Now We Begin Crystal Eastman Analysis

Women have been fighting the fight for women’s rights for a long time. In fact, evidence can be traced back centuries of women’s desire for equality. Specifically, women have fought for their rights in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Throughout history, women have been groomed to be the best they can domestically. To place them in the man’s position of being the sole provider of the family seems irrational at best. Although the natural gender roles may be overpowering during the start of having a family, through time duties between husband and wife, regarding domestic life, tend to balance out once financial security is established. Like many major changes, it starts out bumpy but eventually a solution is found and both husband and wife find their “happy-medium.”

Over the course of history, women have fought and struggled to gain independence and rights for themselves. Starting all the way back at the beginning of time it has seemed to be that men have always been more superior than women. This co-existing issue has made women bundle down to the bottom of the “social ladder” which refrained them from freedom. Beginning back in the early 1800’s before laws and amendments were made women had close to no rights or freedoms. As the 1800’s went on several movements and marches started to happen as change did as well.

Women’s role within the household has changed considerably over a period of time. In the later days in the United States women were to attend to the children and to the house and not do much more than that. Children are now being raised by stay at home dads instead of the stereotypical stay at home moms. According to Gardner, "Real-life families have changed considerably since 'Mr. Mom ' appeared, with more men sharing child-rearing and household chores." (Gardner 2010) This is occurring because women’s jobs are no longer labeled as being just for women. Men have gotten a lot of criticism for being stay at

For many years, women have been fighting for equal rights as men. The fight started years back, and continues to happen today. Many of the rights woman have now would not have been possible if it was not for the many women who stood up for what they believed in, and did not give up on the movement to make things right. Although, the fight for equal rights is still active, the freedom women have now compared to back in the 19th century is very different.

It took a very long time to get women’s rights close to what men’s are, but it is still not perfectly equal. In the present day, their rights are still not the same. In Abigail Adam’s letter, dated 1776, to her husband she asked him to “remember the ladies” and to not put so much power in the hands of the husbands. It wasn’t until 1920 when the 19th amendment was added to the U.S. constitution saying that that women would not be denied the right to vote. But, women are still considered even today not as athletic or as smart as men. Only recently have women been allowed to fight in the front lines. Women

Throughout history, women have been portrayed as the homemakers of most every society. Their primary role is to submit to men, care for children, and maintain a healthy and clean home.

We have progressed a lot as a society. No longer are women stuck at home cooking and taking care of children. Now, more than ever, women have the same opportunities to achieve just as much men. There are no jobs that men do that women can’t. Women can vote, play

When thinking of gender roles in society, stereotypes generally come to mind. Throughout history these stereotypes have only proven to be true. Major historical events have had a huge impact on the way men and women are seen and treated. In this way, women have always been secondary to males and seen as the fragile counterparts whose job is to take care of the household and most importantly, be loyal to her husband no matter the circumstance. Gender roles throughout history have greatly influenced society. The slow progress of woman’s rights throughout humanities led to an explosion of woman’s rights throughout the 20th century and that trend will only continue on into the rest of the 21st century.

Within a household, women and men, mothers and fathers, have different roles and responsibilities, much of which are based on the person’s gender. Typically, women or mothers are “responsible for the emotional, social, and physical well-being of her family” (Lober 80), “most of the hands-on family work” (Lorber 81), and keep up of the house. The men or fathers are usually seen as the “bread winners” of the family. Due to this and the work they do outside of the house, men usually have little to no responsibilities to the family and within the home. It is not unusual for women to clean the house, make sure the children are well taken care of, and cook while the man, or father, is at work. When he gets back home, after work, it is expected for him to relax and unwind. Although they are a couple with similar obligations, the divide of them is not equally distributed among the two and offer either one different results.

Traditional feminine gender roles that are expected of women are to be the nurturing mother in the family. They are the ones who are supposed to work full-time

In the past generations, it was the norm for the woman of the household to stay home and care for the house and children all day while her husband was at work. In some cultures this is still true to this day. Woman had the task of washing the clothes and cleaning the house, as well as preparing and cooking all of the meals for the household. They would discipline and teach the young children the skills they would need later on in their lives. But due to the current state of the American economy, more and more woman have been required to find some sort of job to help fund the household. This, along with other reasons of the same origin, have made it necessary for men to take a more hands-on approach to raising the children, as well as sharing some of the duties that were previously the wives, such as helping clean and cook.

The 1972 stereotypes described in Brady’s essay can still be seen today because is still common for men to rely on their wives when it comes to the household tasks. Even though men are more involved now in the household chores than they were in the 1960’s or 1970’s they still prefer if their wife can be the one in charge of them. Women still have it harder

“Now We Can Begin” an essay by Crystal Eastman is a very powerful essay. Eastman makes the point know in her essay that an honest and true feminist no matter where she stands in the movement she will see to the woman’s fight with strength and courage and how it  matters in the future and as well as its difference in its approach for the workers fight for industrial freedom. Eastman state “In fighting for the right to vote most women have tried to be either non-committal or thoroughly respectable on every other subject. Now they can say what they are really after; and what they are after, in common with all the rest of the struggling world, is freedom”

Society sees men and women playing their own role. We expect a woman to do things like cook, clean, and do laundry while we expect the men to work all day and earn the money that we as women spend. We are born with a specific gender, as we get older we start to