Women, under the reign of male power, were not considered persons and weren’t allowed or guaranteed any rights, rights which are basic human rights. Women of these times were unable to vote and unable to sit in parliament or acquire certain jobs that were only made available to the men of society. A woman with a seat in the parliament was unheard of at this time, but it was all because of Murphy’s efforts that this was ultimately made possible. Under the BNA act of 1867, “Persons” refers to more than one person, while “Person” refers to “He”. A common law was passed in 1867 stating, “Women are persons in matters of pains and penalties, but are not persons in matters of rights and privileges.” This law solidifies the ideal that women are disregarded when it comes to basic rights and priviledges in society.
In Anthem the people cannot choose their own jobs, it is all specified by the Council of Vocations and people have no say in it. All the ideas in the society are controlled by the Council of Scholar, they don’t accept changes. There are no families in this society, the children are separated from their mothers and they never know their parents. The government is their parent. This way government can control them and there is no rebellion.
In the law, married women were legally dead in its eyes.There were state property laws that prevented married women from having any right. Such as anything they owed were their husbands now, anything to do with earning or receiving money, that money went to their husband (Bonnie and Ruthsdotter). Besides from having no right in society, women also had many limitations on education and the workforce. Women were not allowed to enter many professions including medicine and law. Girls were not given a formal education, and if they wanted to enter a higher education, such as college they would be rejected.
Perhaps Americans wanted to reduce immigration because of their social and economic issues and people were denied from entering the country. Contraception was also one of the controversial issues, Comstock laws 1873 made it illegal to sell or distribute contraception, which meant STDs, were more common due to less protection or none at all. Wealthy women were able to
Even though called a citizen of a free country, women had no rights during the 19th century United States. They were looked down as intellectually and physically unequal to men. They had no legal rights and were made slaves in their houses. They didn’t have the right to own property, maintain their wages, sign a contract or vote. They had to fight a long battle to earn the right to vote.
On the one hand it was Queen’s determination that stopped the Puritans. For example, there was always her intervention. In 1572, she refused for a bill to be read in Parliament to attempt to introduce a more Calvinist doctrine. She also imprisoned some of the main leaders such as Cartwright. This managed to break the circle of organization so the members had no one to follow.
Neither Blanche nor Stella knows about the code, which reinforces this stereotype. Although Blanche partially goes against this image by having a full education and even a job prior to coming to New Orleans, she is almost broke when she arrives which suggests that women cannot gain financial stability without men. Although perhaps intentional to some extent, Blanche also conforms to this general image of women by not showing any interest to the paperwork of the plantation, referring to them as a “bunch of old papers” and handing them to Stanley to keep in his “big, capable hands” (Williams 141). Stella follows the general stereotype of the period of women
The government controlled the women’s daily life. They are not allowed to read, write, hold property or have a job. They control women by isolating them from one another; handmaids mistrust one another because anyone could be an “eye”. You can see this in chapter 4, when Offred encounters Nick. “Perhaps it was a test, to see what I would do.
The legislation made it unlawful for an employer to refuse to hire or discharge any person due to his race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. Title VII of the act created the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to implement the law. Today, I feel as though people still discriminate on both sides of employment opportunities. Many women are paid less than men who do the same exact work. Even though there is a law preventing this, it still happens.
In early colonial times, the women of America lived in an era of gender inequality. They had very limited freedom; from not being able to vote, sue, testify in court, to not being able to be granted legal custody after a divorce, and so forth. Women were the targets of sexual discrimination. Women were highly disregarded in occupations, as well as in education. They weren’t allowed to enter many professions, from law to medical; or study in the prestigious schools of the males.