In other words, Document 1 is stressing that women should know their own language as to that they people of their nation. Moreover, women’s right needs to be acknowledged and should not be taken so lightly. The women are still people, human as many would say. Another example, in Document 2, it stresses that the people of the estates should not be divided into group, but to be taken as a whole. In other words, people should not be simply segregated because of class distinctions.
Some sociologists suggests that this change led to more equality in modern family life. However, not everyone agrees with this conclusion. Feminists are especially cautious about drawing this conclusion because they believe that there are still inequalities of power and control which persists in modern family relationships. In Talcott Parsons' 1955 functionalist model of the family, he suggests that in the traditional nuclear family, the roles of husbands and wives were naturally segregated(separate and distinct from one another). Women are naturally more suited to take on the expressive role which involves socialisation of the children and meet the family's emotional needs.
In addition, her novel Herland depicts women at their true, full potential in roles equal to men. There are many hidden meanings in Gilman’s Herland that can be found in the characters and setting. I will explore the two themes, independence and evolution, which are central to Gilman’s works, Women and Economics and Herland. In Women and Economics, Gilman stresses the theory that women need to become independent and stop depending on men in order to achieve their true human potential. She points out that women depend on men for survival and that is only seen in the human species.
Marilyn Monroe suitably declared, “I don’t mind living in a man’s world; as long as I can be a woman in it.” This idea brings to the surface an ancient battle of superiority between men and women; the battle that is the focal point in Louann Brizendine’s nonfiction book The Female Brain. In The Female Brain, Brizendine argues that men and women, no matter how equally each sex is treated, the two will never level out especially because contrary to a man’s urges, a woman’s actions connect directly to her hormones. To convey and solidify this argument, Brizendine incorporates the logical, credible, and emotional appeals. A woman, among many other things, varies between: a daughter, a wife, a mother, a friend, a boss, an employee, even a lover. However, big or small the role, each woman has innate and inborn parts that separate her from men.
Nevertheless, it seems that he could not escape the dominant philosophy of his own society that women were the weaker sex. The question is why? Why did More believe that giving more rights and power to women would contribute to the creation of a perfect society? Also, why, yet giving women more rights and power than they usually would be given, he still maintained the patriarchal values of the sixteenth century? Even in the perfect Utopian world of Thomas More, the social status of women, the role they played in society and the general way they were treated, were influenced by the dominant view of the society at that time and by his own personal values.
They do not believe that women should go out and have a professional job in the work force. Now, in the modern society there have been changes and men should cope and adapt to the changes of today’s society. Sexism is expressed as a separation of gender roles and differential access to privileges and opportunities. Traditional gender role stereotypes describe women as nurturers who are emotional, sensitive, and warm. They also describe women as unambitious, incompetent, weak, and conniving in their relational power (Adams, 2009; Williams & Best, 1990).
Women’s Roles in Ancient Times In the earliest human societies, it was believed that our society has been patriarchal since the beginning of civilization. This theory has been proven to be wrong in time and some cultures because there were many strong willed women who disregarded custom and rules their families with the sheer force of their personalities (Thompson 2010). Women played a large and essential role in the history of their civilization. The role of women in different ancient societies had many similarities and differences. Because women could give birth, their roles were valuable than men in some societies.
Their ideologies of social reform were more conservative and traditional in nature. They felt that because women had different needs, the law must be made to recognize these differences because they are significant and relevant to women’s lives and their futures. They fought for women’s suffrage not because they believed it was their “right” as women to vote, but more on the pretense that it was their “duty”. They believed that by having the vote, women would have more political power to improve life for themselves and their children. Their emphasis was on women’s responsibilities as mothers, “Maternalism”, Public Housekeeping, and women’s biological difference from men.
This has been a long maintained perception in a conservative country like ours which mentions that women do not fit in the non-traditional jobs, like in police, army, or in engineering. However, it has been a bit opposite lately since women are actually stepping forward to prove the perception wrong. As a person born and living in this country, I admit it is still a bit hard to prove show that the view is wrong, but still, I think women should definitely take up non-traditional jobs to prove the ability to stand equally in the society with men. Conservative people often say, “Women are only to be nurtured and kept inside the house, so that they can manage the household and the family, and men are to earn the money to support it.” For a long time it had been maintained so strictly that women were not even allowed to study for higher education. Conservative people still say that women do not need to go earning as men are there for it.
In The Power of the Positive Woman, Schlafly explains that there is indeed a difference, besides the obvious physicality, between men and woman that cause them to play different roles in society. She in no ways demoralizes the role of either men or women, but instead explains how each gender has an equally important role to play in society. She explains the ideals of liberationists by saying, “The second dogma of the women’s liberationists is that, of all the injustices perpetrated upon women through the centuries, the most oppressive is the cruel fact that women have babies and men do not” (Schlafly 296). This puts the blame of female anatomy on the males instead of on the Divine Creator of human lives. Although this seems to be a ridiculous reason to hate the male population, it is Schlafly’s way of making their movement seem ridiculous.