Major First Step Towards Equal Rights example essay topic

When one reads Ibsen's A Doll's House Today, he may find it very difficult to imagine how daring it might have seemed at the time it was written. Nora's actions were almost unheard of at the time the play was written, and were thus rather controversial. For Millennia, women were primarily child-bearers and homemakers, their domestic responsibilities generally prevented them from participating in hunts and waging war. Consequently, they were not allowed to share the rights and responsibilities given to hunters and warriors.

Throughout history religion and mythology have regarded women as naturally weaker and therefore inferior to men (209). The ancient Greeks believed that Pandora's curiosity was the root of all the evils in the world. The Bible tells how Eve led Adam into sin, and was placed under Adam's authority by God. It was a typical belief that women should be controlled, not only for their own protection, but for that of everyone else. In most traditional societies, women were put at a distinct disadvantage to men. In ancient Rome, women had no rights whatsoever, they were the property of their father until they were married and then they became their husband's possession.

They had no rights to money, land, or even over their own children. Women were educated only in domestic skills, making it impossible for them to gain power, and almost a necessity to marry. Without the knowledge of how to live women had to rely on their husbands's uc cess or make a living through less morally acceptable means. The rights of women went largely unaltered until 1792 when a woman named Mary Wollstonecraft wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Woman the first major modern feminist work.

Sadly, however, her demands for equality and her revolutionary tone, made her work unacceptable at the time. 'Men, in general, seem to employ their reason to justify prejudices". (Wollstonecraft) A more noticeable advance in the equality of women's rights was the industrial revolution. Lower classed women became wage earners in factories. Although their jobs were lower paying than their male counterparts, and controlled by men, financial independence was a major first step towards equal rights. In 1848 the first women's rights convention was held.

In 1919 Congress approved the 19th amendment, which, as quoted in Funk and Wagnalls New Encyclopedia, provided that "The right to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex". (qt d. In 210) Universities were opened to and for women in the middle and late 19th century. In 1964 the Civil Rights Act intended for blacks was extended to women, giving women equality in education, employment, and legal rights. Ibsen, through this controversial play, has an impact upon society's view of the subordinate position of women. By describing this role of woman, discussing its effects, and predicting a change in contemporary views, he stressed the importance of woman's realization of this believed inferiority. Women should be looked upon as their own persons with their own successes and failures.

Nora's development throughout the story shows an accurate prediction of the future of women's rights. First the comprehension of the plight and then the awareness of what must be done in order to make women the equals of men.

Bibliography

Ibsen, Henrik. A Doll's House. Trans. Michael Meyer Wollstonecraft, Mary. A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. 1792". Women's Rights". Funk and Wagnall's New Encyclopedia. 1977 ed.