Changing Roles of Women over Time - Research Paper Example

 Research Proposal Changing Roles of Women over Time 1. Purpose. Purpose of this paper is to research Changing Roles of Women in the society as the time passed covering approximately period of last two centuries. The research will note changing roles of women gradually while indicating important milestones in the struggle of women, different movements, important legislations and developments. The study will touch upon effects of abolitionism, suffrage and feminist movements. The research will include views indicated by short stories about women and few books written about women. 2. Research Questions i. When did the movement of women rights start? ii. What is the significance of The first women’s Rights convention held in 1848 in the struggle of women? iii. What are the basic themes expressed in short stories “The Story of an Hour” and “A Rose for Emily”? iv. What is the significance of 19th amendment in the women rights struggle? v. What was the impact of feminist movements on the struggle of women? 3. Research Methods And Strategies i. Study of online books, journals and articles on the subject. ii. Study of Websites ( using google.com, yahoo.com etc ) related to subject and selection of related sites iii. Research of printed material, books, newspapers and journals. iv. Writing of research proposal. v. Writing of outline and draft of research paper vi. Selection and addition of related reference material in the paper. vii. Review of research paper. viii. Finalization the research paper after spelling and grammar check. 4. Conclusion. Summary of the important points of research will be given with findings obtained during research. Overall impact of the research will be re collected in the conclusion. Works cited page would be added as a last page of the document. Changing Roles of Women over Time Women in present times are free and happy as compared to the women in last century or before. Over the centuries, women have been thought of a lesser creature, always under subjugation by males in the form of father, brother, husband or boyfriend. After living for centuries under domination of men, women even tend to forget they were free. This situation started changing over last century especially in Europe and America where women started achieving more freedom. In nineteenth century and before, women had a very less breathing space and rights. Many families and specially women were raised to behave in a certain way. It was almost a law and the way of being. Women were not given freedom since beginning of time mainly on the pretext of being physically weak. Women were able to attend schools not very far back in time. Along the years women rights have grown from very few to too many by now. The women had been suppressed based on self-defense, economic well being, employment, sex, harassment, family, abortion and many more reasons. The movement for women’s rights arose in the early 19th century as an offshoot of abolitionism, the anti-slavery movement that declared each human being to be a self-owner. As with other abolitionists, the early feminists were individualists who drew inspiration from the Declaration of Independence and its principles of individual rights and responsibility. “The first women’s Rights convention was held in 1848 at Seneca Falls, New York. Elizabeth Cady Stanton gave a speech about the Declaration of Sentiments. During this speech, she declared that men and women are created equal. This is truly considered the beginning of the women’s movement” (Women and freedom) .The woman leader was not only aiming for women vote but she also wanted women’s health, education, custody rights, property rights, birth control and employment. Once this movement started, it never stopped although civil war became a hurdle. During this, era women also focused on Abolitionist movement. Civil war ended in April 1865 and again women started their movement with new energy. In December 1865 US congress abolished slavery. This gave a new life to slaves especially black women slaves. Although slavery was abolished legally, groups with stakes never wanted it to go and this affected women as well. Several of the state legislatures voted in “Black Codes” to keep control over the African Americans. Kate Chopins have expressed good examples of feelings of a suppressed woman in her famous short story “The Story of an Hour”. The author has described emotions of a woman “Mrs. Mallard” in a very touching way. The story was written in 1894 when the feminist movement was moving towards climax but with hurdles. The short story describes the series of emotions, which a suppressed woman feels after the death of her husbands Mr. Mallard. The first emotion is natural, that is sorrow and grief. She weeps bitterly after her sister tells her about the death of her husband in a tactful manner. Her sister tells her about the death of her husband in a rail accident but in a gentle way, the woman is already a heart patient. Mrs. Mallard goes to her room and mourns death of her husband. During deep sorrow, she watches outside the window and in the meantime goes through an emotional change. She begins to feel slowly that after her husband she would live a life full of freedom with all time for herself and nobody else. It is probably because all her life, her husband kept her like a slave. She had no life of her own and always lived to serve her husband. After hearing news of her husband, she starts feeling that she has become a free human being. The author describes the moment in theses words “She said it repeatedly under the breath: "free, free, and free!" The vacant stare and the look of terror that had followed it went from her eyes. …………But she saw beyond that bitter moment a long procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely. In addition, she opened and spread her arms out to them in welcome ……………. "Free! Body and soul free!" she kept whispering….. When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease--of the joy that kills.” (Kate Chopin).The feeling of freedom is so immense and overwhelming that unfortunately Mrs. Mallard dies of happiness. The story takes a last turn of surprise showing that her husband Brantley Mallard had been alive and appears on the death of her wife. Every one considers that the woman died of grief but actually, she dies of happiness on seeing the freedom from her husband. Another sad story about the feelings and depressed emotions of women is “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner first published in the April 30, 1931. The story is about abnormal psychology of a woman who is introvert and un social. Her father dies and leaves her with a house with taxes to pay. She never pays taxes and never allows anyone to visit her house. She only fells in love with a person named “Homer Barron - A foreman from the North”. He later seems to reject her, disappears in Emily’s house, and decomposes in an attic bedroom after she poisons him. In the end, Emily Greisens dies and people of town find dead body of her ex lover in the house. The story is about emotions of a rejected and depressed woman. Life for this woman aged 74 is hopeless and worthless. The story invites reader to feel sympathy for depressed people specially women. The end of story is most touching and sad, with the words; “Already we knew that there was one room in that region above stairs which no one had seen in forty years, and which would have to be forced. ……… What was left of him, rotted beneath what was left of the nightshirt, had become inextricable from the bed in which he lay; and upon him and upon the pillow beside him lay that even coating of the patient and biding dust. Then we noticed that in the second pillow was the indentation of a head. One of us lifted something from it, and leaning forward, that faint and invisible dust dry and acrid in the nostrils, we saw a long strand of iron-gray hair.” On 4 June, 1919 US Congress passed 19th amendment which gave right of vote to women. Women went through a great struggle to achieve this. Beginning in the mid-19th century, several generations of woman suffrage supporters lectured, wrote, marched, lobbied, and practiced civil disobedience to achieve what many Americans considered a radical change of the Constitution. Women challenged many man-oriented laws in courts and won cases. Opponents treated women fighting for rights, with cruelty. When in 1917 President Wilson took side of women for 19th amendment, only then victory of women suffrage was in sight. “When Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify the amendment on August 18, 1920, the amendment passed its final hurdle of obtaining the agreement of three-fourths of the states. Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby certified the ratification on August 26, 1920, changing the face of the American electorate forever.” ( 19th amendment) In the book “The Changing position of women in family and society”, the author high lights in detail the socio economic situation of American women and concludes that women are no longer a demographic entity in census data; they are becoming social actors and probably a social force in their own right. (Eugen179) .In the book “Absent from the Majority: Working Class Women in America”, the authors have elaborated that a great deal of change is coming up in the lives of American women gradually. Women have started contributing in skilled areas along with men and they are no more a suppressed class, like in the last century. There are many changes coming to lives of women in USA. Birth rate is controlled, more educational, work opportunities are available, and women are seen with more respect in jobs. Skills of women are valued more. However still there are concerns that less educated women are contributing less towards the growth in society. It is expected now that women must contribute equal to men in workplaces (Seizer, Nancy). In the book “Tidal Wave: How Women Changed America at Century's End ” Sara M. Evans, one of foremost historians of women in America, draws on an extraordinary range of interviews, archives, and published sources to tell the incredible story of the past forty years in women's history. Encompassing the so-called Second Wave of feminism (1960s and 1970s) and the Third Wave (1980s and 1990s), Evans challenges traditional interpretations of women's history, covering politics, economics, popular culture, marriage and family. Tidal Wave gives an elaborate picture of ups and downs of society over the years. As compared to 1960s, when few women worked outside the home, married women could not borrow money in their own names, schools imposed strict quotas on female applicants, and sexual harassment did not exist as a legal concept situation in USA has drastically changed now. (Sara M. Evans) To summarize American women won the right to vote in 1920, however this change started over a century ago. During 1960s phenomenon of women’s movement became popular. The movement was regarding change of perceptions and roles of women. Women also faced great resistance. Many groups felt threatened by empowering women .Time has proved that changing roles of women has contributed positively towards growth of American society after suffrage. America has witnessed important changes in women’s roles, driven not by politics but by economics. The biggest impact was on transition from an agricultural economy to a corporate, commercial and industrial one. In 1920s, 25 percent of American lived on farms and women contributed to farming in addition to household work. In cities, middle class depended on male wage earner only. Over the years, women started working outside homes in urban areas as well. The Great Depression, with unemployment rates rising to 25 percent, created competing pressures. There was great demand that women should stay home so that men could get work. Later, The World Wars pressures forced men and women alike to find work. As men joined military, more work opportunity was created for women. By 1960s, a third of American wives were outside homes for work. Despite the fact that women workers contributed about a quarter of the family’s income, they routinely met with discrimination on the job. Employers advertised in newspaper columns headed “Help Wanted — Male,” and “Help Wanted —Female,” medical and law schools established quotas for women students, even the federal government permitted its executives to request applicants from the civil service register by sex. Employers justified their practices by pointing to women’s family responsibilities, which they said took too much time away from home. With one-third of the labor force female and the United States engaged in a global contest with the Soviet Union requiring the most effective use of all its resources, it had become clear to policy-makers that the nation had to address the tension between women roles as mothers and workers. 1n 1961 President Kennedy established a commission to solve dual role problems of women, all 50 states followed. In 1963, Congress passed legislation prohibiting differentials by sex in wage rates in private industry. A more radical women’s movement almost immediately started at the same time for civil rights and social justice. From 1974 to 93 better laws kept coming up. In 1990, Congress passed a law to provide federal funds for childcare. In 1997, law for the persistence of sex roles at home was passed which means that most women who work full time for wages, also shoulder the major part of home and family care responsibilities. The change in women’s status in the decades since World War II has been dramatic. The right of a married woman to work outside the home is no longer in question. Today women are comparatively free to live their life. Public Law of 1972 gives many guarantees to women in educational field. The law states that no person in the United States shall, based on sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal assistance (Public Law 1972). In USA first wave of feminism focused on getting women rights for voting etc. The second wave in 70s addressed inequalities, office legalities, sexuality, family, workplace, education and reproductive rights. By now women, enjoy freedom to live outside influence of fathers, brothers and husbands. The interpersonal roles of women have undergone great changes due to feminist movements. The activities, which gave men dominating positions, like control of resources and decision making are equally being performed by women. As time passes, women are also getting positions of higher status and authority. As the industry, progressed requirement of physical work reduced which also gave working women a comfortable position. The beliefs about sex discrimination are often derived from role performance of men and women; however, these are changing as well with changes in role of women. The impact of change in role of women has also been observed in psychological and social behaviors of men and the society as a whole. Women are considered a nucleus in the family. Women are also a binding force in the family structure and serve as an institution. If the institution of family is strong, it will give a tremendous strength to society as a whole. Gender differences must not be allowed to take form of a war between men and women. To conclude it will be fair to say that after a long struggle and many movements women are generally free from male domination in USA. Works Cited Women and freedom movement from Civil War 1865 through Progressive Era 1920. 1 August 2009 ©2011 AllFreeEssays.com. Web. 1April 2011.http://www.allfreeessays.com/essays/Women-And-Freedom/110851.html Kate Chopin (1894) "The Story of An Hour", www.vcu.edu Web. 16 April 2011 http://www.vcu.edu/engweb William Faulkner, A Rose for Emily (1930) Kennedy, X. J., and Goya, Dana, eds. _Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama_. 6 Ed. New York: Harper Collins, 1995. Web. 17 April 2011 http://www.A Rose for Emily.mht Women's Right to Vote (1920) Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Joint Resolution of Congress proposing a constitutional amendment extending the right of suffrage to women, May 19, 1919; Ratified Amendments, 1795-1992; General Records of the United States Government; Record Group 11; National Archives. web 19 April 2011. http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=true&doc=6319th www.ourdocuments.gov Eugen Lupri ,The Changing position of women in family and society .Web. 19 April 2011 http://books.google.com.pk/books Seifer , Nancy ,Absent from the Majority: Working Class Women in America, ERIC education resources Information centerh .Web. 19 April 2011 http://eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/search/detailmini.jsp Sara M. Evans Tidal Wave: How Women Changed America at Century's End ©2011 Good reads Inc web. 19 April 2011. http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/972256.Tidal_Wave Read More