Women winning the right to vote, far too long after the founding of America, was of course an important 'first step' in ensuring that women become full participants in the American experiment. But understanding the subtle cultural discrimination, as manifest in John Adams' treatment of his wife, and the subsidiary complaints of Stanton, Wollstonecraft, and Woolf also demonstrate that simply passing a law is not enough to change the rights of women. Women have been treated as children, and also viewed as incapable of truly realizing their dreams because of their capacity to be mothers. This has remained unchanged in the cultural discourse and memory in a way that affects all of our perceptions, male and female, and unless we remember this, we may be too easily seduced by the achievements, however remarkable, of a few talented women who have been able to chip away at the 'glass ceiling.'
Part II
It is amazing to read Christina Hoff Sommers' essay from her book the War Against Boys and compare it with the words of past feminist advocates. Only a very short while ago, in historical time, it was assumed that women were the 'inferior sex.' Now boys are seen as fragile. We live in a competitive, ego-driven and capitalistic society that supposedly women could not participate in, because of their inherently delicate bodies and temperaments. However, as soon as women began to make some political and social gains, and when these gains not only proved the naysayers wrong, but seemed to exceed even feminists' dreams, women such as Sommers began to demand a retreat. Sommers falls prey to an evil kind of 'us vs. them' thinking. She sees men and...
Abortion Woman RightsEach day of every year, across every region of the earth, people discover they are expectant. Women of various ages, races, social classes, and educational levels are central to the spectacle that ensues after learning you are expecting. Pregnancy can be a source of great happiness; however, it may equally be a source of great dread (Kaczor,2014). Unintended pregnancies can leave women and men feeling anxious, dreadful, and
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But sometimes the victims themselves are afraid to voice their grievances in the public because speaking up entails shame, ostracization, and even extra-judicial killings. The victims can express their grievances in public "only at certain times and in certain ways" because their rights are infringed on social and cultural levels (Dewey). The fact that cultural and traditional beliefs and attitudes contribute to violations of women's rights in a systematic manner
Abortion and Woman's RightsAbstractToday, there is no one health-related subject that generates as much controversy, argument, and sometimes even hostility as abortion. When contraception fails, medical termination of pregnancy is the only way to avoid an unintended or unwanted delivery. It is, nonetheless, a topic that has sparked arguments over its morality and ethics. However, accessibility is a legal issue since it puts the fetus's rights against the mother's. It
In order to understand the position of women in Iran as far as their roles, rights and empowerment is concerned, it is significant to understand the wider picture of the prevailing condition in the Middle East and the contrast that there is in the West. These two represent different polarities in the context of culture, perspective on women, roles assigned, rights granted and the positions that women hold in these
Women The sphere of women's work had been strictly confined to the domestic realm, prior to the Industrial Revolution. Social isolation, financial dependence, and political disenfranchisement characterized the female experience prior to the twentieth century. The suffrage movement was certainly the first sign of the dismantling of the institutionalization of patriarchy, followed by universal access to education, and finally, the civil rights movement. Opportunities for women have gradually unfolded since the
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