Modernization throughout the time period is a factor of the advancement of civil rights for women since separate spheres, which was an ideology where men belonged in the public sphere that refers to the world of politics, economy and law. Where as women belonged in the private sphere where it included domestic work, child caring, housekeeping and religious education. Some Women did go against the ideology by working in a men dominated environment e.g. Politics. Activism by women was not the most important factor in advancing civil rights in certain issues and it would disagree with the judgment.
An additional factor is sexual harassment in the workplace. We all are aware that men in high positions are likely to use their power to create sexual advancements to the women they oversee. I to have been a victim of this type of behavior and was not advance because I wasn’t receptive to the quid pro quo which means “one thing in return for another”! (Macionis, pg. 291) Many women just as I was are afraid of losing their job if they report sexual harassment.
Women have the capability to become educated and have a higher impact on society other than just through domesticity. Opponents of allowing women to pursue higher education and professional jobs say that it will upset social order and destroy femininity. This is a small price to pay for equality even if it is true. The opponents also say that women are incapable of this completing this education and working in professionally. This is not true because rich women are already going to college, so why cannot this be expanded, and even when women were denied professional jobs, women like Jane Addams showed their capability in places other than the work
However, not everyone agrees with the heavy stereotypes laid down by the social order such as male dominance and proper courting. Marie de France is one of these people. She depicts her views of gender expectations through literature. Within the poem Guigemar, Guigemar and his lady fulfill and contradict what would be considered as gender norms within society: female inferiority, traditional courtship, and male dominance. Marie de France does this to criticize and combat the societal expectations and inherent inequalities in Norman England.
This provides your essay with a clear, structured argument. In 1918, the Representation of the People Act gave women over 30 the vote, if they owned property or were married to a property owner. The major reason for women receiving the vote has been a fundamental source of debate amongst historians. Whilst traditional schools of thought argue that women’s work during WWI radically changed male ideas about their role in society with traditional historians such as Ray suggesting that giving women the vote in 1918 was almost a ‘thank you’ for their efforts, revisionist historians, however, find this analysis too simplistic. AJP Taylor, for example, argues that the war ‘smoothed the way for democracy’ and so there are other factors of significance, such as, suffrage campaign groups (WSPU & NUWSS) and growing equality with men.
Political status for women was possible, but only for those who were in the upper class and were important to society. Islamic and Christian women were viewed very similarly though they were from different religions; however, Islamic women were treated better. In Christian Europe, around 1000 B.C.E until around 1200 B.C.E, it was the dark ages. Because of educational and religious traditions, women had restrictions on entry and participation in the workforce. Women’s restriction in the workforce was also because of their forced dependency on men and poor socio-economic status of women.
As an early crusader for birth control, Margaret Sanger always experienced illicit controversy. Some of her contemporaries argued that Sanger's fight for birth control was a result of eugenic beliefs with racist motives. Many accused Sanger of being a racist eugenicist who promoted birth control in order to encourage the "fittest" or most "desirable" people to have more children and those deemed "unfit" or "undesirable" to have less. On the contrary, Sanger’s motives for introducing the birth control movement included, her own personal experience where witnessed women at a disadvantage because they didn’t have birth control, she wanted to improve women's health that was suffering, and to provide women their right to the option of using birth control. The basic concept of the eugenics movement in the 1920s and the 1930s was that improvement of the human race would be result if the "fit" had more children and the "unfit" had fewer.
However one could also argue that Larkin seems to justify violence against women by suggesting that access to women is something men have been unfairly deprived of. This becomes evident in the first stanza where Larkin presents the girl in ‘white satin’ suggesting her purity and virginity. One could disagree with this statement and interpret the de-feminizing of women differently. It could be suggested that Larkin combines masculinity and femininity together, ‘moustached lips’, to show his view that men and women should be viewed more equally in society. However I disagree with this alternative interpretation as I feel Larkin tries to portray the attacks ‘snaggle-toothed’ and boss-eyed’ are sadistic and grotesque but he does not disagree with
In stating the above, Chisholm hoped to prove that in today’s society inequality is still present, that prejudice due to race was more important to overcome than equal treatment to women in America. As if it was not hard enough to be a woman and black, women also dealt with what Chisholm mentioned Americas idea that, “The unspoken assumption [was] that women are different” (1). Chisholm felt that America’s idea of women was pure
Love and equality began to replace economic necessity as the basis for "tying the knot." In the late 1800s, new laws also gave married women more control over their own property and earnings to protect them from irresponsible actions by their husbands. As intimacy became a basic expectation of marriage, a lack of intimacy was increasingly seen as a legitimate reason for divorce. The trends that developed during the 1800s continued and accelerated during the 1900s. World Wars I and II and the Great Depression led to more women working outside the home.