women’s Rights Convention of 1851, Truth repeatedly equates her worth to that of a man by her physical and intellectual abilities. Some of Truth’s statements at this convention include: “I have as much muscle as any man, and can do as much work as any man. I can carry as much as any mean, and I can eat as much too”. These statements highlight the fact that women were thought to have less physical and intellectual ability than men, and as such were afforded fewer rights. By recurrently equating herself to men in all of these arenas, Truth displayed the commonalities between men and women. Furthermore, Truth’s views came from the stance of a former African American slave, who were not. In this speech, Truth paralleled herself, a black woman, to have the same abilities as a white man, thereby attempting to change her audience’s view of the current existing American capitalist patriarchal structure that put white men at the top and women of color at the bottom of the
In the beginning of the 1840s and into the 1850s, a rather modest women’s reform was in the process. This group was full of visionaries that began a movement that would soon lobby in change and this movement was the groundwork of equality for women and their right to vote within in the United States. Despite their efforts this movement required a length of seventy years to establish this necessarily equality and the right for all women to vote along the side of men. According to the CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS FOUNDATION “After male organizers excluded women from attending an anti-slavery conference, American abolitionists Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott decided to call the “First Woman’s Rights Convention.” Held over several days in
Although men are definitely crucial to fixing the problem, “the young [women] are prominent in most revolutions” (Evans 165-166). It is very important for women to stand up for equality through their actions not just their words. That means pushing back on the expectations some men put on them and proving they are just as independent and capable as men. It is equally important for men to be advocates for gender equality because change will not happen if we do not keep our minds open. Women can protect as many times as they wish but if men do not acknowledge their actions, equality is impossible to achieve. It is difficult to understand why people discriminate based on gender because we’re all the same, we’re all human, gender does not define who you are or what you are capable of doing. Once every man comes to that realization, we will all be equal and there will be no gender roles or standards. In Emma Watson’s HeForShe campaign speech at the United Nations, she explains the importance of involving men in the movement because “gender equality is [their] issue too” (Watson). She believes if men do not have to be aggressive in order to be accepted, women will not feel compelled to be submissive in compliance. Many problems related to gender inequality impacting women specifically are caused by the social standards placed on men so involving men in the movement is unquestionably important, as Watson emphasizes in her entire
Every citizen of the United State was grant the right to vote since their birth in the United State or when they passed
Women’s participation in school or the workplace are negatively affected because of the fear of violence, and many long-term health consequences arise from physical and sexual abuse. Heartbreakingly, a woman in South Africa has a “greater chance of being raped than she has of learning to read” (Tracy 6). In the patriarchal society of China, infants or fetuses face death simply for being born female (Tracy 18). After reading the reported incidences of violence against women, it is nothing but frustrating to hear women not supporting feminism. They do not need feminism because they represent a victory for this movement with the freedom to work alongside men, attend school, and choose their life partners. However, as shown in International Violence Against Women, there are many women and girls begging for a change. This population is the next victory for
The entire Women’s Movement in the United States has been quite extensive. It can be traced back to 1848, when the first women’s rights convention was held in Seneca Falls, New York. After two days of discussions, 100 men and women signed the Declaration of Sentiments. Drafted by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, this document called for equal treatment of women and men under the law and voting rights for women. This gathering set the agenda for the rest of the Women’s Movement long ago (Imbornoni). Over the next 100 years, many women played a part in supporting equal treatment for women, most notably leading to the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, which allowed women the right to vote.
Through the history, women have always fought for their rights creating a new space for their participation as citizens. After the First World War during the 1920s and 1930s new histories of women suffragettes have been written. During that period of time some activist groups were created, for instance, the Edwardian women’s suffrage movement that created in women a ‘Suffragette Spirit’ with the same goals and purposes even with the same militant procedures such as radical feminism that involved hunger strike and forcible feeding. This argument have become controversial due to different points of view in recent years. Another samples are the formation of the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU), a group led by Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst under an autocratic system; Women’s Freedom League (WFL), a self-proclaimed militant organization and National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS). These groups were formed in Britain giving way to creation of some texts that explain the actions of the feminist groups and were the basis to achieve the right of suffragettes. Furthermore, the author of this article talks about a second narrative published in 1914 by Constance Lytton that explain about her own experiences in a militant period and personal sacrifice in an attempt to vote. Finally, her experience of militancy had become the archetype of suffrage militancy. In addition, she became in a feminist and kept touch with important members of the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU). According to Lytton (cited in Mayhall, 1995: 326) She said that whilst she felt sympathy towards men, children and even animals – those that she said were ‘down-trodden’ – she had completely ‘been blind to the particular sufferings ...
Women in many societies have fought for obtaining their equal right to men for a long time, and the society where I’ve inhabited for 20 years are involved as well. It has been very tough circumstances for women to struggle since the society has been shaped by history how a woman should live and behave. Women were continuing to be oppressed and limited based on gender and class as they are regarded as inferior to men physically and mentally. This connection between class and gender of women still remain in this society even though many women got equal right as
As a result of the need to fight for women’s rights and freedom, two women’s organizations called the National Woman’s Party (NWP), which is also known as the Woman’s Party, and National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) emerged. Lobbyist Anne Martin of Nevada was the first chairman of the National Woman’s Party. Equal Rights Association The National American Woman Suffrage Association was created in response to a split in the American over whether to support the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, (Eisenberg and Ruthsdotter, 1998). This Association, led by Lucy Burns and Alice Paul, was to put pressure on Congress to pass an amendment to the U.S. In the 1930s, the National Woman’s Party fought successfully for
The struggle for equal rights has been an ongoing issue in the United States. For most of the twentieth century Americans worked toward equality. Through demonstrations, protests, riots, and parades citizens have made demands and voiced their concerns for equal rights. For the first time minority groups were banding together to achieve the American dream of liberty and justice for all. Whether it was equality for women, politics, minorities, or the economy the battle was usually well worth the outcome. I have chosen articles that discuss some of the struggles, voyages, and triumphs that have occurred. The people discussed in the following articles represent only a portion of those who suffered.
There were many social developments that influenced American society. For example, in the late nineteenth and early twentieths there was the women suffrage movement and mass media. Because of the women suffrage women got the right to vote, men start to see women as equals, and women finally had a voice of their own. With mass media, people got fast information from radios, TVs, newspapers. People were noted about what was going on in society. Without mass media people around the world wouldn’t know about things like the women’s suffrage movement. We went from women being treated as irrelevant to women being important in politics, and from little communication to worldwide connections.
Social movements refer to informal groups of people who focus on either political or social issues. The goal of the social movement is to change things in society, to refuse to go along with the norm, and to undo a social change. For example, the Women’s Rights Movement that began in the 1840s was geared towards getting women more equality in relation to political, social, and economic status in society (Foner). Along with this, women gained a louder voice to speak out about what they wanted to change and implemented the change. Prior to the Women’s Rights Movement, women were often timid, compliant, obedient, and mistreated. After the 1920s, a movement towards more equality was shifted in society views, however not all were convinced or changed by the new ideas of women. Although women began to get increased rights, the typical gender roles, which they were expected to follow did not loosely lesson. Women still found themselves doing the same gender roles, house roles, and family roles even after the 1920s. It was not until the 1960s when the Feminist movement began (Foner). The literary piece is “Why I Want a Wife” by Judy Brady and the goal of the Feminist Movement was to create new meanings and realities for women in terms of education, empowerment, occupation, sexual identity, art, and societal roles. In short, the Feminist Movement was aimed to gain women freedom, equal opportunity and be in control over their own life.
...action with others… especially men. This supplies final substantiation of the authors' argument, that women continue to be oppressed by their male-dominated societies. It is a bold undertaking for women to ally and promote a world movement to abandon sexist traditions. Although I have never lived in a third world or non-Westernized country, I have studied the conditions women suffer as "inferior" to men. In National Geographic and various courses I have taken, these terrible conditions are depicted in full color. Gender inequality is a terrible trait of our global society, and unfortunately, a trait that might not be ready to change. In America we see gender bias towards women in voters' unwillingness to elect more females into high office, and while this is not nearly as severe as the rest of the world, it indicates the lingering practice of gender inequality.
A growing population of women’s activists can be attributed to the growing number of courses being offered and information available. Only a few decades ago this would not have been heard of. It is due to the increasing amount of awareness on the topic of women’s status as second class citizens that activism has increased. Through various media, we have learned of topics such as the “glass ceiling”, the working conditions of women in Third World countries, the current injustices against women being carried out in the First World, reproductive rights, as written about by Angle Davis, and other limitations imposed on women.
Throughout history, there have been constant power struggles between men and women, placing the male population at a higher position than the female. Therefore, in this patriarchal system women have always been discriminated against simply due to the fact that they are women. Their rights to vote, to be educated and essentially being treated equally with men was taken away from them and they were viewed as weak members of society whose successes depend on men. However, this has not prevented them from fighting for what they believe in and the rights they are entitled to. On the contrary, it has motivated them to try even harder and gain these basic societal rights through determination and unity.