Mill's Argument For The Right For Women To Own Property

The life of a colonial woman in the 17th and 18th century was demanding at best. Women had little to no rights such as: the right to vote, the right to hold and form of public office, or the right to serve on juries. Yet, widowed or unmarried women were able to make a will, buy or sell property, act as a guardian, and had the right to sue or be sued. If a widow had no children, she received one-half interest in the personal property of her deceased husband or one-third if she had children. When a woman married, she was completely enslaved to her husband. Everything that she had once possessed herself now belong to him. This also means the children they conceived legally belonged to their father. The rights for married women dwindled down even less than unmarried women or widows. Married women could not make a will without the consent of her

Mary Wollstonecraft’s famous book, Vindication of the Rights of Women, is “one of the earliest expressions of a feminist consciousness.” Wollstonecraft claims that women are upset mainly due to the fact that they are not receiving the education they deserve, and goes on to explain how women are notorious for being weak, and mentally unstable. She blames the education system for this since all the books are written by men, and they claim that women are barley humans and are treated as another species. She questions the eligibility of men to claim they are better than women. A useful education, in her opinion, is one that teaches students how to be strong and independent. Her directed audience is anyone who is unsure of the true definition and meaning of feminism. Wollstonecraft believes that all humans are capable of the same intelligence, no matter the gender. Her overall idea is that every individual, both male and female, deserve equality.

As this essay has shown so far, there is inequality in who does what in the home but there is also inequality in decision-making; in deciding who gets what and how the family resources are shared out between them. Barrett and McIntosh note that mean usually make the most important decisions, the financial support from men is often unpredictable and they usually gain more from women’s domestic labour than they give back in return. Feminist sociologists Pahl and Vogler suggest that because of men’s higher earnings women have more financial dependence on their husbands and this is why men take more control over major decisions. Edgell agrees with this view and states that women only exert some control on less important decisions such as home décor. Finch argues that wives’ lives are generally structured around the husbands’, such as if the husband had to move for work, the wives would pick up and go with them, whereas it is unlikely that the husband would follow their wife for work.

Married women in colonial America were not entitled to their own property, were looked upon as completely dependent on their husbands, and felt the heat when it came to divorce (Document 4). According to Gettysburg College, men were seen as the “king and priest” of the household, which still holds true today in a sense. However, with time, women have gained more rights and have equal opportunities with males in the present-day United States.

In July of 1776, the Declaration of Independence was signed with the idea that all men were created equal. However, “all men” seemed to only to apply to white males, since women were not granted many of the promises articulated in the Declaration of Independence. In response, Judith Sargent Murray and Abigail Adams demanded equality through their writings, On the Equality of the Sexes and the 1776 correspondence between Abigail and John Adams. Through their writings, Murray and Adams argue for access to the promises articulated in the Declaration of Independence by using their prior education and Enlightenment ideologies in their favor.

In the mid to late 1700's, the women of the United States of America had practically no rights. When they were married, the men represented the family, and the woman could not do anything without consulting the men. Women were expected to be housewives, to raise their children, and thinking of a job in a factory was a dream that was never thought impossible. But, as years passed, women such as Susan B. Anthony, Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucy Stone, and Elizabeth Blackwell began to question why they were at home all day raising the children, and why they did not have jobs like the men. This happened between the years of 1776 and 1876, when the lives and status of Northern middle-class woman was changed forever. Women began to

Women in pre-industrialist times and states played a central role in the economic system of the community. Whereas in other places when men were involved in hunting of animals and birds, women played their role as the also gathered fruits and vegetables. This signifies the importance they had in a community. In my opinion, women play an essential role in society as much as men do. They complement men, and together they work as a system (Angela, 2011). If women are left out in community activities, the whole system collapses and fails to work appropriately hence it is imperative that they are working together for the betterment of the community. However, there have been significant changes, and women have been left behind to do less economically profitable works. They are involved in washing dishes, making beds, scrubbing floors and motherly chores that are deemed to be unprofitable. I think that women do essential jobs in homesteads and need to be paid for their work. The way that people associate home chores to be economically unproductive needs to change.

Individuals have many roles in society- mother, father, husband wife, brother, sister, employer, employee, and so much more. However, we do not see individuals doing essentially the most important role,which is an informer. In today’s society, most people either do not choose to show wrongdoings of society or decide to ignore it. Some righteous individuals decide to adjudge the social norms and show them to society. These people display conformity- complying with what is “normal” or socially acceptable, uniformity-being unvaried or the same, and centralized control- concentration of power in a group or company. Throughout the texts Fast Food Nation by Eric Schussler, Susan B. Anthony’s On Woman’s Right To Suffrage, and Malala Yousafzai's

Mill lived in an era when women were seen as a lower class than men by law and custom. They were expected to do nothing more but to marry, bear children, and give up much of their time to their families. In most cases they could not pursue a formal education, own property, vote, or even seek a divorce from an abusive husband. Women lived by having to follow the rules of their “masters,” their husbands.

John Stuart Mill is a British philosopher who argued for the emancipation of women and recognition of their legal rights. In his essay The Subjection of Women he calls for the social and legal equality for women. He writes about women having equal rights as men and implies that if women were given the same opportunities as men then they would feel as human as the rest of mankind. Women in his culture were treated differently than men, but he says that if they were treated the same then women now would probably have the same opportunities as men and it would not be seen as something that is not the social norm for women to do. With women being treated similar to men the roles and status of women would have been different in his culture as well as in ours, women would not be seen as only caretakers nor would women be seen so inferior to men because they would be seen as capable of doing many things. Also, because of the way women were treated in earlier times, it does seem possible that one may experience the sense of not "being a human being like any other".

The theorists I’ve chosen is John Stewart Mill (1806 – 1873), I’ve included his birth and death dates to show how his theories still ring clear in healthcare today. It will be his ethical theories that take us into the next millennia.

With these types of oppression of women in mind, Mill wanted to create equal rights for women and men because if there were equal rights, it would benefit society as a whole. Therefore, Mill argues that women deserve the right to divorce, legal guardianship of their children, the right to property, the right to a career, and the right to education. Mill argues that women should have the right to divorce because of the amount of times that there is an unhealthy relationship among partners, which can be abusive, unfulfilling, and unsupportive. Men were the only ones allowed to initiate divorce and laws in place, along with societal values, made it extremely hard for women to divorce their husband. If a divorce occurred between husband and wife,

Many people believe that marriage is important in this day and age, but it holds little significance compared to the importance of marriage in the Victorian era. In the Victorian era women were to get married to a man of the same or a better social status, be good wives, and be a mother to her husband's children. Very few marriages started with love, but a woman's life is not complete without being married. Over time, the role of married women has evolved a great deal and they now have rights and privileges. John Stuart Mill was one of the great thinkers of the Victorian era, and his essay The Subjection of Women tells how few privileges women had and that they were slaves to their husbands. He also says that women are their own people and

A wise man once said “Man is only great when he acts from passion.” When you hear the word passion, the first thing that might come to your mind is something related to love, and you’re not entirely wrong. According to Merriam- Webster’s dictionary, passion is defined as a strong feeling of enthusiasm or excitement for something or about doing something or a strong feeling (such as anger) that causes you to act in a dangerous way. All in all, it is a strong feeling, be it happiness, sadness, anger or liberality. You can be passionate about many things such as love, sports, food, or intimacy. However, it can also mean having a strong yearning for something.

As one of the earliest feminist writers, Mary Wollstonecraft faced a daunting audience of critics ready to dispel her cry for the rights of women. Her powerful argument calling for equality in a society dominated by men was strong, and her ideas withstood a lot of criticism to become one of the most important feminist texts. Her argument was simple and illustrates a solution to the inequality in society. The foundation of this argument is the idea of education and how independent thought is necessary to live a virtuous and moral life. In the present state of society, women are seen as inferior to men and held in a state of ignorance. The worst effect of this