Feminism : Women And Women

The mid 19th century in American history was one of changing perceptions and tides. As anti-abolitionist movements and causes grew in scope and significance, so too, did the first ideas of feminism and of women's rights. Of course, as with any social movement, there is always pushback, whether from people who are afraid of change or progress, or people that don't agree with that particular social movement.

In the 19th century, women had little control over their lives. Many of their decisions were made by men. A woman's role was cooking, cleaning, raising their children, and taking care of their husband. Women were extremely limited when it came to education, often discouraged or unavailable. During this time, women were expected to sacrifice their wants for men, maintain moral virtue, and adhere to traditional gender roles.

Women in America in the late 1800’s were treated poorly because they did not have any rights to an education or equal marriage, and they eventually started to refute back to overcome the stereotypes men gave women. Women started going to college, getting divorces, and taking stands against men for their rights. The late 1800’s for women was a life changing time. Women were fighting against what society holds of them. “At the Centennial International Exhibition in Philadelphia in 1876, there was a Women's Building that displayed items of art, crafts, and inventions by women; this represented an early achievement in the feminist struggle for suffrage and equal rights” (Manning 2013). Women were not just stay at home mothers and housewives. They represented that they can make something of themselves just as men do.

In the 19th century, a woman's place was in the home. Although a small numbers of women were attending university and creating a career for themselves. Still most women's lives were restricted to the home and the tiring physical work of maintaining a house and raising a family. Women were seen as emotional, weak and unable to make decisions.

In the late nineteenth century, America presented women with more opportunities than they had ever seen before. Before these new opportunities, women were only allowed to work in the home, doing household chores and taking care of their families. Technology was on the rise which gave women more occupations to choose from outside of their home. Appliances were manufactured for homes, making house work much easier for women. Job

During the 1800s women became more inferior to earlier times. They shifted their roles from a house wife to becoming a more important part of the family life. In the 19th century, America was going through an important change in development and war. Throughout the 19th century, women had one goal, to fight for equal rights under the law and most importantly the right to vote. Women in each ethnic group had different types of “jobs.”

Throughout the history of this country especially beginning in the 1800s with the women's suffrage movement, women have fought for equality. It is no secret that the role of men versus women have change immensely over the last century however some things have not changed. As a result of the unchanging or slowly evolution of equality feminism has arise.

During the 1800s, it was a difficult time for women to live their life as they wanted. While, men and women are treated equal in today’s society, this was not the case in previous centuries. Women couldn’t serve or obtain the same rights that men had. These women had no rights to obtain a decent job, get educated nor vote like men did. Women were denied in having the same access that men were capable of.

Women were expected to fit in society, possessing the same traits and feelings as all others during the nineteenth century . Women were expected to stay at home and tend to every need their husband and children might have. “A True Woman was known as the “Angel of the house” whose primary purpose as to impact moral guidance to her family.” (Cruea 188). They were not needed in the work field, earning wages--that was the husband’s role. “Women were forced for a variety of reasons, to be dependent upon their husbands for financial support.” (Cruea 187). In the nineteenth century, women, men, and children all had expected roles based

The women’s rights movement has been around since the beginning of the United States. Abigail Adams wrote a letter to her husband, John Adams, saying that women will not be suppressed by this nation for long, that women will eventually rise up to get the equality they deserve (“Abigail Adams Urges Husband to ‘Remember the Ladies”). Almost a century later, Elizabeth Cady Stanton became a crucial activist in the women's rights movement for both suffrage and equal rights. The First Women's Rights convention was held in New York City in 1848 where Stanton made a speech entitled, “Address on Women’s Rights” which became a famous address for women’s rights. This was Stanton’s first public speech. In this address, she confront the issues of gender equality (Address by Elizabeth Cady Stanton on Women's Rights September 1848).

The early 1900s for women weren’t perfect. They were treated as second class citizens, forced into unhappy marriages, paid way less than men and looked down upon for being independant. However, we can slowly see some baby steps towards real rights for women starting to form. We can see both women and men fighting for these rights in an effort to make the world a more equal

Feminism is the advocacy of women’s rights on the grounds of political, social and economic equality to men. In the nineteenth century, different things were expected between men and women. Men were supposed to go out and work, make money and put food on the table for the family. The women were expected to stay home, cook, clean, sew and take care of the children and a lot more homebound. The women were not allowed to vote or be seen doing anything taboo.

Early feminism was typically focused only on white women, likely because racism was still extremely prominent at the time feminism began emerging. It was not until Kimberlé Crenshaw introduced the term “intersectionality” in 1989 that feminism started to look at oppressed group’s needs (Nash, 2008, 2). Intersectionality is a way of thinking that acknowledges that when a person has identities that belong to more than one oppressed group, it impacts their quality of life more negatively. In this paper, I will argue that intersectionality is important in the discussion of feminist theories and activism because it ensures that feminism is for all women, not just a select group of them. Intersectionality has changed the way the feminist movement handles the overlapping of different identities, which has helped feminist theorists understand the experiences of women of colour much more clearly. While intersectionality has a very important role in the conversation and practice of feminism, there are certainly critiques of the concept that should be brought up. These critiques, however, can offer a way to improve the study of intersectionality.

In the late 1800’s through the early 1900’s, women were not given the rights they have today and were being mistreated, but because of a few brave women who gave up their lives to fight for what they knew was right, this all changed. Many of these women were educated and brave, but were still denied their rights. Women have suffered through this long battle to get what they knew they deserved and took time out of their lives to fight for what they believed in, which was to have a voice. Women wanted to get the same respect that men were given. The women’s suffrage movement was not only in the United States, but it was all over the world. It took the women’s suffrage movement many years to work and come through, but women were finally able to vote and have the same rights as men. Through their work in the suffrage movement, Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Susan B. Anthony and many more changed the role of women in society.

Many people are often misinformed or given bad first impressions of feminism. However, feminism is equal rights for all people of different race, sex, gender, and sexuality. Many of the people that give feminism a bad name, include a self-proclaimed feminist that is running for presidency, and meninists who are satirical equal rights activists. In reality, feminism is pro-gender equality and opportunities for all types of people.