Both Snow White and Cinderella themselves start off in unfortunate situations where they are the “damsel in distress”, and are later rescued and willing to be bound to their savior for life, cooking and cleaning to put a smile on their faces. Women watching in the 1900’s are looking for a fantasy to distract them from their own lives - they have been cast back into their stereotypical gender roles after The Great Depression is over, making them stay at home wives while their husbands go out to work for them. They currently are the perfect little housewife - or so society wants them to be. The vast majority of woman will be quite upset with being out of work just because of their biological sex, as it should not be a contributing factor to work capability. Snow White and Cinderella reinforce the idea that women should cook, clean and become a domestic servant for the man they love.
Over the past few years there has been a major uprising in feminist marches and rallies of the sort calling for equal rights for women, and it is understandable as to why with many issues that have come to light recently; however, these women do not seem to see how much women have gained in the past one-hundred years. We are able to vote, work, and walk the street without our husband’s permission. We have advanced so much as a society when it comes to equal rights that it seems insane to us when we learn one-hundred years ago women were getting beat up in the streets for wanting to vote. Kate Chopin illustrates beautifully how life was for women of the household during the late 1860’s in her stories “The Storm”, “Desiree’s Baby”, and throughout her own life as well. In “Desiree’s Baby” we follow Desiree
Then came into being the famous movement called The Suffrage Movement during which the women fought for their equal voting rights which all men were enjoying at that time because they were of the view that they were a part of the society too and they deserve all the rights to elect their representatives. This movement was started in 1848 and it ended in 1920. It continued for quite a long time and women had to face many hardships to fight for their own rights. But the period still could not end up in signing of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920. During the whole period of 1920, women had put their emphasis on promoting the status of
It’ll sound terrible, just a housewife… it’s nothing really…you make me sound important”(Terkel, 300). Women are continuously downplaying their tasks as housewives since they feel as though their work is not significant or comparable to those of men. “Just a housewife”, as if her duties were nonchalant and unimportant, yet without the performance of her day to day tasks family structures would fall apart. Society has put a large amount of stress on women, emphasizing and analyzing their work ethic, constantly causing women to feel the need to compare themselves to other housewives. “I feel they’re worthy of much more of a title than housewife” belittling their work.
Brady demonstrates how the majority of wives and mothers are still unappreciated for all the work that they do. "I want a wife who will not bother me with rambling complaints about a wife's duties." (Brady, P5). “I want a wife who will have the house clean, will prepare a special meal, serve it to me and my friends, and not interrupt when I talk about things that interest me and my friends.”(Brady, P7). by listing all this several outrageous requirements she then
Susan B. Anthony led the women’s suffrage movement, a movement that impacted the lives of American women forever. Although Susan B. Anthony participated in other movements, such as the temperance movement and the abolitionist movement, but she mainly focused on women’s rights. As a member of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, she was determined to bring American women their rights. To accomplish her goal of gaining full citizenship for women, she attempted to vote on Election Day, and then suffered the consequence of being arrested. However, this incident did not stop Anthony from achieving her goal.
The women’s suffrage movement paved the way for equal voting rights for all women throughout the twentieth century. Many strong and inspiring women fought for the rights that we now have today. One of them, including Alice Paul. Paul played a major role in pressuring Congress to pass the 19th amendment. Instead of sitting quietly in peaceful protests and campaigns, she refused to be a small voice in a sea of power-hungry men and oppressed women and made herself and women’s struggles known to America.
Today in society women are viewed as strong, independent people who have many opportunities and choices regarding how they want to live. Unfortunately, this has not always been the case. In most of the early 1900’s, being a wife and a mother was the only option for women, and those who did not like that path were considered “unfeminine.” During the 1950’s and 1960’s, this began to change. Women 's liberation groups formed such as the New York Radical Women, and many powerful leaders emerged, such as Gloria Steinem, Robin Morgan, and Betty Friedan. These powerful leaders influenced women to become increasingly independent through the decades.
From being Rosie the Riveter, an integral part of the United States victory in World War II to women who should “do their duty” by returning to their homes, where they could serve their husbands and “repopulate the ranks” (Women 's History in the U.S. | National Woman 's Party). This was the social setting for women after the war, one that did not sit well with the feminist movement. The revolutionary women in this discriminatory time fought for their right to express their sexuality without hypocritical judgement from others, the right to choose their own destiny for their own lives, the right to self and to discover who they are as an individual and not as a gender and not how to be a perfect housewife as they were taught but how to be themselves. In this fight the resistance was tenacious, sticking to gender roles that were laid out in generations before them. Oates’ short story is an allegory for feminism, the gender roles women fought against and the resistance they encountered in the 1950’s.
Feminism is a range of ideas and approaches that seek to create sexual and gender equality for women. It focuses to achieve equal rights for females in different parts of society. Though these feminist movements were successful over the years, there’s a whole lot left to accomplish before we can say equality between men and women has been reached. All over, women are still at a disadvantage despite their successful liberation campaigns. Since the first feminist movement, women have campaigned and continue to, in order to gain the rights and opportunities society had deprived them of for generations.