Women's Studies: Extension Activity Essay

1360 Words6 Pages
Devyn Smith A/B block Women’s Studies: Extension Activity In the United States, women are 52% of the population. Studies also show that many more women vote, compared to men. The voting turn out in 2004 clearly shows that more women vote. 44.9% of women and 38.8% of men 18-24 years old voted, 55% of women and 48.8% of men 25-44 years old voted, 68.3% of women and 65.9% of men 45-64 years old voted. Women take more advantage of voting through the ages than men do, possibly because women had to fight so hard for that simple right. People like to believe that feminism has no real reason to expand or exist after the first wave. That is not true. In fact, women are still fighting for basic rights, such as birth control, today. Feminism is still strongly needed in today’s culture. The first wave of feminism started in the mid 1800s and continued on until 1920, when women gained suffrage. Suffragists wrote the “Declaration of Rights and Sentiments”. It was their version of the “Declaration of Independence,” and was…show more content…
Here it clearly shows that women were bitter that they did not yet have the right to vote, yet all men – uneducated or educated, foreigners or native, rich or poor— did have the right to vote, though not all exercised the right. Then, there were some women who were against gaining the right to vote. Many women were against having suffrage, mainly working-lower-class women and higher-class women. Some women thought suffrage was not correct, or lady like, and that voting was “manly”. In Iron Jawed Angels one such women said, “I don’t quite have the head for politics.” It was expected of women to believe that they “didn’t have the head” for certain things, such as politics. That’s how most men thought— women don’t have the head for politics. It was actually thought that all women have smaller brains than all men. That women were, “Just added to humanity—an

More about Women's Studies: Extension Activity Essay

Open Document