The idea and role of women has changed very much since the 1800's. In the 1800's, women were looked down upon compared to men. Back in that time, there were four characteristics of the “ideal” women. The first characteristic is piety which is purifying society through religion. This was considered a good part of a woman because religion was very important to everyone and since women were not “capable” to work like men could, they could do other things and one of them included religion. In the Lavender article it says, “Irreligion in females was considered to be ‘The most revolting human characteristic.’” The second characteristic of an ideal woman is Purity.They are mostly referring to sexual purity, because her virginity was considered a treasure and she was not to let it fall into the wrong hands. The Lavender says “ a woman’s only power was seen as coming through her careful use of sexual virtue.” This quote shows that a woman could control a man by using her sacred Purity because they were not allowed to force them to do anything they did not want to do if they were not married. So, a woman’s purity was a valid characteristic of an ideal woman. The next one is submissiveness which is when a woman understands that she is “inferior” to men and accepts that. The society a woman was surrounded by in the 1800's made her believe she was supposed to act in a certain way that made them believe they had to look up to men. This outlook of inferiority made up submissiveness, and submissiveness also meant that they had to dress in a certain way to make them look better for the men. The next and final characteristic is Domesticity which is referring to how women were told to stay at home and do housework because they were told they were not capable of going into the public sphere. The public sphere was the world outside of the home that men were considered capable of handling. The women were to stay in the private sphere which is the home because they were supposedly incapable of holding their own in the public world. All of these characteristic sums up what is called the Cult of Domesticity The Cult of Domesticity is how the lives of middle class women were confined to the home. Their proper role was taking care of the house and children, and also to provide comfort and companionship to men, and remaining out of the public eye.
The middle and high class women of the 1800’s were getting fed up with their limited rights so they had a meeting called the Seneca Falls convention where they discussed their ideas. The women here came up with a list of rights they feel women deserve and are given by God. This list is called the Declaration of Rights and Sentiments and included 12 different rights. Some of the rights include non inferiority of women to men and men have to behave with the same decency a woman does. This process is distinctly related to the Declaration of Independence because they both involved a group of people getting together to discuss issues they want to be fixed, and coming to a consensus of new rules that should be enforced. The most controversial idea from the Seneca Falls convention was women’s suffrage. This was controversial because it meant that women could voice their own opinion in the public sphere and take part in a political event. This also meant that the men did not speak for them because the men would vote for the whole family. So, by having women vote it gave the men less power and caused a lot of controversy.
This convention included the voice of middle to high class women but did not include a lot of other types of women. Some of the different groups that included women that were not at the convention were Cherokees, enslaved African American women, New England Mill workers, and women of New Mexico. In class, we were put in groups and assigned a group of women to read about and decide what rules we would imply if we were at the convention. My group was the middle to high class women who were actually at the convention and we came up with more luxurious rules than some of the other groups because of our stance on the social tower. Some of the other groups such as slaves, wanted to be freed and to be able to live their own life, and other groups such as Cherokees wanted the right to their own land. Our group wanted things such as right to political input and education. But, our less luxurious most important rule was that women should not be able to be abused by their husbands. All of the ideas were very important so here is a list of the top ten ideas our class came up with:
1. Everyone has a right to be free from abuse (physical, emotional or sexual)
2. Preserve Cherokee land (honor treaties)
3. Equal pay for equal work
4. End slavery
5. Women have a right to hold office and/or vote
6. Women have a right to own land/property
7. Taxes should be based on wages
8. Women have a right to freedom of speech/speak in public
9. Everyone should have a right to a basic level of education
10. We should have education in multiple languages
The most important idea in my opinion is the fact that women should be free from abuse because abuse is a big problem that still exists today and needs to be stopped. This terrible problem is hurting and killing many innocent people who deserve to live. The Seneca Falls Convention was very important for women’s rights and addressed very important ideas.
No comments:
Post a Comment