Women's Rights Essay

This further makes clear the very rigid relationship between husband and wife or simply man and woman at the time. Superior language is used on the rare occasions when the husband speaks and, while not using a hostile tone of voice, he orders or “tells” rather than “asks” his wife what she should be doing – “give these fellows theirs, I’m in no hurry” “away over there and look”. This displays a confidence (or arguably a cockiness) which comes from being surrounded by his presumed employees and his wife, both of which play roles of servitude in his life and are seen as his inferiors. The husband in this situation can be inferred to be based on Heaney’s father, just as the wife is based on his mother.  The husband’s attitude can be looked at in two different means – one might argue that he is patronising and controlling of his wife, as the flippant language used to describe his approach to engaging with her belittles the efforts she has put in to pleasing him – “plucking grass in handfuls and tossing it in the air” “boys like us have little call for cloths”. On the other hand, one might counter that while he does see himself as her superior, this is not done in any malicious or tyrannical way. He gently teases her (suggested by words such as “winked”), and the inequality within the relationship is not bothersome to the woman, probably because this is “just how things were” at the time – the

says to her that she has no right to speak of his wife in such a

Joe constantly felt the need to make Janie feel horrible about herself. He would take control of everything she would do and Janie couldn’t do anything but feel sad. Hurston says, “The years took all the fight out of Janie’s face. For a while she thought it was gone from her soul. No matter what Jody did she said nothing” Saying nothing showed her husband that she let this mistreatment happen to her without speaking up for her rights. Being gone from her sole shows that Janie didn’t even know who she was anymore because she couldn’t even make simple choices for herself. This becomes a problem because Janie couldn’t even find happiness in her relationship, which is far from self-actualizing. These two quotes both show Janie’s passivity through silence and the feeling of worthlessness. This may be an example from Janie’s life, but this became a problem for many women whose husbands follow gender hierarchies to feel like they have more power over their wife. Society always views men to have more power and to be a more powerful figure than women which causes uncomfort in relationships. This strive of power stops people from reaching self-actualization because they are always looking for others to be better than instead of looking to reach their fullest potential. Reaching self-actualization is a big goal for many people because you

When it comes to embracing black/african culture and heritage she was all about it. For example in the novel she expressed her love of her color suggesting that she was proud of who she is. This would be a big reflection towards the harlem renaissance because the

Women have always been fighting for their rights for voting, the right to have an abortion, equal pay as men, being able to joined the armed forces just to name a few. The most notable women’s rights movement was headed in Seneca Falls, New York. The movement came to be known as the Seneca Falls convention and it was lead by women’s rights activist Elizabeth Cady Stanton during July 19th and 20th in 1848. Stanton created this convention in New York because of a visit from Lucretia Mott from Boston. Mott was a Quaker who was an excellent public speaker, abolitionist and social reformer. She was a proponent of women’s rights. The meeting lasted for only two days and was compiled of six sessions, which included lectures on law, humorous

Tannen effectively opens with an anecdote about how she was at a gathering for a women’s group and men were invited. She talks about how one guy was very talkative, offering ideas and telling stories, while his wife was sitting in silence. Towards the end of the evening Tannen commented that “women frequently complain that their husbands don’t talk to them”. The man quickly agreed with Tannen and admitted that his wife was the talker in their family and if it weren’t for

She did this because she didn't want to be seen in the act of doing so. She told her husband if he didn't do it, he wasn't a man in her eyes. So he had to do it to prove her wrong. “He’s here in double trust:

lived in Eatonville,Florida which had a small black community that shapes both her life and

An example of the way John treated his wife is, “And after John gathered me up in his arms, and just carried me upstairs and laid me on the bed, and sat by me and read to me till it tired my head.” (Gilman, )

In Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston, there are many examples of sexism throughout the novel. The tone of the author is that of women and men should have equal rights. The sexism is shown the most prominently in Janie’s marriages, both to Logan and Jodie. Both of who believe that Janie is incapable of thinking on her own or making her own decisions and that she needs to be told what to do. This infuriates Janie because she believes that she should have the right to make decisions for herself.

Marriage is a full-time job on its own and people should communicate with each other in order to have a healthy marriage for them to love and appreciate each other so they can grow old together. Most of us know by now that the fairy tale happily ever after stories are full of holes. Carver emphasizes that when there is no communication in the marriage the wife starts to feel unhappy and frustrated with him. The wife’s attitude with her husband suggests that the marriage doesn’t seem to be working for her. Carver states, “My wife finally took her eyes off the blind man and looked at me. I had the feeling she didn’t like what she saw. I shrugged (38). ” There was unhappiness in the marriage and the narrator and his wife didn’t seem to get along. In other words the

Even as far back as the United States independence, women did not possess any civil rights. According to Janda, this view is also known as protectionism, the notion that women mush be sheltered from life's harsh realities. Protectionism carried on throughout the general populations view for many decades until the 1920's when the women's movement started. Women finally received the right to vote in the Nineteenth Amendment. The traditional views of protectionism, however, remained in people's minds until the 1970's (Janda et al, 2000: 538-539).

when she asks "what need one?". They knew this would cause him to leave either house as he had too much pride to agree.

One of the most influential writers Adrienne Rich once said, “She is afraid that her own truths are not good enough.” Adrienne Rich talks about women’s role and issues in her essay called “Women and Honor: Some Notes on Lying”. She describes how women during the 1977 lied about everything. They lied about their appearance, their job, their happiness, and even about their relationship. Adrienne Rich is one of the most powerful writers, who identifies herself as lesbian feminists. Her work has been acknowledged and appreciated mainly in her poems. Throughout her decades of work as a writer-activist, Rich uses essays, speeches, and conference papers, magazine, articles book reviews, and personal reflection to articulate with

They 'll think we 're insane” (146). One can see how ashamed he is toward they things his wife does. This is another example of a conflict which deeply shows his feeling towards the women he supposed to to spend his life with.