Women’s Rights: The Road to Equality for all.JEMMA LIPPERDSOCIOLOGY 1A

How did gender roles start in the first place?• Set of culturally defined behaviors based on the biological sex

of a person. Masculinity and Femininity

• In hunter/gatherer societies men hunted for food while women gathered crops and stayed to feed and care for the children.

• Men: built larger and stronger

• Females: smaller, bodies able to give birth

• Biology plays a big role into gender roles. In ancient times men would hunt while women took care of the farming and child rearing.

• Biological sex leads to gender assuming characteristics of males and females. Men are labeled as masculine, tough, rough, and not known to be nurturing (although it is not the case it is what society has labeled men as) the male gender generalization is valued thing whereas female characteristics has been a devalued trait.

• These generalized ideas lead to women being seen as inferior. Men are also victims of gender role generalizations. http://images.nationalgeographic.com/wpf/media-

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History of persecution of Women• Biblical stories promoting selling of women, beating of women,

female submission, etc.

• Female genital mutilation: practiced in many cultures (even today), to control a woman’s sexuality, removal of outer genitalia to reduce pleasure experienced during sex

• Women punished with death for adultery. Men not punished for adultery in most societies.

• Persecution of women labeled as ‘witches’ throughout history. Most notably in Salem Massachusetts during the 1600s

• European persecution of female healers and midwives accused of witchcraft

• Child-brides: still a practice in some countries

• Death punishments of women who are victims of sexual assault (still happening)

• Label of women in power as ‘bitch’

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Women’s Suffrage in the United States• First women’s suffrage meeting in 1848. Early form

concerned with industrial barriers that limited the rights of women: education, family barriers, no political voice, no economic possibilities, no ownership of home or land.

• Movement didn’t get popularity until the 1910s, the country was in a progressive movement which helped the suffrage cause.

• In the 1910s the movement was led by middle class women who started clubs, charities, clubs, and organizations

• Some members of the more radical side used militant attacks.

• Women Finally won the right to vote in 1920 with the passing of the 19th amendment

• The fight was not over, a battle had been won, but there were still more issues of equality to face

• After the vote was won the suffrage movement split off into different factions with different causes. Social reform, labor reform, pacifism, and education were some of the issues at hand.

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Society’s view on feminism

Feminists• Aren’t man haters

• Members of all genders and gender identities can be feminists

• Feminism is about equality for everyone male/female/trans etc.

• Sexism exists still today and against both men and women

Anti-feminists• Feminists hate men and

think women are better

• Only women can be feminists

• Feminism only cares about women

• There’s no sexism so feminists aren’t needed anymore .

• Feminists are angry and irrational people

Non-partial• Don’t want to identify as

feminist because of the bad connotations

• Haven’t personally experienced discrimination or don’t realize they have

• Don’t see signs of inequality

How Feminists View Feminism• Feminism’s goal is to gain equality for everyone

regardless of sex, gender, gender identification, age, race, etc. A true feminist doesn’t hate men; man-hating is an incorrect label people give to feminism.

• Feminists want equal rights for all humans in America and across the world.

• In the beginning of the feminist movement the main members were women. In recent times feminism has branched out to include all people of all genders and gender identifications. Men now are considering themselves as feminists.

• There may be leaders of certain feminist groups but the entire idea is ‘unity’ and ‘equality’. Everyone works together to fight for equal rights

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Functionalist Perspective on Feminism• Functionalism believes that all parts of a society

work together to function and reach a common goal

• A functionalist may see gender roles and gender inequalities as a necessity. A functionalist may think these exist in order for society to keep going: men work and provide for their families so the women can stay home, get pregnant, and take care of the children so that the children will inherit the society

• A functionalist may see feminism as a way of going against what makes society work. There is also a chance that a functionalist will see that over the years society has changed but still functions even though women have the same rights as men and vice versa.

• Functionalist will note the changing gender roles: men take care of the home and women work to support the family. Functionalist will see this and still believe society functions

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Conflict PerspectiveView on Feminism• Conflict Perspective has a lot in common with feminism.

Conflict theory focuses on power and distribution while feminism focuses on the inequalities between gender.

• The conflict perspective would suggest that throughout history men are viewed as the dominant gender and subordinate women in order to maintain power and control in a society.

• Conflict theorists would suggest that overcoming obstacles would liberate women.

• Conflict theorists see the oppression of women related to capitalism because the distribution of products relied on men for generations. Men needed to work the factories, to make money to provide for their families; the women would stay home, rear the children, and spend their husbands money

• Capitalism not the main cause for oppression of women because women are oppressed in non-capitalist societies.

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Changes Over Time:

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g • Small group of women in 1848 focused on institutional barriers that limited women’s rights: education, family barriers, no political voice, no economic possibilities etc.

• With progressive ‘mood’ in the United States the suffrage movement gained new found force

• In 1910s the movement was led by middle class women who started clubs, organizations, and actively participate in charity events

• 1920 the 19th amendment passed giving women the right to vote• Suffrage members split into different factions which tackled other

causes.• Women began to get education and work outside the home• 1960s & 1970s Feminist movements began to work more towards

equality for both men and women. Earlier versions focused on women’s rights and ignored inequalities faced by men

• Today feminism still faces opposition from people who don’t understand what feminists fight for.

• Feminism is working towards a goal of everyone working towards equality for all

• The feature that has not changed is the fight for equal rights.

There’s still work to be done.

While here in the united states we have the same rights as men there are many countries and cultures in the world where women have little to no rights. Here in the U.S we are allowed to vote, there are female CEOs and politicians, we can have jobs, we are protected under some laws. It is no secret that in other countries females are subject to horrible discrimination. Females are denied education, have their genitals mutilated, are not allowed to vote or have any opinion in politics, women are forced to cover up their bodies, and are punished for being victims of sexual assault, etc.

There are still issues to be worked on here in the United States (wage inequality between men and women, and government intervention on women’s bodies etc.) but they are being fought for.

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Feminism is for EveryoneIf I wanted to change the feminist movement my first action would be to convince the world that feminism means equal rights for all humans—nothing less than that. The idea of feminism is fought against by people who fear it and don’t understand it. If a person believes in equal rights for everyone then they are a feminist. The word ‘feminism’ sounds like it is only for women and that may have been true when the movement first started. Now feminists are focused on securing equal rights for all of the people on our planet. The mainstream media focuses on radical feminists (like it does with every aspect of life i.e. radical religions, radical politics etc.). I would like the real and peaceful side of feminism to get more attention.

Feminism works for some people and not others because of society’s idea of feminists being angry and against men. If more people understood the true meaning of feminism, more people would be supportive of it. I believe feminism can work for everyone—everyone who thinks everyone deserves to be treated like a human and given equal rights.

Like I stated before: men are victims of gender discrimination as well. They experience sexism, they are forced to play to gender roles just as much as females are. Men need feminism as much as women do.

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Refe

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American Decades Ed. Judith S. Baughman, Victor Bondi, Richard Layman, Tandy McConnell, and Vincent Tompkins. Vol. 3: 1920-1929. Detroit: Gale, 2001. COPYRIGHT 1994-2001 Gale, COPYRIGHT 2005 Gale, COPYRIGHT 2007 Gale, Cengage Learning

Suffragettes, Political Thought of theEncyclopedia of Modern Political ThoughtEd. Gregory Claeys. Vol. 2. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Reference, 2013. p784-786. COPYRIGHT 2013 CQ Press, an imprint of SAGE

Votes for WomenAmerican DecadesEd. Judith S. Baughman, Victor Bondi, Richard Layman, Tandy McConnell, and Vincent Tompkins. Vol. 2: 1910-1919. Detroit: Gale, 2001. COPYRIGHT 1994-2001 Gale, COPYRIGHT 2005 Gale, COPYRIGHT 2007 Gale, Cengage Learning

Gender RolesEncyclopedia of Sex and GenderEd. Fedwa Malti-Douglas. Vol. 2. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2007. p616-622. COPYRIGHT 2007 The Gale GroupJudith Roof, Kristina Banister Quynn, Barbara Postema and Michelle Parke

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Conflict TheoryEncyclopedia of SociologyVol. 1. 2nd ed. New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 2001. p414-417. COPYRIGHT 2001 Macmillan Reference USA, COPYRIGHT 2006 Gale, COPYRIGHT 2007 Gale, Cengage Learning

Sociology, Macro–International Encyclopedia of the Social SciencesEd. William A. Darity, Jr.. Vol. 7. 2nd ed. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2008. p677-678. COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning

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Feminist TheoryEncyclopedia of SociologyVol. 2. 2nd ed. New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 2001. p988-997. COPYRIGHT 2001 Macmillan Reference USA, COPYRIGHT 2006 Gale, COPYRIGHT 2007 Gale, Cengage Learning

Women’s RightsGale Encyclopedia of American LawEd. Donna Batten. Vol. 13. 3rd ed. Detroit: Gale, 2011. p434-435. COPYRIGHT 2011 Gale, Cengage Learning