The Role Of Women During The Last Few Decades Based On Traditional Taboos

The fight against sexism is not a new fight. Women have been fighting for equal rights, as well as fighting for their lives, culture, and values to be just as important as men's. On August 18, 1920, women were granted the right to vote; but this was only the beginning. From then to now, the role of women in society has significantly changed due to women standing up for their rights at protests and rallies, as well as on social media. While “The Good Wife’s Guide” focused on the promotion of the traditional gender role of women and defined appropriate emotions for women, “The Revolt of ‘Mother,’” by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, represents the start of the resistance of the traditional gender role of women that we see in society today.

Judith Sargent Murray’s On the Equality of the Sexes reveals the struggles women had in the 17th-18th centuries when it came to equal education opportunities. Women were expected to become people of domestication while men had many opportunities to expand their minds and be ambitious, and be leaders. Women were expected to focus on taking care of their family, not to have minds of their own. They wanted change.

Encouragement can only get one so far, and without the ability to attend the same colleges men do, Fuller was still left at a disadvantage. It is for these reasons that Fuller pursued the equal rights of women. She experienced firsthand the benefits of education, as well as her inability to further her education in the same way as men.

Lastly, the South Indian culture restrains the women as they are not allowed to divulge in community matters and are supposed to follow a set code of rules in order for them to seem respectable citizens who honour various caste systems and ways of discovering fate. With already existing castes, there are strict rules and expectations that each caste must uphold in the South Indian culture that exists as the caste system is a pre-historic dividing system that enables peace to flourish with the least amount of violence as possible. For instance, in Hindu culture, there is a traditional caste system comprised of 4 main castes (“India- Language, Culture, Customs and Etiquette”) that creates hierarchical relationships (“India- Language,

In early America, women were expected to take care of the household and of the children. However, writers such as Anne Bradstreet and Judith Sargent Murray wanted to emphasize the importance of education for women. The two texts by these authors that will be discussed are the poem, “The Prologue” by Anne Bradstreet and the essay, “Desultory Thoughts upon the Utility of Encouraging a Degree of Self-Contemplacency, especially in Female Bosoms,” By Judith Sargent Murray. A theme seen prominently throughout both texts is fairer treatment of women through education. Although both women do believe in opportunity for women in education, Bradstreet focuses more on the idea that women should have more acceptance in the intellectual world by men while Murray however, emphasizes the importance of women to be raised properly which resulted in them understanding their self-worth.

Education reformers sought to expand equality by increasing educated people. Not only were poor children able to attend school instead of working in factories, but the deaf, mute, and blind could now be taught. Men such as Thomas Gallaudet and Dr. Howe sought to create new methods for the disabled to read and write. Education for everyone greatly increased the sense of equality among lower class citizens. Document E gives an example of a little boy who is content with what he has since he works hard and goes to school. He doesn’t feel disadvantaged by being poor. Equality improved the moral of many Americans.

In 1845, the Godey’s Lady’s Book published an article titled “maternal instruction”. The article purpose was to make the American public aware of the need for equal education to women. The role of mother did not only meant to bear children, but also to educate them to a symbol of society.During the start of the 19th century, American males want the newly freed states to increase the citizen patriotism and intelligence to their country. Since women were child’s fist teacher, woman’s education needed to be more proficient. Mary Wollstonecraft’s novel was a role model for American education and family life. In her novel, Wollstonecraft explains how aside from a woman’s duty as a female, she also has the job to educate her child. However, the female sex has limits for the amount of knowledge passed, and the lack of knowledge restricts a mother ability to educate her child. However, mothers are nit the only females that need to be well educated. Daughters have to get a proper education not only to become a good mother but also good

This shows that women are starting to earn the respect of the men. Document E shows the point of view of a woman named Mercy Otis Warren in 1805. She admits that there are "certain appropriate duties to each sex" but still believes that one sex should not have complete power over the other. She states that although there are evident differences between men and women, every human should be able to have their own degree of freedom and liberty. Once the women began to have jobs, they realized that they were depending too much on what the men were telling them to do, when they knew that could take things into their own hands. This is shown in document L when Catherine E. Beecher makes suggestions on the way the women should teach in 1829. She says that the men believed the women should be teaching the children at home their morals, meaning what is right from wrong, and also their manors, and values. Catherine E. Beecher says that the women can teach this in the school rather than at home. She says now since the women finally can get jobs, they are still taking too many orders from the men. She thinks that they should just do this because it will benefit both the women and the children. Documents F, E, and L all show how the attitude of women changed from the mid to late 1700's to the early to mid 1800's.

"Woman's great mission is to train immature, weak and ignorant creatures to obey the laws of God; the physical, the intellectual, the social and the moral." Belonging to the world renowned Beecher family, Catharine Beecher spoke these words in reason to her beliefs on women. Catharine Beecher was a large part of the social reform in 1800s, and her influence had a large part to do with her childhood. Being born in 1800, Catharine was the oldest of her 13 siblings. At nine, after moving to Conneticut, she attended the Litchfield Female Academy. From there, she was given an education and experience in housework. Catharine believed that Litchfield taught her morality, and it taught her that women could be just as important as men in the society

In her next chapter, Kerber examines the newfound need for the educating of women. Women were not allowed freedom or a political opinion, but they could not be completely pushed aside. For years women had been taught that education made them undesirable to men and educated women were scorned. Kerber argues that a new need for

“The subject of the Education of Women of the higher classes is one which has undergone singular fluctuations in public opinions” (Cobbe 79). Women have overcome tremendous obstacles throughout their lifetime, why should higher education stand in their way? In Frances Power Cobbe’s essay “The Education of Women,” she describes how poor women, single women, and childless wives, deserve to share a part of the human happiness. Women are in grave need of further improvements in their given condition. Cobbe suggests that a way to progress these improvements manifests in higher education, and that this will help further steps in advance. Cobbe goes on to say that the happiest home, most grateful husband, and the most devoted children came from a woman, Mary Sommerville, who surpassed men in science, and is still studying the wonders of God’s creations. Cobbe has many examples within her paper that shows the progression of women as a good thing, and how women still fulfill their duties despite the fact that they are educated. The acceptance of women will be allowed at the University of New England because women should be able to embrace their abilities and further their education for the benefit of their household, their lives, and their country.

During the early 1800's women were stuck in the Cult of Domesticity. Women had been issued roles as the moral keepers for societies as well as the nonworking house-wives for families. Also, women were considered unequal to their male companions legally and socially. However, women’s efforts during the 1800’s were effective in challenging traditional intellectual, social, economical, and political attitudes about a women’s place in society.

concepts. Some of the classes Beecher taught her students include philosophy, chemistry, ancient and modern history, geography, grammar, rhetoric, arithmetic, algebra, geometry, moral philosophy, natural theology, and Latin. In the 1800’s universities were lacking professors and money so they hired women because women were paid less. “At the Seneca Falls women's rights conference in 1848, the women called for coeducation in public schools. There were many debates about coeducation, but in the end it became the norm because it was cheaper. By 1860, most states had set up public school systems which grew rapidly. Most were coeducational and included both primary and secondary schools” (The History of Women and Education). Women intended to go

Transcendentalism, the philosophy that thought and spiritual concepts are more real than ordinary human experiences and material objects, took the United States by storm in the mid-nineteenth century (Merriam-Webster). This philosophy was showcased in works from prose to journalism by writers across the country, and Margaret Fuller is known as a major leader of the movement. Her work encompassed the ideas of transcendentalism as well as the blossoming movement known as feminism. Fuller left a legacy as not only a writer but also a movement leader due to her early childhood and education, experiences with other writers and travel, and her plunge into the political movement of feminism. As a child, Margaret Fuller was pushed through extensive schooling by her father.

Education for women has evolved throughout the years, and has not always been open to women like it is in today’s society, where more than half of the enrolled students in educational courses are women. Wollstonecraft blames education for the condition of women, and the moral conduct of chastity. Education is at the center of Wollstonecraft’s arguments in the work, it is clear that she wants all women to have the same access to the education that men have, “men, in their youth, are prepared for professions; whilst women, on the contrary, have no other scheme to sharpen their faculties”, whether it be that women are not interested in getting an education when given the opportunity, or not given the opportunity at all, women did not continue on to an education, instead they continued on in their life, many times which was marriage (Wollstonecraft 232). Wollstonecraft, a privileged woman of her time, was given the opportunity to get an education, something that was rarely offered to women, and argued that if women were given the same opportunity as her and that of men, there would be more distinguished and productive women. Because women are only taught that of small surface things, such as what their duties around the home were and how to make their husband happy by doing what they were told.