Women's rights have
been infringed upon for centuries, much less so today in modern times, but it
surely has been a long fight to get to this point. Although things still aren't
perfect with the way women are viewed and considered, it used to be much, much
worse.
In the 1800's there were four characteristics of the "ideal woman". These ideas discouraged women from being anything more than a housewife, which at the time, was thought of as a simple activity while in actuality, being a homemaker today is considered a job. Woman was said to have a brain too small for knowledge or intelligence, but just big enough for love, creating the idea that women were inferior to men intellectually, let alone physically.
The first “ideal characteristic” of a woman was piety, the quality of being religious. It was important for a woman to understand that one of her sole purposes on Earth was to bring "the world out of sin through her suffering, through her pure, passionless love". Religion was one of the things that woman was able to turn to in her terribly "boring and uneventful" home life in the private sphere. Irreligion in females was considered to be the "most revolting human characteristic" and it was common thought that a godless woman couldn't be able to be a good mother.
Purity was the second characteristic. It was believed that, "without sexual purity, a woman was no woman, but rather a lower form of being", and that a woman could use her purity to control men. She was expected to remain pure until marriage, and "despite any male attempt to assault her, she must remain pure and chaste". A woman who lost her purity before marriage was said to be doomed to a life of poverty and mishaps as punishment from God for her sin.
Submissiveness was another ideal characteristic of a woman. A woman was expected to be a passive bystander, "submitting to fate, to duty, to God, and to Men", at all times. Required to wear restricting types of clothing, she was reminded day in and day out that she was lesser and restricted in all aspects of life. The clothing required was designed to reshape the body to make an hourglass shape, and often prevented proper muscle development, restricted movement and inhibited breathing. Clothing like this literally caused women to feel weak and women often fainted because of their restricted breathing.
Domesticity was the fourth and final characteristic of an ideal woman. The woman's place was in the home and her role was to complete “morally uplifting tasks” all aimed at “maintaining and fulfilling” her piety and purity. Housework was considered to be an "uplifting task" along with crafts such as needlework and other appropriate activities along with her wifely duties and childcare. The home was considered the private sphere, and everywhere else the public sphere. Women were contained to this private sphere of the home and according to the cult of domesticity solely existed to “keep the private sphere tidy and welcoming for her husband”; she had to make it a place he could go to find comfort and escape the evils of the outside world.
The Seneca Falls Convention was a woman's rights convention held by white upper-class women tired of the standards they were held to and the little rights they had. It was essentially an event where women decided they were sick of being treated as an inferior and lesser portion of the human race. There, The Declaration of Rights and Sentiments, a document modeled after The Declaration of Independence, was composed. It consisted of their demands concerning Women's roles and treatment in society, making up a list of twelve. Some demands included being equal to men not only in societal matters but also equality in punishment for wrong doings such as being impure, insisting that everyone be held to the same standard. Women's suffrage (the right to vote) was not included on the final draft of the Declaration of Rights and Sentiments because of its controversy. Almost every woman and man at the convention agreed that women should have the right to vote, but were reluctant to include it in the declaration for fear it would be asking too much. The idea was too radical for the time period and they didn't want to risk upsetting people so much because of one issue that the entire document would be dismissed as a whole.
Although the Seneca Falls Convention was a great way for women to get representation and express their opinions on what their rights should be, only white middle class women attended, leaving many other groups of women out of the equation. Our class did a mock version of the convention, but this time, with the unrepresented groups included. These groups of women included Women of New Mexico, Mill Girls, Cherokee Women, and Black/ Slave Women. The class formed resolutions that would benefit women of these groups as well as the Upper Class White Women initially represented in the convention. The group I was assigned to was Cherokee Women. The resolutions my group and I came up with were:
1) Resolved that all treaties regarding property and treatment of Native American are upheld.
2) Resolved that all people have the right to vote.
3) Resolved that all Cherokee people have the right to participate in all institutions public or private.
4) Resolved that abuse against anyone is no longer tolerated.
5) Resolved that women have the right to divorce their husband for any logical reason with or without their husbands consent.
The 3rd resolution was converted to "freedom of speech in public for all people" once coming together with the whole class. This resolution overlaps with the freedom of public speech from the actual convention; at the time women were allowed to perform in public, so they argued they should be able to speak in public too.
Of all of the resolutions discussed during our class’ mock convention I thought that freedom of speech in public was the most important. Once a woman has the freedom to speak in public, she is able to advocate for other rights. I believe that our society has come very far, but not far enough when it comes to the rights of women and the objectives of the convention. Yes, women are allowed to speak in public now, and yes, they are not usually considered academically inferior to men anymore, but, there are still many opinions and perceptions of women need to change. If things had really changed and women were considered completely equal to men the demeaning expression of doing something "like a girl" would not exist. Women are still thought of as lesser capable humans when it comes to many things, and are still often thought of as weak emotionally and physically. The day women are considered to be just as strong as men both physically and emotionally, and gender roles no longer define our society, will be the day that women will finally be considered as what they are, equal to men.
In the 1800's there were four characteristics of the "ideal woman". These ideas discouraged women from being anything more than a housewife, which at the time, was thought of as a simple activity while in actuality, being a homemaker today is considered a job. Woman was said to have a brain too small for knowledge or intelligence, but just big enough for love, creating the idea that women were inferior to men intellectually, let alone physically.
The first “ideal characteristic” of a woman was piety, the quality of being religious. It was important for a woman to understand that one of her sole purposes on Earth was to bring "the world out of sin through her suffering, through her pure, passionless love". Religion was one of the things that woman was able to turn to in her terribly "boring and uneventful" home life in the private sphere. Irreligion in females was considered to be the "most revolting human characteristic" and it was common thought that a godless woman couldn't be able to be a good mother.
Purity was the second characteristic. It was believed that, "without sexual purity, a woman was no woman, but rather a lower form of being", and that a woman could use her purity to control men. She was expected to remain pure until marriage, and "despite any male attempt to assault her, she must remain pure and chaste". A woman who lost her purity before marriage was said to be doomed to a life of poverty and mishaps as punishment from God for her sin.
Submissiveness was another ideal characteristic of a woman. A woman was expected to be a passive bystander, "submitting to fate, to duty, to God, and to Men", at all times. Required to wear restricting types of clothing, she was reminded day in and day out that she was lesser and restricted in all aspects of life. The clothing required was designed to reshape the body to make an hourglass shape, and often prevented proper muscle development, restricted movement and inhibited breathing. Clothing like this literally caused women to feel weak and women often fainted because of their restricted breathing.
Domesticity was the fourth and final characteristic of an ideal woman. The woman's place was in the home and her role was to complete “morally uplifting tasks” all aimed at “maintaining and fulfilling” her piety and purity. Housework was considered to be an "uplifting task" along with crafts such as needlework and other appropriate activities along with her wifely duties and childcare. The home was considered the private sphere, and everywhere else the public sphere. Women were contained to this private sphere of the home and according to the cult of domesticity solely existed to “keep the private sphere tidy and welcoming for her husband”; she had to make it a place he could go to find comfort and escape the evils of the outside world.
The Seneca Falls Convention was a woman's rights convention held by white upper-class women tired of the standards they were held to and the little rights they had. It was essentially an event where women decided they were sick of being treated as an inferior and lesser portion of the human race. There, The Declaration of Rights and Sentiments, a document modeled after The Declaration of Independence, was composed. It consisted of their demands concerning Women's roles and treatment in society, making up a list of twelve. Some demands included being equal to men not only in societal matters but also equality in punishment for wrong doings such as being impure, insisting that everyone be held to the same standard. Women's suffrage (the right to vote) was not included on the final draft of the Declaration of Rights and Sentiments because of its controversy. Almost every woman and man at the convention agreed that women should have the right to vote, but were reluctant to include it in the declaration for fear it would be asking too much. The idea was too radical for the time period and they didn't want to risk upsetting people so much because of one issue that the entire document would be dismissed as a whole.
Although the Seneca Falls Convention was a great way for women to get representation and express their opinions on what their rights should be, only white middle class women attended, leaving many other groups of women out of the equation. Our class did a mock version of the convention, but this time, with the unrepresented groups included. These groups of women included Women of New Mexico, Mill Girls, Cherokee Women, and Black/ Slave Women. The class formed resolutions that would benefit women of these groups as well as the Upper Class White Women initially represented in the convention. The group I was assigned to was Cherokee Women. The resolutions my group and I came up with were:
1) Resolved that all treaties regarding property and treatment of Native American are upheld.
2) Resolved that all people have the right to vote.
3) Resolved that all Cherokee people have the right to participate in all institutions public or private.
4) Resolved that abuse against anyone is no longer tolerated.
5) Resolved that women have the right to divorce their husband for any logical reason with or without their husbands consent.
The 3rd resolution was converted to "freedom of speech in public for all people" once coming together with the whole class. This resolution overlaps with the freedom of public speech from the actual convention; at the time women were allowed to perform in public, so they argued they should be able to speak in public too.
Of all of the resolutions discussed during our class’ mock convention I thought that freedom of speech in public was the most important. Once a woman has the freedom to speak in public, she is able to advocate for other rights. I believe that our society has come very far, but not far enough when it comes to the rights of women and the objectives of the convention. Yes, women are allowed to speak in public now, and yes, they are not usually considered academically inferior to men anymore, but, there are still many opinions and perceptions of women need to change. If things had really changed and women were considered completely equal to men the demeaning expression of doing something "like a girl" would not exist. Women are still thought of as lesser capable humans when it comes to many things, and are still often thought of as weak emotionally and physically. The day women are considered to be just as strong as men both physically and emotionally, and gender roles no longer define our society, will be the day that women will finally be considered as what they are, equal to men.
