Female Role In Revolutionary Movements: 1940-Pres.

1019 Words5 Pages
Monica Martinez Period 01 5-1-12 Role of Women 1940 – Present Throughout history, women have always been seen as the lesser gender. As time progressed, more and more rights became available to women, little and big, important and insignificant. In most modern day societies, especially with those of western influence, hold many rights, and in some areas, they don't. The role of women in revolutionary and reform movements from the 1940's to the present has been that of subtle to very straightforward acts of participation and has constantly been ignored or recognized in few ways. Documents 1 and 4 are written legal documents that express the protection or lack thereof for women. The Declaration of Human Rights, written in 1948, expresses gender equality in Article 2, but then contradicts itself when regarding Article 1. Article 1 is a contradiction as it expresses equality for all humans, but then refers to brotherhood, which, by the prefix, does not include women. The Declaration of Human Rights was written in a time of war, where women weren't very important unless you considered their work at home, and the authors of this document were surely male and higher up on the social ladder, thus disregarding woman's rights, who, a majority of, are below them in stature. Nearly 20 years later, as shown in Document 4, there is a substantial amount of equality for women – under employment, that is. This excerpt does not recognize civil/social or political rights for women other than to work with equality. This, in it's own way, can still be demeaning towards women and stifling their progress towards equal rights reforms. Documents 7/5 and 3/8 express the involvement of women for those who are not in mostly westernized areas, like those in Africa and those under Sharia Law in the Middle East. Documents 7 and 5 show how African women are treated and how they respond to
Open Document