Women's Rights Essay

She appeals to religious morals by stating, “He has usurped the prerogative of Jehovah himself” (Stanton 558) and emphasizes that man has denied women the rights of participating in the church. She emphasizes this in order to synchronize her ideas with the religion no one then dared to challenge. This religious accusation conveys the fact that women are being denied even the most basic religious rights.

In her last paragraph, she identifies herself as the upperclassman, stating that we rich people “. . . save our money, eschew status symbols, cut coupons, practice puritanical sacrifice to amass a million dollars” (Cottom 1015). This could be classified as a simple jest, to be honest. To me, it sounds sarcastic, which is probably what the author intended. Her argument is informative, yet entertaining. Mocking the snobbish attitude of some who believe they are superior, she skillfully disguises her sentence to appear innocent while the message it delivers is not quite. The point of this sentence is for you to realize

All through Canterbury Tales, women are dealt with as objects in everyday life. In the “Miller’s Tale,” an old man marries a younger, attractive women for her looks. In the “Wife of Bath’s Tale,” a virgin woman has her virginity and innocence taken from her by what is suppose to be a noble and honorable knight and when his punishment is later to marry an older, less attractive women, all respect for his newly wife vanishes. A woman’s level of recognition in Canterbury Tales are through her class in society, whether she is young and beautiful, or old and disgusting, and her degree of experience in life. Women are not desired for their intelligence, wisdom and capabilities which might of kept a relationship deceitful-free. The “Wife of

that part of women’s sin was the seduction of man and another was her failure to serve

She declared “what is common between you and us? Everything, you would have to answer. If they persisted between stubbornly in their weakness, in putting this thoughtlessness in contradiction with their principles; oppose courageously with the force of reason the vain pretensions of superiority.” (27) She denounced the social belief that men were on a higher level of women.

     In Adrienne Rich's essay "When We Dead Awaken: Writing as Re-vision", the author writes about her personal experience as a woman writer in a male dominated society. Her essay consists of poems, which she had written throughout different times in her life, to demonstrate the transformation in her writing. As a woman writer in a male dominated society, Rich begins writing in the traditional style, "the man's way," but as she continues writing, Rich breaks from these traditional styles to form her own. Like Freire, Rich believes people should break from society and be able to think and question things for themselves. While Freire wants to change the educational system, Rich wants

“He has endeavored, in every way that he could, to destroy her confidence in her own powers, to lessen her self-respect, and to make her willing to lead a dependent and abject life.” Men believed women were created to serve

It is quite clear is that the main virtue of the “good” women is bearing sons to notable (or divine) men, while the crimes of the “bad” women are against their husbands or sons.

Rich believes the male dominated society categorizes women as a lower class. She declares “this drive to self-knowledge, for women, is more than a search for identity: it is part of our refusal of the self-destructiveness of male-dominated society” (Rich 7). Rich reasons that women searching for individuality is the start of escaping male supremacy and becoming equal to males. Because Rich believes women are treated differently, it indicates that there is going to be a change in the concept of sexual identity towards the stereotypical gender roles. When women started to hear about Rich they began to explore their own potential that the male civilization ignored.

Some women dared to go against the grain regardless of the way that society would view them, they chose to pursue their own desires, rather than feign propriety. A Church

In “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman” she stated that women were treated as if looks were the only thing important. Many women were not very educated and when beauty fades they are left uneducated and old. Women are not treated as well as men only thought of as objects of lust. They are treated as less than men because they are physically weaker than them. The fact that men are physically stronger than women is the only thing that is justified as true. Men and women did not really completely understand each other. Men thought of themselves as better than women and they did not want women who were educated. They did not think of them as wives or mothers but as just a woman not like the rest of them. She sees that man is her counterpart and respects them as part of the human race but with women being stripped of many of their rights that things are not equal

Society has created an image that women should be delicate and dainty, that all women should aspire to be mothers and homemakers. As a result, society has held women to different standards than men. Women are held to different expectations than men in terms of beauty, loyalty, and traditional obligations especially as subservient housewives. There is an urgent need to change the mindset of society. The central issue facing young women in today’s society is the standards that hold them to higher expectations than men in the areas of beauty, romantic relationships, and household duties.

Class divisions in Marshall’s Pretty Woman and its context of contemporary American society are largely attributed to wealth. The motif of wealth, established by the opening lines of the voiceover “...it’s all about the money...” emphasises the importance of money in the setting of an American capitalist society and the essential role of money in determining class and social hierarchy, as opposed to the

Chaucer’s “Wife of Bath Prologue and Tale” focus on the story telling of a woman who has experienced her fair share of marital issues. She is depicted as a promiscuous woman, married five times and had plenty of male suitors, the Wife was not like any other woman during this era. Although her reputation was how most perceived her, she was not a fan of being scrutinized for what she considered as her duty as a woman; to not remain single. This is seen through the depiction of women in society, how marriage ought to be in the eyes of religion, and how men were to view a woman like her. The language that is used throughout Chaucer’s prologue and tale allude to the evolution of women as well as how they struggled to gain any recognition in

Moving on to Chaucer’s second tale, there are many lessons to be taught about chivalry. This tale tells the story of a narcissistic knight that rapes a young woman alongside a river. Once King Arthur finds about this sin he demands the knights head. Fortunately, the knight is spared by the woman but in a redeemable manner. The knight is set out on a year long mission in order to answer one question- “what do women want the most?”. After the year long mission the knight returns and answers the question successfully. This answer the knight gives is what coincides with the prologue’s last lesson. “Women want the same self-sovereignty over her husband, as over her lover, and master him, he must not be above her”(Chaucer, 214-218). This saying, again, is addressing the balance in power within a relationship. There is no doubt that Chaucer believes a successful marriage needs a balance