Gender Inequality And The Oppression Of Women

Simone De Beauvoir sees religion as oppressive to women and used by men to control women. She argues that religion compensates women for their second class status and they get a false belief that they will be rewarded in heaven and gain equality there. All these explanations show how religion promotes social conflict and oppression in society.

Women’s rights in the seventeenth century were distinctive, “Differences of culture, nationality, and historical memory are exacerbated by distinctions of race, class, ethnicity, ability, and sexual preference” (Women’s P.6). Human women equality is important in today’s society because women challenged the notion to fight the Civil Right’s

The historical evolution of feminism is reflected in the content of Woolf's A Room of One's Own, Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex and Glaspell's Trifles. The connection of these text shows in greater detail the impacts on overlooked harassment, oppressing women by discriminating aganist them, oppressing them fundamentally and physically, causing a lack of identity among women. The diverse and complex theme of feminism and oppression throughout history is shown in all three text yet takes place in different geographic locations and time periods. A worldwide issue such as oppressing of women has been over looked for many centuries, which is why we still continue to see this problem arise. Imagine not beginning able to be the woman you were born to be, instead your defined as an “other” or property of your husband.

Throughout history women have not been given proper recognition for their insight in the field of psychology. They were simply labeled as “Other.” Simone de Beauvoir, philosopher examines the concepts of woman and in relation to the larger concepts of humanity. She concludes that women’s status is not simply a matter of definition, but a fundamental way of thinking that has political consequences. What is a Woman? This question may seem to be rudimentary, but when thought about women are the foundation for life. Women are more than their uterus, or an imperfect man. It was believed that women were made from man’s image, Adam and Eve.

"The Women's Rights Movement, 1848–1920 | US House of Representatives: History, Art & Archives." The Women's Rights Movement, 1848-1920. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Oct. 2014. <http://history.house.gov/Exhibitions-and-Publications/WIC/Historical-Essays/No-Lady/Womens-Rights/>.

De Beauvoir’s Argument In Simone de Beauvoir’s The Making of a Woman (an excerpt from her more famous work, The Second Sex), she argues that the classically “feminine” woman develops not as a consequence of choice or biology, but as a result of societal conditioning starting from a very young age. Furthermore, de Beauvoir explores the various sources of this sociological conditioning (e.g. mothers, female relatives, literature, historical texts, etc.) and explains how the concept of femininity, when compared to masculinity, paints women as the inferior gender and consequently justifies patriarchal behavior. Existentialist Component to Womanhood As Simone de Beauvoir was an existentialist, it would be inappropriate to discuss her ideas concerning femininity without examining them from an existentialist perspective.

Women have been oppressed by men since the beginning of time. It is only now that society is doing something about this and realizing the negative effects this injustice has had. The maltreatment of women affects females in their day to day lives, since long ago, and still in present day. Characters from The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton, The Awakening by Kate Chopin, and ‘Proem’ by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, will reveal how the oppression of women can affect people's lives in a negative way.

De Beauvoir stated women, the second sex, as “the other”. Women were not seen as a woman, but seen as not man. This means that women notion derived from men, “… masculine virtue is thought of as true virtue, male occupations are thought of as real work…” (p.247). Hence, the definition of women was second, inessential, and less than. Women were the objects of male subjectivity, meaning they were only sex objects, mothers, objects of the male gaze, and the things looked at. Moreover, women do not follow the “existence precedes essence” rule. Women were born free but later have been told what her identity was; hence, they did not get to choose their ambitions or live freely, thus became inauthentic. Also, if men could not understand women, they

The actions of Delilah in Judges toward Samson accurately depicts that of a woman who has woven her way into the heart of a man only to expose and exploit him for personal gain. This is, perhaps, a founding basis for Milton’s view of women as a naturally inevitable source of weakness for men. But the persona of Delilah created by Milton in Samson Agonistes as she presents an insincere, haughty, and prideful “apology” to Samson is a reflection of what can be seen as Milton’s fear of a deceptive woman in the life of a man. To put it plainly, women left unchecked by a man have potential danger that is unparalleled and it must be kept in check.

One of the main injustices towards women that Beauvoir points out is society as a whole. Beauvoir believed that “socialist development and class struggle were needed to solve society 's problems, not a women 's movement” but agreed to join the feminist cause in the 1960s (Napikoski). Whereas, Beauvoir mainly believed

Women are objectified Others. The Second Sex written by Simone de Beauvoir explores the oppression of women forced into the role of an object, while men are the subject. In the second chapter “The Girl”, de Beauvoir studies the idea of this oppression during the transition from a girl to a woman. She coins the term of the Other to explain the phenomenon of female inessentiality and persecution. The Other is an opponent of a female’s sovereignty and limits freedoms. Simone De Beauvoir expounds a girl’s transition into an inessential object to men through the motif of the Other to demonstrates women’s role during first wave feminism.

“She is defined and differentiated in relation to man and not he in relation to her; she is the inessential confronting the essential. He is the Subject, he is the Absolute-she is the Other” (502). Beauvoir’s argument throughout The Second Sex is this, that women are seen simply second creatures to “he,” essentially, men in general. At the end of the “Myths” chapter she states: “Perhaps the myth of woman will someday be extinguished; the more women assert themselves as human beings, the more the marvelous quality of the Other will die out in them. But today [in 1949] it still exists in the heart of every man” (505).

In the piece, “Woman as Other” by Simone de Beauvoir, we see the authors view on how women are perceived in our country and the harsh treatment they endure. We see the authors view on what their role really is in society and how important they truly are. We see that Simone views women as a sub-human extension of the male race and are rarely given credit to be anything else except for that. While we may disagree, there are occurrences in our country that hold us responsible for this viewpoint of women.

De Beauvoir’s “Woman as Other” lays out an elaborate argument on gender inequality; using the term “other” to establish woman’s alternate, lesser important role throughout her work, the author dissects and examines from its origin the female’s secondary position in society in contrast to man. Indeed, from the beginning of recorded history, the duality of man, by definition, positions woman at the opposing end of the spectrum in relation to her male counterpart. Even by today’s modern and accepting standards, the female suffers under the brand of being the sub-standard half of the duality equation; compared to her male opponent, women are paid lower wages, have fewer and limited expression of rights, achieve lower

Lastly, “femininity” refers to behavioural activities or interests that are assigned to the female sex, such as cleaning and cooking (Beauvoir, 617). Although many critics have read her text and become confused due to her stylistic choice to fuse her voice with the voices of famous men, it can be said that the text ultimately leads the reader to begin to question what society sees as a woman (Zerilli, 1-2). Despite Beauvoir’s The Second Sex appearing to recognize the oppression of women throughout the world without giving an actual solution, I will argue that Beauvoir’s evaluation of each “natural” aspect of female oppression allows readers to recognize that the only thing holding themselves back as a woman is society’s unnatural definition of their body, relation to men, and personal freedoms. Of course, when it comes to one's freedom, it is difficult to obtain when your body feels like a