Feminism In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

Although, women 's rights in society have drastically changed over the past sixty years, women are still fighting to be more in power than

With years of rebellions and protests made against many of these issues, women have come a long way from where they used to be. A big movement that was established was called the Women’s Suffrage Movement. This was the time where many protests were occurring so that these women would be allowed to receive the same rights men had. They mainly focused on the right to vote and hold an office which later, eventually passed. If women did not stand up for themselves then, women today would not be able to experience all of the freedom they have.

This can be related to C. Wright Mills idea of the power elite, in which those ruling our country have the political and economical power to make decisions that keep their power intact (Marshall, 2012). We have historically had a patriarchal society in which men have held the political power and women were prohibited from it. McCammon, Campbell, Granberg, and Mowery (2001) discuss the suffragette movement and how along with the ability to vote, it led to another the passing of laws that allowed women broader citizen rights and helped to change gender roles (p. 61). This helped with the movement’s success by changing the thoughts of those in politics about the role of women in society (McCammon et al., 2001, p. 65). A woman’s role was clearly defined as being rooted in domestic work and family life, while men’s roles were in business and politics (McCammon et al., 2001, p. 53).

Throughout the ages women have faced varying degrees of sexism and during the progressive era this was a very prominent issue, women had finally had enough of being treated as second class compared to white males and simply males in general. They weren’t allowed to vote, own property if married, they were extremely restricted in what types of jobs they could get and often encouraged to just stay home, not to mention the large wage gap between white males and white females ensuring that on their own women would be hard pressed to survive. In many of the divorce cases the women were still required to take care of the children even though the male technically had custody. Sexism all though not as prominent today is still a very big issue, ranging

Although times and conditions have changed, women in today 's society are still being discriminated against because of the same belief that women are inferior to men. Women in the united states and other first world countries are being deprived of equal pay and equal rights. Women in today 's society make 80 cents for every dollar a man makes and get discriminated against because of the belief that women aren 't as strong and intelligent as mem. They have been excluded from numerous educational opportunities and in some middle-eastern countries, are stripped from their basic human rights like education and equality. Women all over the world are now coming together to fight for the rights that they

America gained its independence in 1776 with the expectation that every American should have liberty and equality. However, American women did not have the right to vote until 1920, which was almost more than 140 years after the United States was established. Women could do little to protect themselves and promote their careers due to being treated unequally and inferior to men. During the 19th and the early 20th century, women were working hard and fighting for gender equality, so that more and more women could live a better life with basic civil rights in their hometowns. In reality, women’s equality was challenged by traditional conventions in the fields of biological difference in sexes, religion and gender roles, and different perspectives towards these conventions of different people made women’s civil rights controversial.

Throughout history women have constantly had fewer constitutional rights and profession openings than men, primarily because women have continuously been considered inferior to men. The working class also possessed fewer rights during the 1800s. Workers were bound to their employers and had little to no rights. As the years moved on, much of that began to change. Employed citizens had little to no voting rights, and they kept trying until they achieved what they wanted.

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth-century, women were not treated equivalent to men. There was an evident divide between the gender roles of that time. Women’s health in a psychological, social and physical way was not essentially important. Men felt as if women were just emotional and that their issues were of no importance. Women had very little authority over their lives and it was as if their husband owned them.

In the 1920 's, women didn’t have the right to vote, which later led to the 19th amendment that gave the women the right to vote. Females all over the world have been affected by this because they still are not treated equally even though the 19th Amendment gave them hope that will soon come into place. Women weren’t able to do many things as men such as working conditions, help out with war and vote. Therefore, women should have equal rights and not be treated differently. When it comes to higher wages women are often paid less even though they do the same work as men.

American women in the late 1800’s received unequal treatment, even more so than in today’s society. Not only were they treated unfairly, they could not even vote until 1920. Moreover, they were unable to obtain certain jobs, and if they did get a job it was from the home. Furthermore, women had little to no say in their decisions. They often had their husbands either picked for them, or mutually agreed upon.

Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, published in 1962, tells the story of men in a psychiatric ward and focuses on two characters called McMurphy and Bromden, and their defiance towards the institution’s system. A critical factor in this novel are the women. The 1960’s played a significant role in changing the norms of social issues, and the perfect idea of women was changing too. Women were no longer just stay at home wives, but had their own voice in society, and many people did not agree with these untraditional views. Kesey’s representation of women in this novel illustrate them in a poor light that makes it obvious that they don’t fit the ideal womanly persona. Nurse Ratched is the main antagonist who is a very cruel and manipulative nurse, in which all the characters seem to agree that she is out to get them. The other main female role is a hooker McMurphy knew before the hospital who plays a role of meeting the boys needs. In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s

“The only true woman was a pious, submissive wife and mother concerned exclusively with home and family.” This idea, called the “Cult of True Womanhood” by historians, led women to develop a new way of thinking about what it was to be a US citizen. In the first ever women 's rights convention in 1848, a group of women and men gathered to address the lack of women’s rights. They agreed that both men and women were created equal and should have the same alienable rights: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; meaning they should have the right to vote. In 1890, the idea that men and women are equal, and for that women should be able to vote was discarded, and a different option came up; women and men are different and that is the main reason

For centuries, women have been exploited by the society. Events of women being prohibited from doing things like voting or working and being forced to behave the way it is considered to be socially acceptable have been jotted down in history. Until today women are still viewed as the weaker sex. In some countries, women are regarded less than human and are treated like slaves. Khaled Hosseini goes into the oppression of women in his novel A Thousand Splendid Suns.

We all know that women didn 't have as many rights as men, and they still don 't. Women can now do more than they used to, but they still aren 't equal with men. They have had to fight for so many things like the right to vote and to be equal to men. The 19th amendment, the one that gave women the right to vote, brought us a big step closer. The Equal Rights Movement also gave us the chance to have as many rights as men. Women have always stayed home, cleaned the house, and didn 't even get an education.

Woman have been fighting for equality for a long time. We are still fighting to today to close the wage gap between men and women. The women's movement fought for their unalienable rights and the right to vote. The arguments of the women's movements were revolutionary.