Women's Rights Movement example essay topic

When we speak of "today's woman" the vision of an independent woman rises before our eyes. We, however fail to give much thought to all those women who have lived before us, in a world which was considerably different from the one in which we reside today. The world in which women of the past d welled in was one in which the values and conventions were decidedly different from ours. All aspects of life were treated in a manner which we today don't even recognize. The social fabric, the political realities and the cultural norms wore a different mask then.

Women in the western culture, according to popular view, are enjoying the most liberated environment they have ever known although a minority may choose to argue with this popular belief yet it must be accepted that women of today's world have broken free of the shackles that once restrained them, not in the distant past. In the western civilization a woman's responsibilities, till the last century usually revolved around the home. It was considered to be her "sanctioned domain" (Linda Giedl) her one and only sanctuary where she would live under the protective care of husband, father or brother. In return for this protection she was expected to take care of all household chores, be of service to the husband and single-handedly care for her children's upbringing. There was no concept of a working woman in the medieval Europe except in the poor sections of society where the impoverished women served as maids etc. in the households of lords and noblemen. This same trend continued in the Elizabethan England where some women gained noteworthy importance in society as ladies of the court.

However their contribution in any other fields except as mothers, governesses or maids, remained next to nothing. A couple of centuries later in the 18th century there was a slightly perceptible difference in Europe. The absence of any proper historical records makes it difficult for us to make a comprehensive study of these changes yet the absence of chronological and concrete documented historical evidence is not as big an impediment as it appears. For the tiny steps taken by women and their minutiae contributions made in the field of art, literature, drama and education prove that the women were now moving from the purely domestic scene that had been chosen for them in the past centuries to the social and cultural scene of the western civilization. During this time not only do we hear the voices of women poets writers and teachers etc. but also note their presence on the financial front as well. It was the time when industrialism was raising its head for the first time throughout the west and women and children were being employed as cheap labour.

We have many documented proofs of the contributions of women in the protests carried out against the wealthy industrialists to demand labour rights. Women had by this time learnt to raise their voices against injustices and were going through the gradual process of bettering their financial, social, legal and conventional standings in their respective societies. The Victorian England is noted for the headway women made on social, cultural and economic fronts. Women at this time were beginning to tire of unjustified suppression spanning centuries. They were realizing, possibly for the first time that thy had a right to financial stability, social respect and political freedom. It was during the 19th century that women for the first time started paying more emphasis on education and sincerely strove to educate themselves for the purpose of empowerment and independence.

History gives us the names of great women educators such as Emma Willard, Mary Lyon, and Catharine Beecher who exhorted the women to acquire education, both vocational and otherwise. However the opposition to these efforts was fierce and surprisingly not only men but other women too were vocal in their censure of all those women who strove for equality and improvements in their state. These women were considered by the other conservative women as rebellious and there was a deep rooted bias in the public mind set that the superiority of men had its base in religion and theology. How ever the women increasingly began to question the conventional ideological foundations and prevalent norms. women, especially Young girls began to gain awareness about the importance of financial independence and began to challenge the old doctrines of society; they in the words of kumari jayawardena "questioned all the old ideologies and dogmas and the oppressive structures of society". By the end of the 19th century, the 'new woman' had arrived! (Jayawardena) Emboldened further they began to come out of their cocoons and participate in social life despite being discouraged.

It was during these years that the feminist movement began to take shape and grow. This movement called for empowerment of women and demanded equal rights with men on legal, political, economic, social and professional fronts. A historic moment came in the year 1848 at Seneca Falls when Elizabeth Cady Stanton boldly corrected Thomas Jefferson's famous words saying 'All men and women are created equal'. This convention was the first official one which demanded women's rights a concept not much known till then. But the path was not without its bumps.

Women at that time still had not won the right to vote or to own property but at least they had grown conscious of their rights and started endeavoring to achieve them. A great deal of awareness had been generated in their ranks and education and financial stability came to hold prominent position in their lives. They started their foray into other fields beside teaching and dressmaking and with the passage of time became increasingly liberated. By the beginning of the 20th century there was an open and more aggressive rebellion against the oppressive structure of the society.

Women started enrolling in universities and began to join the medical and the legal; profession a phenomena unheard of till then. With these changes came the changes in their general psychology and disposition. Gone were the submissive women of the yore and they were replaced with more independent, courageous, bight, career-oriented, educated women who preferred an equal relationship with their spouses and chose to make decisions on issues such as birth control and acquirement of higher education, a matter which was till before decided by the male heads of the family. The women in the west, unlike their counterparts in the east, also increasingly started walking away from unsatisfactory marriages / relationships and instead preferred to raise their children as single mothers. Women in the west have come a long way in the past centuries. Their personalities have drastically transformed from submissive home makers to managers, business entrepreneurs and researchers.

Along with the change in personality, there has been a great change of position. They are now masters of their own destinies and stand at an entirely different position from their counterparts from the past. o Author not available, feminist movement: From Its Origins to 1960., The Reader's Companion to American History, 01-01-1991 o Broomfield, Andrea, Feminist Ferment: "The Woman Question" in the USA and England, 1870-1940. (book reviews). Vol. 40, Victorian Studies, 06-22-1997, pp 709 (4) o Dobbin, Ben, Associated Press Writer, Women's rights movement celebrates having come a long way., AP Online, 06-29-1998 o Giedl, Linda, Special to The Christian Science Monitor, The ascent of woman., The Christian Science Monitor, 12-16-1999, pp 15 o Jayawardena, Kumari, Doreen Wickremasinghe-A Western Radical in Sri Lanka [Part 1 of 4]., Contemporary Women's Issues Database, 01-01-1991, pp 1-13. o Porter, Sara, Professors talk about treatment of women., University Wire, 05-06-2003.