Feminism
The feminist movement, like many other social movements in American history, has become tainted and infected by the negative opinions of those within and without the feminist circle. Stereotypes have been a significant hindrance as well as motivational factor to the feminist movement. One way in which stereotypes are interwoven with feminism is the stereotypes about women that have been held long and hard in Western culture which gave birth to the movement through necessity. Other ways in which stereotypes are strongly interlinked with feminism are the stereotypes that are held by society regarding feminist culture in specific, and the stereotypes that are held by many people that identity as feminists regarding other cultures and social groups. Additionally, specific stereotypes about women in certain social and ethnic groups, such as African-American women and Indian women, have...
Women have been viewed as the "weaker sex." Her role in life was to marry a man, carry and raise his children, and care for the home. Cooking, cleaning, child care, and pleasing her husband were the daily tasks for women, while the man of the family would be the one to work outside of the home. Women were considered to be less intelligent and less able to become educated, and women that strove for equality were considered to be anything from homewreckers, to insane, to witches. Men were strong, women were weak; a woman was nothing and could own nothing without a man to speak on her behalf. Women fought against these stereotypes throughout time, most notably starting in the nineteenth century…
