Women Suffrage - Essay Example

Running Head: WOMEN SUFFRAGE Women Suffrage Title: Name: Course: Date: Women’s Rights Introduction Women suffrage can be referred to as a movement that fought for women’s rights to vote and acquire leadership positions in political systems. It mainly focused on fighting for the rights of women in the society in different parts of the world. Both men and women in the modern world are being treated equally in all possible aspects of life be it in politics, in churches and also in any given aspect of work but this has not been the same case in the previous centuries and this is because men have always believed to be the leaders in any position. It is ironical that in the struggle for the fight of women’s rights their duties have been undermined for many years and they have been given duties of just being republican Mothers, participants in the church reforms and taking responsibilities related to their families only. There have been many injustices that have taken place in America that is against the rights of women (Crawford, p.71). In the early nineteenth century, most Americans did not find it necessary to categorize women and politics because they saw there was no point in that and they believed that politics was something that belonged to the world of men and it was believed that politics for women was to be surrounded within the sphere of their homes privacy. Whenever a woman tried to get herself involved into politics, it was believed that she was neglecting the duties that both God and nature had assigned them and was also believed to have defied the convention that was accepted. In the course of events that have taken place in human beings, it is very essential to consider a portion of man which has not taken place the way it is ought to because the laws of nature and the natures that God had entitled them to. Men and women are believed to be equal before the eyes of God and they have equal rights such as right to life, liberty and happiness among others and the government is supposed to support these rights. Since the creation of human beings, history has never favored women in any way because man has always seen her as an object that should submit to him. For many years men and nature at large had never given women an opportunity to exercise their rights in a way that is honest. Men have always compelled them to submit to any given laws without even raising their voices and thus they remain subject to what men say or decide for them. Women fighting for their Political rights Men have always felt superior to women through withholding from them the rights which are even given to the degraded and most ignorant men be it foreigners or neighbors. Women have been depressed in all sides of their lives through being deprived all their first rights that a citizen deserves and this leaves her without anyone to represent them in the legislation halls. Women have been made civilly dead in face of law, taken away from her the rights to own property and the wages that she earns. Women have been made to look like irresponsible beings and they should only submit to their husbands and do whatever they say (Adams, p.47). The rights of women have been taken away from them be it in church or in governments. They are not supposed to take any responsibilities in a public occasion, even the position of God has been given the male perspective and all these makes women look and feel inferior. Men have never given women any right to wealth, responsibility, as a teacher of law or medicine amongst others. Since men have not created a positive public sentiment for women though giving the world a code of morals that is different between men and women where they are excluded from the society and not tolerated only but have also been deemed into very little account in the society controlled and ruled by men. Women and men have been living in separate social spheres for a very long time although recent historiography for gender that was constructed in the nineteenth century has given much focus on these spheres that both men and women lived in. The duties that have been assigned to women both in the past years and in the present years such as bearing of children, cleaning the house, cooking and just being a housewife who takes care of the children. Men have always forced women to stick to lower or second based positions in life in everything that they do because women have always listened to them not giving them any chance to do anything or express themselves. Women Suffrage Though men and women in lived in different spheres, women did way beyond just cooking, cleaning and sewing but also gave moral and religious support to their husbands. In the modern world men and women have turn to be having equal rights because of the conventions that took place in the previous years like the Seneca Falls of the year 1840’s that was put forward to fight for the rights of women in the society. The Seneca convention was the first women rights convention that was put forward because women were not allowed to seat in conferences because of their sex. One of the first women to seat and attend a conference was Stanton who attended the anti-slavery convention where she wanted to address the issue affecting women in the society (Nettie, 2004). Women fighting for their freedom She wanted to fight for the rights of women and women decided to organize a convention that would discuss social, religious conditions and rights of women. Stanton went on with the discussions and the declaration of sentiments that would be used for the definition of the meeting where she submitted that men and women were equal and deserved to be treated equally and also revealed cases where there were injuries which against women that should have been leveled equally by the King of England. The Seneca Falls that allowed the equality between men and women was signed by close to one hundred people who attended the meeting although after the declaration being published many people criticized the issue and made some of the people who had signed to remove their names from the declaration. Stanton fought for women’s rights during the Seneca Falls Many conventions have been put across to fight for the rights of women in the society and they have been successful because in the modern world male chauvinism is not very popular since women and men tend to be given equal treatment by the society and the part of nature that does not support this notion is fading away. During the struggle in the fight for women’s rights, the church was another difficult part of the society that could be convinced that women should be given equality with men because they always believed that men should be the church leaders to be the head of the congregation because he is also the head of the family. After the civil war many conventions were held in favor of women’s rights but there were also conventions that only focused on the role of women back in their homes giving them rights that was only limited to the homes but not to the society at large. Personally I believe that men and women should be treated equally in the society since God created them both. In the modern world, both men and men are treated equally in order to make all feel comfortable in the society. Making one aspect or one part of humanity to feel superior does not make any difference in the society because it only makes life hard for people living in the society. (Elizabeth, 53). Although many people bring different reasons as to why there is no equality between men and women, I still believe that they should be treated equally and that women really deserve to be respected in the society because if it was not through them then the great men who have ever lived in history would not be there. The place of a woman in the society is very vital and important and this is something that many people especially those have always been against equality between these two parties have never admitted. In my opinion I would support the equality between men and women because in the modern it is very evident that women are the ones who are taking care of many homes and raising great leaders in the society and I believe that if men are given such responsibilities then they cannot make it. Men and women should be treated equally in the society at large. Thanks to the conventions that were held in the nineteenth century that were fighting against the rights of women, now we can see that men and women are being given equal education, job positions and general treatment in all aspect in life and this is an improvement in the positive direction. Women Suffrage in Brazil One of the countries that started implementing women’s rights movement is Brazil since it had already started accepting it by the second decade of the twentieth century. There were radical newspapers that had already started appearing in the urban centers and other women organizations. Most people were not yet very comfortable with the idea of women being given permission to publish articles or any other form of public attention through giving sympathetic discussions during debates like in one of them that was held in Sao Paulo back in the year 1912. This was one of the first debates that women attended and contributed in during the early twentieth century (Edith, p.69). Owing to the fact that most people from different parts of the world did not want women to be considered as equal as men in the society, in Brazil this was a different case because most people both men and women believed that women should be given the right to vote since they claimed that women would not take lengthy periods of time when voting. Upper-class Brazilians had been reassured that the increased women’s rights and mainly suffrage would not interfere with the structures of the society. Women in Brazil were highly respected and given all the rights they needed at that time. Gender equality in Brazil Most of the women who were already educated sought to gain some participation and authority in the government even though most men still thought that they could come with the main aim of cleaning up the government and have all the positions to their gender. They did this through asking to be given most of the rights that were similar to that of their husbands and this is because they wanted to gain access to some professional positions. Most of the women who gained those rights still ensured that they performed their duties in the house effectively except for a few who defied public proprieties or even conventional morality. One of the most amazing things about women suffrage in Brazil is that women received their rights without any scandals as compared to other countries around the world that had undergone through some scandals before giving women their rights. Most Brazilian women focused on attaining their political and civil rights in the society and they did everything that they could in order to make it happen and since there was less pressure from the men in their country. Women Suffrage in China In the year 1912, women came together in a group of sixty and played the role of suffrage activists who decided to go into the parliament in Nanjing in China in order to demand that they should be given the right to stand and vote in elections. They did it in very brutal ways such as smashing windows and chanting slogans and scuffling with the guards who could not allow them into the parliament and did not believe in having full and equal citizenship in the republic of Asia. The same women suffrage group came again nine years later to the provincial parliament to do the same thing while still fighting for their rights to be given equal treatment in the constitution. After fighting for their rights for long, women in China finally received their political right of being elected in the government and also voting for their candidates and this was considered to be a great success on their side because in very many parts of the world many women had not yet achieved this. Women Suffrage in Britain Women suffrage in Britain was quite different as compared to other parts of the world because Britons greatly believed that the world should do what has already been done by them. They decided to dominate the struggle for women citizenship in Britain and they did this through massive campaigns that were very energetic. By the year 1819, there were women reform unions that had already been put across. Democracy had not yet been gained in many parts of the world by the year 1850 but in Britain this was a different case because they had already started implementing democracy in their country. There was no equal representation of men and women in Britain even though this was one of the countries with a very wealthy aristocracy in any possible form of political power. Some of the reasons as to why gender equality did not exist in the politic in Britain are such as increased levels of bribery and corruption in their political government. Changing the attitude of the society towards embracing suffrage that would entail giving women the right to vote for men who were working class and also voting for women was not an easy task in Britain. True democracy entails freedom of speech, elections that are regular and gender equality in the society and this was not being implemented in the nineteenth century (Crawford, p.93). Democracy was not being viewed as an important factor for people who were ignorant in the society and did not deserve to posses power. Most of the people who were considered to be worthy of attaining power in the society were wealthy people and this regime had remained the same in the Britain political system since it began in the sixteenth century. People who were working were being given the priority to vote since they were believed to be more politically minded than others in the society. Most of the people in the society who had not attained a certain degree of education or wealth were not considered as voters and this means that voting could be done through intimidation and other forms of corruption by those who were considered to be wealthy. Only men who were above the age of 21 years were considered to be able to cast votes and women above the age of 30 years provided they were graduates and this was mainly made possible through the representation of the People Act that has passed in the year 1918. A decade later the same Act had to put both men and women on level in voting even though it was only applicable to University students in Britain and this was due to the pressure that the country received from the suffragists. Even though most women finally got political freedom to vote, they still did not get social equality. Though equality between men and women was given in Britain in the early nineteenth century, gender equality still remains a strong topic to be debated on in the modern world. The process of women suffrage took slow to be implemented in Britain, it really helped the political system to be improved. Women Suffrage in African Countries Most of the African countries remained to be among the last countries to attain women suffrage. In African countries most people have traditional beliefs on the roles that men and women should be playing in the society. African beliefs on gender roles are very strong and influential in most of African societies thus giving women rights in political systems. One of the first countries in Africa to attain women suffrage was South Africa and this was done through Women’s Christian Temperance Union which was founded in the year 1889 when they decided to campaign against beverage trade (Edwards, p.111). The temperance also fought for other rights of women such as giving them political leverage with men. This was an influence of the white colony in some African countries in the world and this means that Africans themselves did not have that in mind. Africans did not believe that men and women should be treated equally in the society. They strongly believed that women should be under the leadership of men in the society. In African countries most of the reforms fought for the right of white women who had colonized some parts of Africa and this made it very difficult for African women to be given their rights because a big percentage of them had not yet been educated. African women who have been denied their rights of speech The white women wanted to be given their rights to vote and have positions in the political systems that were governing African countries. The same white women who fought for their own freedom started fighting for the rights of African women to be educated in the society and their rights of speech. In the modern world a lot has changed in the manner in which African women are being treated in the society because many reforms have been formed in order to fight for the rights of women. Women in the modern world have the rights to vote and to participate in political issues in the modern world. Conclusion Finally, the struggle to ensure that women attained their rights to vote and to do other things in the society has been one of the greatest developments that the world at large has undergone. Gender equality ensures that everyone is seen as valuable in the society and this is a positive development. Bibliography Crawford, E (2006).The women's suffrage movement in Britain and Ireland: a regional survey Women's and gender history. New York, Taylor & Francis Edwards, L (2008). Gender, politics, and democracy: women's suffrage in China Stanford University Press Edith, J (1990). Emancipating the female sex: the struggle for women's rights in Brazil, 1850- 1940. Duke University Press, 1990 Elizabeth, P (2010).The communion of women: missions and gender in colonial Africa and the British metropole. Oxford University Press, 2010 Adams, C (2003). Women's suffrage: a primary source history of the women's rights movement in America. Rosen Publishing Group Nettie, R (2004).Woman suffrage and politics: the inner story of the suffrage movement. William S. Hein, 2004 Read More

The rights of women have been taken away from them be it in church or in governments. They are not supposed to take any responsibilities in a public occasion, even the position of God has been given the male perspective and all these makes women look and feel inferior. Men have never given women any right to wealth, responsibility, as a teacher of law or medicine amongst others. Since men have not created a positive public sentiment for women though giving the world a code of morals that is different between men and women where they are excluded from the society and not tolerated only but have also been deemed into very little account in the society controlled and ruled by men.

Women and men have been living in separate social spheres for a very long time although recent historiography for gender that was constructed in the nineteenth century has given much focus on these spheres that both men and women lived in. The duties that have been assigned to women both in the past years and in the present years such as bearing of children, cleaning the house, cooking and just being a housewife who takes care of the children. Men have always forced women to stick to lower or second based positions in life in everything that they do because women have always listened to them not giving them any chance to do anything or express themselves.

Women Suffrage Though men and women in lived in different spheres, women did way beyond just cooking, cleaning and sewing but also gave moral and religious support to their husbands. In the modern world men and women have turn to be having equal rights because of the conventions that took place in the previous years like the Seneca Falls of the year 1840’s that was put forward to fight for the rights of women in the society. The Seneca convention was the first women rights convention that was put forward because women were not allowed to seat in conferences because of their sex.

One of the first women to seat and attend a conference was Stanton who attended the anti-slavery convention where she wanted to address the issue affecting women in the society (Nettie, 2004). Women fighting for their freedom She wanted to fight for the rights of women and women decided to organize a convention that would discuss social, religious conditions and rights of women. Stanton went on with the discussions and the declaration of sentiments that would be used for the definition of the meeting where she submitted that men and women were equal and deserved to be treated equally and also revealed cases where there were injuries which against women that should have been leveled equally by the King of England.

The Seneca Falls that allowed the equality between men and women was signed by close to one hundred people who attended the meeting although after the declaration being published many people criticized the issue and made some of the people who had signed to remove their names from the declaration. Stanton fought for women’s rights during the Seneca Falls Many conventions have been put across to fight for the rights of women in the society and they have been successful because in the modern world male chauvinism is not very popular since women and men tend to be given equal treatment by the society and the part of nature that does not support this notion is fading away.

During the struggle in the fight for women’s rights, the church was another difficult part of the society that could be convinced that women should be given equality with men because they always believed that men should be the church leaders to be the head of the congregation because he is also the head of the family. After the civil war many conventions were held in favor of women’s rights but there were also conventions that only focused on the role of women back in their homes giving them rights that was only limited to the homes but not to the society at large.

Personally I believe that men and women should be treated equally in the society since God created them both.

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