Elizabeth Cady Stanton's Criticisms of the Nineteenth Century Gender Order - Essay Example

The world population is rising every single day. If the American Census Bureau is something to go by, by the year 2050 it is estimated that the population would have grown to 383 million out of which women will be the majority by 195 million and America is not an exception to this growth. The issue that rises is if the women will have a voice in the national policies that will be implemented and other fields such as education them being the majority. Will they find an adequate presentation in the government in terms of the number of women in parliament We live in a world where each day there arise new issues on gender. The most striking part is the role of women in the society as opposed to that of their male counterparts. In the 19th century, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and other women activists realized that being denied influential rights such as the right to vote while men were allowed to was oppressing women. It was argued that since women were attached to men through husbands and fathers, men could vote for them. Men were also the main decision makers and women were only to submit to what had been decided. One wonders how women's needs could be catered for if they could not be allowed to vote. There are issues which are unique to women and need only women to address them and focus is placed on Elizabeth Cady Stanton, a woman who feared nothing to voice out the plight of women at a time when the cultural values in America restricted women from trying to challenge or be above men. The woman was simply to give birth and take care of the children and the husband. This paper presents some of the criticisms that were made by Elizabeth Stanton such as issues to do with birth control, divorce and voting rights and shows how she fought to correct them. It analyses this issues in the current America to show that though some gender issues have been given attention and solved, others continue to emerge hence the need for continual review of the issues affecting women. The fight to gain women rights started and still goes on!!! Colin L. Powell once said that women rights are human rights hence failing to address issues affecting women implies failing to address the issues affecting the entire humanity. Elizabeth Cady Stanton was disturbed by the fact that women were denied the right to vote and hence the choice of who to lead them and what policies to be implemented. As a result many of the challenges facing them were not addressed in the governments in place. Women were expected to respect the will of the men and therefore their choices. She felt that men only exercised tyrannical leadership towards women and never cared about their needs. The fact that women did not vote, according to her, was an implication that they were mute. That their plights could not be heard nor addressed. At one point she was furious to the point that she asked why the ignorant black men and immigrant men were allowed to vote while educated white women who were natives of America could not be allowed to vote. She felt the need to sensitize other women to fight for their rights to vote for these could be the only way in which their needs were to be addressed. They had to come together and with one voice demand for the rights that they had been denied for years. They had to be involved in political maters for this could enable them to be free from the frequent exploitations and dependence on men. This suggestion was obviously going to be met with a lot of resistance since it touched on some of the cultural values of the American society, which had been held by the American people for a long time. This is why Elizabeth Stanton and her female friend Susan B. Anthony did not see this dream they held come true up to their deaths. It took a long time for the American people, more especially men, to agree to the adoption of the ideas advocated by Stanton and other American feminists of the time. Stanton was also opposed to the idea the idea that men should have better and advanced education than women. This, she had experienced when her father denied her the opportunity to go to college, even though she was always on top of the class in terms of performance, simply because she was not a man. The father argued that it was unseemly for a woman to access college education. She believed that knowledge gain did not depend on sex. That the ability to understand concepts was not based on the sex of someone but on the inherent ability in a person. She advocated for the integration of girls and women in every level of education and was opposed to schools, which only had males or females as students. She felt that people had to mix and respect each other regardless of sex and even race. She also was concerned with major problems in marriage especially on the woman's role in marriage and the divorce issue. This did not augur well to the ears of some of her audience since it was a cultural issue in the 19th century and no person; especially a woman was expected to challenge it. The male audience did not like this approach of Stanton since they felt it was a "threat" to their happiness since they were the superiors in the family. She argued that when a man married, he didn't give up any right, but the woman when married had to give up all her rights and be under the man in everything including the most basic and essential rights for example giving birth. She had no choice on the number of children that she was supposed to give birth to and after how long. Stanton believed that as long as the marriage relations remained as they were, where men were always superior and the overall decision makers, then the marriage would just be a form of legal prostitution and women will not have self respect and also men could not respect them at all since one can only treat you the way you present yourself. As long as women could not have self-respect on themselves, then men could not respect them too. They would continue to exploit them and demand that they follow whatever they were instructed without question. She often believed that the kind of marriage that existed was only for the man and she called this "man marriage". Stanton also felt that the laws dealing with divorce needed to be revised so that one could be free to leave his/her partner incase the partner became cruel, adulterous, a drunk, abusive or if they were not compatible. She also believed that women had the right to exercise birth control although this was not reflected in her own marriage where she gave birth seven children. Since the woman was the one taking care o her children, she ha the right to decide the size of her family. Elizabeth did not side with the idea that a woman should simply obey her husband even when the man is wrong. This she showed when declined to say the word "obey" when saying her vows during her wedding to Henry Stanton. She even decided never to use the name "Mrs. Henry Stanton" to show that she was not under him. Due to the feeling that the woman was being despised and exploited by being given all the responsibilities to take care of the husband, rear children, do all the household chores without the help of her husband made her take a step by calling upon a public meeting which sensitized women to fight for their rights and free themselves from this slavery. This in turn made many women to rise up and hence some changes to these oppressions were made even though Elizabeth did not start to work with them immediately. She advocated for the kind of marriage where man and woman were equal. Where the man and woman would lead the same life, life that was equal, same restraints upon each of them and also share the privileges equally. In America today, things are not the same as they used to be in Stanton's time. An amendment to the United States constitution has led to people being allowed to vote regardless of their sex. From 1920 to 1980, American women have fought against the exploitations that used to be in the 19th century such as being denied access to education. Results were fruitful as women were now allowed to own businesses and the number of females being enrolled in colleges is now almost the same as that of men. However, other issues are emerging on the discrimination of women. Women presentation is still very poor in the institutions where policies are being made and implemented. There are few women in the government in place. As much as women can now be in well and high paying jobs, the society has a bad attitude towards women who work and also businesswomen. Men still regard their women as merely housewives. Women who delay to give birth because of the career opportunities they have been accorded are being regarded as failures and outcasts. In fact, some men avoid marrying women who are learned regarding them social misfits. Gender discrimination is so clearly shown in the presidential race among democrats where male voters are seen to prefer voting for Barrack Obama against Hillary Clinton her being a woman. It is the responsibility of women to continue to fight and pursue the mission started by Elizabeth Stanton. Women who just sit down and wait for decisions to be made for them are delaying the course, and as Stanton refers them, they are foolish. The political leaders in this case men need to be sensitive to the women needs and accommodate them in the political cycle to ensure that their needs are well catered for. The works of Elizabeth and her other partners such as Susan Anthony still inspire many feminists today. As a result, the course to save women from the injustices facing them has its fires still burning to date. References: DuBois Carol Ellen (2005). Through Women's Eyes: An American History with Documents. Bedford Martins Stanton, Cady Elizabeth. (1992). The Elizabeth Cady Stanton-Susan B. Anthony Reader: Correspondence, Writings. Northeastern University. Read More