Many turned to prostitution to make ends meet, or joined convents to work as servants for the nuns. The attitude towards women, their treatment and their rights, underwent many changes during the Renaissance. During feudal times women were given more liberties and enjoyed freedoms. They could own land and had many of the rights men had. However, this period where so many great changes had been made in the church, in literature, and in all other artistic areas, women took a big step backward in their fight for equality.
Did women’s status change in the 1970’s? Name Teacher Date Will there ever be a time when women are not considered news? Even in modern days, we still read that there is a new woman first for something. But, indeed woman are more welcomes and accepted in society now than in previous dates, and it is what has happened ‘then’ that affects our ‘now’. All throughout the 1970’s women are dealing with their lack of equality – may it be within the work area, politically, at home, or with laws.
During the 17th and 18th century, the lives of Mary Johnson and Grace Growden Galloway defined the meaning of the American experience for colonial women. It was a very difficult time for them, but they were both able to live free, get married, own crops, and start a family on their own will, something most women could not do. Both of these women lived very full lives for their time periods, which was surprising as most people would die from diseases or murder. However, these women are from very different worlds, centuries, and race. Grace Growden Galloway was a white woman of social class from Philadelphia who defended herself in her husband’s name with marriage laws, but ultimately ended up being defeated in a tragic way.
This led to many protests and campaigns by women to allow them more rights. These campaigns were often successful in gaining publicity and persuading the government to pass more laws to help women. It became known as the Women’s Liberation Movement. When women social attitudes were that the husband was in charge of everything and the wife should do as he said. Women were not happy about this and wanted to be seen as equivalent to their husbands in the marriage.
In this essay the topics we will be talking about are the women’s role in World War One, the rights of women before and after the war and the way the women were appreciated. Women in the nineteenth century didn’t have many rights, men practically owned them. This all changed in 1914 because society’s “idea” of the perfect women was someone who took care of the household duties and children, that when their husband came home from work they would have a clean house and a nice cooked meal ready for them. The working class would work as maids and in domestic service but once they were married they would quit. Women were not heard and if tried to be were shamed upon society.
In an age characterized by gender inequality, women were often told “your assignment, as wives and mothers, you can do in the living room with a baby in your lap or in the kitchen with a can opener in your hand” (Governor Adlai Stevenson, 1955). During the 19th century, women enjoyed few of the political, social and physical rights and opportunities that women of the 20th and 21st century have. Since then, women have fought for a more equal society and a more equal role by accomplishing a significant amount of goals that increased women’s opportunities. While political opportunities, working gender roles, and fashion are challenges that women face today, they are not as bad as the ones that women in the 19th century had to endure. Though not completely represented, women play vital roles in government nowadays as opposed to in the 19th century, when they were not even allowed to vote.
Women and Society There once was a time where women were treated differently, just because they where women. Women's proper role in society was largely limited to the domestic sphere, and even in family life, both legally and actually, women were always supposed to be under the control of some male authority: first by the father, then by the husband, and if the woman were widowed, in many regions finally by either male children or the male relatives of her deceased spouse. The course of a woman's life was clearly defined: first as daughter and virgin, then as wife and mother, and finally as widow. Only a wealthy widow had any real chance of being more or less independent and in charge of her own life. During the 1920’s a woman’s role in society was to cater to their husband and families.
The legal systems have perpetuated the injustices and discrimination against women and other minority groups in the society. The status of a woman in the American legal systems for example has deepened the misconception that women are inferior compared to men. The common law does not give a woman any legal recognition and is not allowed to own property. Historically, the American law has rendered the woman defenseless in the management of family and social affairs. For many years, women in the United States had no voting rights which denied them the opportunity to try their hand in politics.
There are several things that a woman could not do in Stanton's time. These included the right to vote, the right to own property, the right to an advanced education, and the right to have her own money. There were also laws that prohibited them from gaining custody of their children after a divorce. Many women did not like this and fought hard to gain the liberty that they felt they deserved. Today, women have gained most of these rights.
Domonique Robinson Paper 3 October 17th 2011 Word Count: 608 Breaking the Stigma Women were not always thought to be as strong as they are today. Women have come a long way and mostly due to themselves. Well into the 19th century, women’s roles were constrained to their households. They worked in the home while males worked out of the home. The women’s role was to be a wife and a mother.