...The role of women in society has been greatly overseen in the last few decades. They are now becoming a more of a perspective to people, but in the earlier days, women were not seen in the workplace. They were seen as mothers taking care of children, or any household duties like cooking and cleaning. Soon enough the role of women gradually changed as they became to voice their opinions. Throughout history, the roles of men and women would always be directed by gender. Traditionally, women in America were limited in their roles. Women were once seen as only needed to bear children and take care of household activities such as cooking and cleaning, while their husband would provide for his family. It was common for a man to go out and provide for his family while the woman would stay at home and take care of all the necessary household chores and children. A married women always took the husband's status. Even though we are seeing more and more women succeeding in life, American culture still defines a women as unequal. Society has set men and women apart by labeling them. Men have always been portrayed as the dominant sex. They have always been seen as strong and aggressive vs. women as weak. The culture effortlessly portrays women that they cannot perform jobs like men do; jobs like policemen, firefighters, and running corporate establishments. Society looks at women and puts a negative slide to them, because of most jobs like these having the image of male dominance or masculinity...
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...Unit 1: Lesson 5: Names and Faces — Chopin and Freeman Stepping Beyond Society’s Limits “Women’s Roles in Society” 1. How would you describe the tone of each story? - “Story of an Hour”: The tone begins with hints of sadness and very quickly ascends into glee with Louis Mallard’s realization of her freedom from a husband she doesn’t loveland a marriage she wasn’t happy in. Then, irony strikes as she discovers that her husband is actually not dead and she not at all free. The tone suddenly shifts from gleeful back to depressing with the Mallard’s realization that she still has to live a life under her husband and then dies of a heart attack. - “Revolt of Mother”: The tone was both scandalous and shocking. 2. What rhetorical strategies were used to assist the writer in achieving this tone? Explain. - “Story of an Hour”: To assist in achieving the tones of sadness and glee, the author used Imagery and Personification: - Imagery: describing her view out the window, her emotions, the idea coming to her, all added to the effect of how upset she was and how drastically her emotions changed once the idea of freedom hit her. - Personification: The author gave this idea of freedom a humanistic quality, like it was a person coming up to her to change her mind—this made the affect and importance of the idea on Louis more obvious. - “Revolt of Mother”: Freeman’s narrative technique assisted her in achieving the scandalous and shocking tones because she was very...
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...Medieval Societies during the 5th to 15th centuries were not a somewhat comfortable place for a lot of women of this time period. Medieval women of the middle ages had a very rough time in an era when many men had lived harsh lives--farming, war time fighters or servants. Only a few women lived subtle lives because the medieval society was completely dominated by men, and women had to adjust to the teachings and cultures of knowing their roles in such a time. The majority of women had little or no role to play when it came to making contributions to their countries or communities at large. It is noted in medieval arts that the place of women in society was dictated by biblical texts, namely, Eve having eaten of the forbidden fruit, being responsible for the "original sin" and the source of humankind's depravity. A woman's main role in the medieval village was not of power and privilege or that of a queen, but to marry at a very young age, managing the household, and tending to the needs of her husband and children. The most important roles of the medieval women were that of childbearing, which often came with its own complications. Since women had no...
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...Paper #02 English Composition II, Section 09 10/16/14 Women’s Role in Society in the 1800’s Women in the 1800’s were often not taken as seriously as their male counterparts were. Women were limited by pre-existing societal boundaries that had been put in place many years before they were born. This is prevalent in both “A Doll’s House” by Henrik Ibsen and in “A Jury of Her Peers” by Susan Glaspell. In these works, the women are expected to act and behave in certain ways based on how society thinks they should and the men openly express their opinions on what the women are worried with and what they should be doing. Women in this time period were expected to do things in a certain way or speak and act a certain way just because of their gender. Because of this women had certain roles in their homes. Nora for instance, was pretty limited to what she could do because she was a woman. She would have to follow everything that her husband Torvald told her to do. When Torvald would suspect Nora of not listening she would exclaim, “I should not think of going against your wishes,” (Ibsen 231).This proves just how compliant Nora, and most women, were to their husbands. She wasn’t even allowed to borrow money from anyone unless her husband gave permission. “No, a wife cannot borrow without her husband’s consent,” (Ibsen 236). Men controlled everything the women did and to go behind their back and do something on their own was considered betrayal. Women also didn’t work a lot...
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...Women’s Roles in Society 1. Q: How would you describe the tone of each story? A: The tone of “Story of an Hour” is depressing. Louise, the main character is saddened by the death of her husband. Her death at the end brings the story full circle, ending with depression just as it had started. It is also dramatic. Louise behavior is extreme as she seeks to understand her feelings about the death of her husband. The tone is ironic as well, as Louise discovers that she never really loved her husband anyway and feels freedom and joy upon his death. The tone in “The Revolt of Mother” is both rebellious and defiant. Sarah is rebelling against her husband because he promised to build her a house and never did. She defies him by moving into the new barn and making it her home. 2. Q: What rhetorical strategies assist the writers in achieving that tone? Explain. A: In “The Story of an Hour” the author uses imagery as it describes the scene Louise is seeing/feeling from the open window. The use of symbolism through “closed doors” and “open windows” adds to the feelings of despair and the relief/freedom felt from her husband’s death. In “The Revolt of Mother” the author uses repetition from father, "I 'ain't got nothin' to say."(Freeman), which created frustration in mother. 3. Q: Do you see any elements of satire in either of the stories? Explain. A: In “The Story of an Hour” is ironic satire. She has a week heart and her sister has to tell her delicately her husband...
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...Black Culture and Women’s Role in Society as Seen in Their Eyes Were Watching God In Zora Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, we see many different references to the way both blacks and women were seen in her time as well as when the book was set. The book takes place a few generations after the Civil War ended and slavery was abolished. Tensions between blacks and whites were high, and they were still decades away before women’s rights were even considered as legitimate concern. Hurston uses a variety of devices to help portray the world of her characters, the most obvious being her use of dialect. The way each particular character speaks gives us an inside view of their life and experiences. For example, if a character is educated, and lived in big cities for most of their life they are going to sound different than a character who worked in the fields their whole life. Giving each character their own dialect also helps the reader differentiate between characters based on who’s talking, and allows Hurston to give each character their own mannerisms. A good example of this is on page 92 of Zora Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God . “Another time she overheard him using Joe’s favorite expression for pointing out the differences between himself and the carelessliving, mouthy town. “Ah’m an educated man, Ah keep mah arrangements in mah hands.” ” Throughout the novel, there are many references to women’s places in society during that time period...
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...iconic movies play an integral role in shaping countless childhoods, and their princess movies, spanning from 1934’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs to Moana in 2016, are widely popular, particularly among young American girls. Consequently, the sexist messages of Disney princess movies both pre and post the 1960s Women's Liberation Movement are extremely present in today’s society. Before the Women's Liberation Movement, films such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty portrayed messages that reflected women’s confined role in society during the mid-1900s. These princesses, while playing significant speaking roles, were not only dependent on men but the epitome of their life was marriage but the focus...
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...World War 1 was the first global war in history, starting in 1914 and ending in 1918. During World War one, the evolution of women rights drastically changed. Women went from working in the domestic industry, to part taking in jobs, which were predominantly designed for men. To fully comprehend the impact of how the role of women changed during World War 1, it is important to discuss how women’s roles in society changed during war, women’s contributions in war and women’s contributions at the home front. By examining these themes, it becomes evident that the role of women forever changed due to World War 1. World War 1, played a significant part in influencing women’s roles to work, as well as their political standards and rights. Before...
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...Marxist feminist Michelle Barrett (1980) argues that the role ideology plays in convincing women that unpaid domestic labour is fulfilling is important. Barrett discusses the ideology of ‘familism’ the notion that female fulfillment lies in the family. For Marxist feminists, the cause of female oppression is rooted in capitalism. They argue that although individual men benefit from women’s subordination, the main beneficiary is capitalism. Women are an unpaid labour force, as unpaid housewives, and have been used in WW1 as a reserve army of labour. This oppression is believed to be maintained by the role women adopt within the capitalist’s system as the unpaid homemaker in the family. Women are conceived that this unpaid role is natural and normal, through the ideology of ‘familism’ that promotes female fulfillment as achieved through motherhood intimacy and sexual satisfaction. Marxist feminists believe that in order to end female subordination, we must overthrow capitalism as well as the ideology of familism. This would free the sexes from restrictive family roles and ensure that domestic labour was shared equally. Strengths of Marxist feminists include the fact that they have demonstrated the power of structural factors, such as capitalism and ideology in constructing an explanation for women’s subordination. However, Marxist feminists have been criticised for failing to explain women’s subordination in non-capitalist societies. Marxist feminism also places insufficient emphasis...
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...prevalent topic for debate. It questioned women’s gender roles within society. The increase in women’s agency within the public sphere during the eighteenth century, brought on by Peter the Great’s reforms, changes in property laws, salon culture, and charity, engendered the woman question in the nineteenth century and influenced responses to it. Four responses to the woman question emerged: the feminist response, the nihilist response, the radical response, and the reactionary right response. Each of these responses reacted to or built upon preceding responses, each broadening the scope of the next. The feminists drew on eighteenth-century charity to shape its response that women’s...
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...1. American women’s history has been on a rollercoaster ride since 1877. While American women’s history has experienced numerous themes or ideas, two that have been consistent throughout history is that of women’s rights, which encompasses the second theme of gender roles. From the beginning of this course, we have studied and read about gender and the roles that society believes the different sexes to be responsible for. Since the beginning, women were not granted or afforded a life independent from their spouse or significant other. They were considered property of their spouse, allowing them to do with as they please. Women were seen as inferior to men and were denied the same luxuries as men. Societal beliefs were that a woman’s role was as the homemaker. She was responsible for taking care of the home and children and keeping things in order for her spouse, who was the party responsible for financially caring for the family. It was thought that if women were afforded male luxuries, such as voting, gender roles in the home would change, something that males did not want to see happen. When the National American Women’s Suffrage Association formed in the 1890s, women lacked many of the rights that men had and were fighting to obtain voting rights equal to that of men. These rights would be the first step in gaining equality for women. This was the beginning of what would pave the way for the great women’s movement and what we know as the Equal Rights Amendment today. Gender...
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...them”. To develop and understand social change, it is crucial to examine the central structures and organizations within a given society. Through examining family structure, the state, and religion, geared with a specific focus on gender, a basic set of followed societal governing rules and values become apparent. Each of these societal structures are interrelated, working together to permit as well as restrict the agency of women in revolutionary Iranian society. For the development of successful social change to take place, it must arise through gender conflict, class conflict, and political action. Each social structure such as, family structure, state relations, and religion, is located within the larger context of a national structure, meaning the examples previously mentioned are subject to larger regional and global influences and changes. Due to this reasoning, it is important to examine evolving economic development and political change to understand women’s status within Iranian revolutionary societies and furthermore, their changing roles within the traditional family structure, Islam, education, and the work force. Through an analysis of class location, policy restructuring, and changing gender roles, the progressive development of women’s mobility and female status within the public sphere will arise. As a result of the revolution,women’s transition and integration into the public sphere, gender relations and norms that had been legitimized through societal rules and...
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...Assess the contribution of feminist perspectives to our understanding of society (33 marks) Feminists see society as patriarchal. They seek to describe, explain and change the position of women within society. The first ‘wave’ of feminism appeared in the late 19th century with the suffragette’s campaign for the right for women to vote. Even though all feminists oppose women’s subordination, there are disagreements on its causes and how to overcome it. Liberal or reformist feminists believe that traditional prejudices and stereotypes about gender differences are a barrier to equality. They believe all human beings should have equal rights. Since both men and women are human beings, both should have the same opportunities. Liberal Feminists argue that laws and policies against sex discrimination in employment and education can secure equal opportunities for women. Campaigning for changes in law can bring about change and we can bring about change through a cultural shift within society. They reject the idea that biological differences make women less competent or rational than men or that men are biologically less emotional or nurturing than women. To bring about change we must shift society’s socialisation patterns. For example society must seek to promote appropriate role models in education and the family by doing this we will benefit from a cultural shift and gender equality will become the norm. Liberal Feminists believe that changes in socialisation and culture are gradually...
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...our understanding of society. (33 marks) Feminism is a set of ideologies used to advance the cause of women’s equality and to end the sexist theory and practice of social oppression. It is a structuralist theory which is made up of several versions, but they all argue that society is patriarchal. The types of feminism I will be reviewing are liberal feminism, radical feminism, marxist feminism, and difference feminism. Aside from all agreeing that society is patriarchal, these versions of feminism disagree on two levels; the extent of patriarchy in society and also what needs to be done to create gender equality. Firstly, liberal feminism. Liberal feminists believe all humans should be treated equally; however they believe that women aren’t treated equally to men in society. Liberal feminists suggest that to create greater gender equality laws that are unfavourable to women need to be changed in order to present women with greater opportunities. Oakley distinguishes between sex and gender, referring to sex as the biological differences between males and females such as their reproductive role, whereas she refers to gender as culturally constructed differences between masculine and feminine roles and identities assigned to males and females. Liberal feminists therefore disagree with the functionalist Parsons who believed that males and females perform the roles they are biologically suited to do, contrarily believing that they only perform these roles due to their socialisation...
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...Children learn from their parents and society the conception of "feminine" and "masculine." Much about these conceptions is not biological at all but cultural. The way we tend to think about men and women and their gender roles in society constitute the prevailing paradigm that influences out thinking. Riane Eisler points out that the prevailing paradigm makes it difficult for us to analyze properly the roles of men and women in prehistory "we have a cultural bias that we bring to the effort and that colors our decision-making processes." Sexism is the result of that bias imposed by our process of acculturation.Gender roles in Western societies have been changing rapidly in recent years, with the changes created both by evolutionary changes in society, including economic shifts which have altered the way people work and indeed which people work as more and more women enter the workforce, and by perhaps pressure brought to make changes because of the perception that the traditional social structure was inequitable. Gender relations are a part of the socialization process, the initiation given the young by society, teaching them certain values and creating in them certain behavior patterns acceptable to their social roles. These roles have been in a state of flux in American society in recent years, and men and women today can be seen as having expanded their roles in society, with women entering formerly male dominions and men finding new ways to relate to and function in the family...
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