Feminism
Feminism can be roughly defined as a movement that seeks to enhance the
quality
of women’s lives by impacting the norms and moves of a society based
on male
dominance and subsequent female subordination. The means of change in
the work
place, politically, and domestically. Women have come a long way
since the 19th
century. Women have been trying to prove to the male dominant
world that they
are equal. They can perform and complete any tasks equal, or
in some cases
better than man. Feminism has changed the definition of men in
many ways. Women
in the work place have transposed dramatically since the
19th and mid 20th
century. Even if women had any education in the 19th
century they were not allow
to manifest any of it. It just was not proper for
women to give any signs of
intelligence and a brain of their own. They were
to prepare themselves to become
wives and mothers, which were the extent of
their entire lives. In the early and
mid 20th century some women were
starting to be brave and take a stand for
themselves. The beginnings of
feminism were starting to take its massive role in
society. More and more
women were getting educated and looking for employment
opportunities that had
power. Men no longer can be in control of everything. Men
in the work place
started to feel impotent. But women fed off each other and
gave each other
strength. They were not looking for just the secretarial jobs;
they were
taking some men’s jobs and being good at it. They were becoming
police
officers, fireman, managers and business owners. Taking and sharing jobs
with
men, and performing just as well. For example, in the film Mr. Mom when
the
husband gets laid off work and the wife goes to work to support their
family. It
is very easy for a woman to do a man’s job but very difficult for
a man to
take over a woman’s duty at home. Another way women have changed
the
definition of men is politically. Many years ago women were not allowed
to vote.
But women changed that in the early 1900’s. With the woman
suffrage movement,
it was a courageous and persistent political campaign,
which lasted over 72
years, yet because of this women are allowed to vote
today. This might have
affected men greater than anything else, giving women
power to vote and to
actually give them a voice was ludicrous for men to
allow. Ever since women have
taken greater and greater roles in the political
world. It was another sense of
power or control men lost out in. In the
reading Declaration of Sentiments and
Resolutions, Elizabeth Cady
Stanton, gives the voice of the many women who felt
the same way she did.
There was a need of change in society. But men too helped
with the decision
making of the 1900’s. The suffrage movement both included
men as supporters
and depended on men for their votes. The suffrage question
often received
tens of thousands of male votes of approval, and ultimately, a
virtual
all-male Senate and House had to approve the amendment, along with
36
virtually all-male state legislatures. Courageous men risked ridicule and
worse
to actively support women’s rights, and they offer far better role
models
today than many better-known political and military figures.
Domestically, women
and men have changed their roles dramatically. There were
no questions before
who would do the household duties. Now men and women
share them equally. Women
do not accept the stereotyping of "you’re the wife
you cook and clean."
Men share with the cleaning and the cooking, even
with the diaper changing.
There are still many men who will not perform
any of these duties. They still
believe it is a woman’s job. For instance, in
the film Mr. Mom, Michael Keaton
takes the role of the mother, but does a
lousy job. The simplicity of changing a
diaper is very difficult for him to
do. But the fact that woman do not accept
the husbands to sit around and do
nothing anymore have changed men. Men know
they can’t get away with it
anymore. Oppose to back to just the 1950’s women
would do it all when it came
to the house. It was a way society viewed women,
because of the television
shows like, Leave it to Beaver, and the Brady Bunch.
And the wives did
all of the domestic duties there was to be done. Husbands
would come home and
sit on the couch and read the newspaper. Since women started
working because
of the necessity of the income needed. It became to be self
explanatory that
the household duties are to be shared. Men no longer again had
power or
control in the household either. In conclusion, we ask ourselves is it
a
matter of control that men did not like taken away from them? In a
society
that has come a long way women can probably say they are not yet
equal to men.
But women are getting closer and closer every day. In the
work place,
politically, and domestically women should be proud of what they
have achieved
in the past 100 years. Men might feel less of a man but at the
same time women
are humans just as they are. They shouldn’t feel less of a
person but proud
that they have an equal as their partners.