The Arguments Against Feminist During The 1800's

Women in the mid-1800s had nearly any rights they could not vote or hold office. If women were to get married their husband got all of the property he owned all her wages if she worked the husband could hit his wife long as it did not injure her. Women held many rallies and other events to try and get equal right. The Women's Rights Movement allowed women a chance to go to college and other schooling opportunities. Finally women got the same jobs as men they got paid the same they owned all of their property and wages.

Throughout the history of the world women have often been subjected to fewer rights and to a lower social class than that of men. In most societies the traditional role of the woman was the role of wife, mother, and caretaker. Women endured this type of prejudiced behavior since the dawn of time until the first women’s movements began to develop during the 1800’s in the United States and Europe. These women’s movements are often referred to as feminist movements or feminism. The development of feminism in the 1800’s was a very crucial part of history because women began the long road of gaining women’s rights with the Seneca Falls Convention, the founding of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, and the first National Women’s

In terms of having rights in the 20th century, women were very limited. They were mostly considered as housekeepers, mothers, spouses, and could not be equal to men. The main goal of this segment is to illustrate women Abolitionism. After many researches into their background, women in the early 1900 where useless in the society and to gain their equality, they went into a serious battlefield which caused a civil right movement just to meet their goals.

In American History, the 1920s was an emerging decade that consisted of the women suffrage, government corruption, and the Great Migration. Known as the “Roaring Twenties”, America would begin a series of cultural advancements for men, women, and African-Americans from the monopolies in the industry to women gaining the right to vote, Africa-Americans migrating through the states, and prohibition. Despite the fact that America was prosperous in certain areas such as woman getting the right to vote and the economy staying on track for a while, they were misleading when it came to certain events such as the oligopoly and African-Americans being treated as second class citizens with segregation being “separate but equal”.

The 19th century was an important period for women especially in Europe and North America. It was a crucial time for demand for change and women were at the forefront of it all. Viewed only as a homemaker, women found it difficult during this time to show society what they were capable of. Limitations on their capabilities created by gender stereotypes called for change. To understand the significance of the 19th century for women, one must consider the conditions women were living in that desperately needed reform, review the issues they were faced with, and look at the women leading for a much-needed change.

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.

The late 1800’s in America life for woman was not as easy or fulfilling as it is for woman in America today. Women were looked at differently than man, and were treated as such. There have been many women in our past that have helped shape who we are as women today. Many groups have contributed to women’s rights as well. Women were not allowed to do a lot of things we as women are allowed to do today. Women in the late 1800’s in America were treated indifferently because: they were refused the right to vote, they were treated differently than men, and in marriage they had separate spheres than the men.

For many years, women have not experienced the same freedoms as men. Being a woman, I am extremely grateful to those women who, many years ago, fought against social standards that were so constricting to women. Today, women can vote, own property instead of being property, live anywhere and have any career which she may choose.

In the late nineteenth century, women were beginning to take a stand for their equal rights in society. The term “new woman” was used to describe these women, openly proclaiming their independence from men. It was a woman’s way to threaten the conventional ideas of society, and to bring about their own changes (Buzwell). Following their well-known suffrage movement, women claimed their freedom sexually, physically, and in the workplace. For many years’ prior, women were expected to be the typical housewife, watching over the house, cooking, and cleaning. They were property of their husbands. During their equal rights revolution, women pursued careers like doctors or lawyers and fulfilling their sexual desires for purposes other than bearing children. As today’s society may never know the struggles and misfortunes during the Victorian era, Dracula leaves a time capsule behind to elaborate on the realities during such a prominent generation (Podonsky). Considering this given criteria, a new woman comes in a variety of forms; some women represent a stronger sexual desire while others demonstrate character traits on equality in work and education. In the case of Dracula, the two main female characters take two different forms; one blatantly sexual and one chaste (Humphrey). Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula portrays the ideas of a “new woman” in a modern society, utilizing Mina’s and Lucy’s characters to display opposite characteristics of the feminist movement which draw attention to

Did women always have the same rights and roles as men? Were they always able to live a free life? Well not really, but the women were willing to fight for it.

Since the early 1800’s women began to fight for their rights. They began to get tired of their everyday life and decided to change things up. They began with wanting to be seen as equals with the men. They wanted to work and make their own money. But most of all they wanted to vote.

Women, like black slaves, were treated unequally from the male before the nineteenth century. The role of the women played the part of their description, physically and emotionally weak, which during this time period all women did was took care of their household and husband, and followed their orders. Women were classified as the “weaker sex” or below the standards of men in the early part of the century. Soon after the decades unfolded, women gradually surfaced to breathe the air of freedom and self determination, when they were given specific freedoms such as the opportunity for an education, their voting rights, ownership of property, and being employed.

The definition of feminism is very elusive. Maybe because of its ever-changing historical meaning, it’s not for certain whether there is any coherence to the term feminism or if there is a definition that will live up to the movement’s variety of adherents and ideas. In the book “No Turning Back,” author Estelle Freedman gives an accurate four-part definition of the very active movement: “Feminism is a belief that women and men are inherently part of equal worth. Because most societies privilege men as a group, social movements are necessary to achieve equality between women and men, with the understanding that gender always intersects with other social hierarchies” (Freedman 7).

Gender roles were sharply defined in the 19th century. Women were expected to stay at home and carry out the domestic duties as well as taking care of the children and educate them and provide a peaceful home for their husband. Women were seen as loving and caring. On the other hand, men were expected to work and earn money for the family. They would fight wars and were seen as strong and powerful. Men had more freedom and rights, such as the right to vote, than women in the 19th century. Society had created two completely separate spheres. In the medical field, men were doctors. There were laws in many states, such as, that prohibited women from becoming doctors. Women, who decided to practice medicine in the 19th century had to struggle with much opposition because it went against prevailing ideas about women’s role in society. Women belonged in the private and domestic sphere. Men belonged to competitive and immoral public sphere of industry and commerce. The women in medicine would face accusations that they were abandoning their sphere and threatening society. Due to these arguments and the fear of economic competition from female practitioner, male medical schools and hospitals denied women access to institutions. However, Elizabeth Blackwell, changed this idea of separate spheres when she decided to take on the medical field and become a doctor. Although Elizabeth Black had a natural aversion to the medical field, her

"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