If a woman became a widow and wanted to remarry she would have to give up her inheritance (72). This encouraged women to stay true to her dead husband’s memory. Another stipulation of the Legal Code is that if there is no son to inherit the wealth of his dead father, the inheritance goes to the husband’s family (73). In both cases the rights of women are trumped by men. In 17th century T’an-ch’eng there weren’t many jobs open to women outside of midwives, nurses, servants, spinsters, and as a last recourse, prostitution (123-124).
Women were not happy about this and wanted to be seen as equivalent to their husbands in the marriage. Women’s protests paid off as many laws surrounding marriages were passed. In 1964 there was the Married Woman’s Property Act which allowed wives to retain half the money they saved from any housekeeping. This was one of the first steps to bigger laws and it meant that wives could now have a small area of independence from their husbands with their own money. This law led on to bigger things such as the Divorce Reform Act which allowed irretrievable breakdown of marriage as sufficient grounds for divorce.
A “feme covert” which meant that everything the women owned before marriage was now their husband’s. He owned everything now. Because of that “If the law rendered a wife a dependent, it also required a man to support her from the grave” (page 6) If they were to die in war they would be okay. Maybe not as they wanted to be but they would be able to take care of the family. During the Revolution the American women stood their ground towards the British by not buying any of the supplies they needed from them.
During this period, if a woman wanted to divorce her husband, it was highly frowned upon. Some say it brought shame on the family. Often, women would stay in marriages but it would become a marriage full of hatred and sadness. In the last 40 years, this has changed rapidly. Due to female liberation, women now have more choices; such as to get divorced, continue on with higher education, go to work, get married and have a family.
Also another reason for divorce rates changing could be because of societies attitudes towards marriage and divorce. Before society saw the woman as someone who had to get married and obey her husband and divorce was stigmatised to the point that churches did not allow people who had been divorced to get married at their church. But since then stigma declines and divorce becomes more socially acceptable resulting in more couples getting a divorce as a way of solving their problems within the
Eva's relationship with her mother is that she is reliant on her mother and at the start of the play you can see that Helga is trying to make Eva independant. 'You don't need me' and 'There's no later left' show us that Helga feels guilty for having to leave Eva but by saying 'You have to be able to manage on your own' this shows us that Helga knows that Eva and her will possibly never see each other again and Eva needs to be able to survive without her mother. Her relationship with her mother is very disciplined as you can see that her mother is trying to cut off her emotions when it comes to Eva, Eva senses her mother trying to push her away when she says 'Why won't you help me?'. Helga's language is very withdrawn and full of imperatives also suggesting her plan to try and make Eva independant. Eva's discourse shows lack of control.
3. What advantages does Cisneros see in being “the only daughter”? In being “only a daughter”? c. I believe that the advantages that Cisneros sees in being “the only daughter” is that she gets more along time since most of her siblings did not want to play with her due to her being a girl. The advantage she sees in being “only a daughter” would be that she had her destiny in finding a husband.
In Their Eyes Were Watching God, author Zora Neale Hurston, supports and defies the stereotypical role of a woman. In her article Lewis states, “the role of wife is acquired when a women legally aligns herself with a man through marriage” (138). In early history females were married off at a young age by their parents and most often had no say so in the matter. This arrangement most often was done for the welfare of the families and not the children involved. This tradition has altered but the stereotypical role of the wife has changed very little.
English 101/096.03 Date: 02/10/2012 Assignment: First Draft of “The rage behind a woman’s stare” Stories being compared: “I want a wife” Woman’s rights are still considered a controversial issue in an equal partnership and how their duties in the household are unappreciated in today’s world. In Judy Brady’s essay, “I Want a Wife” lists the responsibilities of the stereotypical wife in the 1970’s. The overall purpose of this story was to show the readers how wives were not classified as a person, but a tool that responds to their husband’s needs. Through Brady’s role reversal as “the mind of the husband”, she lists countless expectations that a husband wants in a perfect wife/mother and later proves in the story that wives are mistreated and aren’t considered an object that women can take advantage of, but human beings that demand respect. Comparing to “I Want a Wife”, the story “The rage behind a woman’s stare” talks about women who are unappreciated for the duties and responsibilities they accomplish around the household.
1) How have women right changed since 1945 from house wife mother to career women from having unequal pay to equal pay from having limited education to getting increased access as well as being a follower to becoming a leader. 2) This all started to occur when women demonstrated that they were capable of filling the jobs left by men who were apart of the 2nd world war. But following the arrivals of the soldiers women were expected to return to their traditional rule as house 3) Wife but after the experience of fulfilling a mans occupation they all objected the so called obligation. To prove this many feminist begun the establishment of committees to lobby government in order to gain the privilege of taking up 4) Any occupation