Secrets Of The New Woman Essay

"Women on the Edge of Time" by Marge Piercy, is a novel that illustrates some problems of today’s society and compares them to a possible future time. The other world that is presented in the book is called Mattapoisett. Mattapoisett is described as an utopian science fiction place because is much different from the place that Connie lived. Even thought Mattapoisett might be the world that Connie’s culture needed it is not a perfect world. Some of the problems that Marge Piercy presents in the book are poverty, women’s role, and problems of government, the environment, and prejudices that our society is facing today. However, how is the society different from the two cultures presented in the book? Connie, the

Frances Ellen Walker Harper published a wealth of short stories, poetry, essays, and novels in the middle to late 1800s. She was born into a politically active, free black family, attended her uncle’s school, and became the first female teacher at the Union Seminary. Harper’s unusually comfortable class-status and extensive education allowed her to become a skilled writer on topics that interested her, such as politics, civil rights, feminism, and religion. Harper used her skill and passion to become economically and emotionally independent. In fact, much of her work echoes her identity as a middle class woman of color who supported herself through writing. However, this nature of independence was unusual for a woman in the 1800s, especially a black woman. Though Harper’s portrayal of strong, independent womanhood is a much needed depiction of women, Harper is unqualified to establish expectations for black women in the 1800s.

In Southern American history, the focus tends to remain on events that occurred from white, male citizens and politicians. These events, whether it is the civil war, the reconstruction period, World War I, or other well-known American historical events, white males are mainly centered around the story. Due to this narrow focus, the other genders and races that were affected or affiliated with these events are often neglected. Historian Glenda Gilmore stated “Revisioning southern politics must take into account the plethora of new sources on African American and women’s history, grapple with the theoretical insight that gender and race are socially constructed, and test new ideas about the junctures of public and private space in political culture” (Gilmore, p.xvi). In other words, the southern political history should not revolve around one group or source. Instead, this history needs to display other information or insight about the other groups, in this case African Americans, to gather a well-rounded perspective of southern political culture. Tera Hunter’s “To ‘Joy My Freedom” answers Gilmore’s call by giving a voice to African Americans, especially African American women, by displaying the social construction of race and gender, as well as the showcasing the difficulties that southern political culture put on these women.

After the American Revolution, the colonies are now combined together and they must create a government that will satisfy the nation’s needs. This leads to the beginning of republicanism, where people are sovereign. However, the laws that were created after the revolution discriminated against several groups of people and this included women. Many women played a huge role in constructing the new nation but they were legally dead in the eyes of the law. Hence, the American Revolution was least revolutionary for women.

Many women have experienced discrimination due to their gender. Society views women as inferior beings that cannot achieve greatness. Furthermore, women have acquired a set of rules and expectations to meet within their role in society. In the 1850 romance novel, The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne depicts the beauty and strength of women. Despite society’s strict views of gender roles, women can convert society’s oppression into freedom due to the qualities they possess, which surpass society’s assumed capabilities of them.

Linda Brent shares the recount of her life in slavery in first person. She begins her autobiography with this forward statement, “Reader, be assured this narrative is no fiction… I have not exaggerated the wrongs inflicted by Slavery; on the contrary, my descriptions fall far short of the facts.” Brent directly speaks to her readers telling them to “be assured” by doing this she asserts herself as a real and confident narrator. Although Brent is taking control of her readers, she also creates an intimate bond by directly addressing them. By creating a realistic narrator, she lowers the likelihood of the readers to instinctively interpret her story as implausible or debauched. It is well known that the white women of the 1800’s were often very

housewife, to stay at home. This is my explanation of the essay, "The Cult of

Sojourner Truth’s words in her speech, “Ain’t I a Woman?” served as an anthem for women everywhere during her time. Truth struggled with not only racial injustice but also gender inequality that made her less than a person, and second to men in society. In her speech, she warned men of “the upside down” world against the power of women where “together, [women] ought to be able to turn it back, and get it right side up again!” Today, America proudly stands thinking that Truth’s uneasiness of gender inequality was put to rest. Oppression for women, however, continues to exist American literature has successfully captured and exposed shifts in attitude towards women and their roles throughout American history.

Women have pushed forward in the struggle for equality. Today women are staples in the professional world. More women are attending college than men as proved in recent studies. Women have outnumbered men on college campuses since 1979, and on graduate school campuses since 1984. More American women than men have received bachelor's degrees every year since 1982. Even here on Haverford's campus, the Admissions Office received more applications from women for early decision candidacy than men for the eighth straight year. The wage gap is slowly decreasing and the fight for proper day care services along with insurance coverage for birth control pills are passionate issues for women across America.

Annette Bair and Marilyn Friedman have opposing views on whether women have distinct moral perspectives. Like Friedman, I believe that women have no different moral perspectives than men. Some people, like Bair, think that women base their moral perspectives on merely trust and love and men base theirs on justice. Friedman points out that care and justice coincide . People use justice to decide what is appropriate in caring relationships and care is brought into account when determining what is just. Since these two moral perspectives correspond, gender does not distinguish different moral perspectives.

In the Joseph Conrad’s novel, Heart of Darkness, Marlow, the main character, shows his opinion of women in a well masked, descriptive manner. Although women are not given a large speaking role ,the readers still feel their presence throughout the novel. In the scene at the Central Station, the description of the symbols in the painting,the blindfold, the torch, and the darkness, allow the readers to see the darkness in the world and the thought that women should not be exposed to that darkness. Marlow believe that women are too fragile to know the truth and should instead be left in their beautiful, untouched world.

The textbook identifies four approaches to gender development: biological, interpersonal, cultural, and critical. Define each theory. Then answer the following question: which of the theoretical approaches to gender do you find the most valid? Be sure to include at least two examples from your own experience as well as two scholarly sources to back up your claim.

"People who are liberal thinkers have been enslaved by these poseurs, these racketeers, people who are pretending to be liberal but who are in fact just naïve politically. I have been congratulated by women...who are so sick of being bullied by these sanctimonious puritans who call themselves feminists." --Camille Paglia

Women have found power in a variety of ways though out history in their struggle towards justice and equality. Though personal power can take many forms this paper will primarily focus on power found through gender solidarity, class issues, race or sexuality. I intend to examine the ways in which three different women, of different races and times in history, were able to find such power resulting in a positive change to either their own lives or the lives of others. Those women are: Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Eleanor Roosevelt and Melba Beals.

Woman’s studies is an interdisciplinary academic field devoted to topics concerning women, gender and feminism; exploring our gender existence, how we perform femininity and masculinity and how this interacts with other aspects of our identities, such as race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status and sexuality. Women’s studies emerged in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s as a concerned women being misrepresentation and trivialization in the higher education curriculum and as well as being excluded from many positions of power authority as colleges faculty and administrators. An example from the “ Women’s Voices /Feminist Vision” book written by Susan M.Shaw Janet lee was “the entire course in English or American literature to include not one