Women in the Society
Early Attitudes Toward Women
Women have been always viewed inferior in comparison with men. In some cultures, for example Roma, women did not have rights, they were considered as unhappiness, as badness, and other bad concepts. Women were always related with bad or inferior ideas.
They were considered like objects that could be useful for men in specific situations like the conception. They had to be always with their husbands and do whatever they wanted. Women were property of men as if they were a product.
Nowadays is very clear that women are not inferior, they can achieve a lot of things, in some cases doing a better job than men.
Opinion: Women have suffered the discrimination and contempt of the society since a lot of years. Nowadays it is so clear than women have a lot of abilities and knowledge to develop important roles in the society.
The weaker sex?
It was thought that women developed the domestic chores because these were easier than the chores of men. Men´s chores required more force and ability; but women´s chores need a lot of force too. Now women are more resistant to the pain or to the sicknesses than men because of developing of those “easy” chores.
Also women have more control in some aspects like maternity and education. Women are more involved in education and they studied egress and masteries, even more than men.
Recently, some laws to protect women have been created in response to the need of creating the same conditions for women and men in the work, in the school, and in all the roles that they develop in society.
Opinion: women are capable of developing the same activities than men. Now they are more independent and have more power to decide the way in which they want to live. Women are more involved in the education; in some cases they have better results than men. It is very important to have laws that protect women because we can avoid the discrimination against them. The most important of these laws is to apply them.
The Legal Status of Women
Women did not have rights about the decisions in the family, the man was in charge of the decision and the women had to agree with him.
Little by little a lot of ideas about equity between women and men have been developed and have helped to create better conditions for women, not only with their rights, but with the decisions that they take and the independence.
Also, some laws to encourage and support women to work were created. It meant a big step for the creation of the same job opportunities. With these laws a lot of divorced, widows and separated women were benefited. But there were some restrictions yet, especially in the workday that women worked.
Opinion: women have fought a lot of time for their rights and they deserve to be independent and have better and bigger opportunities everyday. It does not matter if they are single, married, divorced or widows, they have to have the same rights.
Women at Work
Some years ago the development of the women in the profession started to grow up. At the beginning women used to work only in factories or in the housework, but some year later, women were able of working in some professions that they hadn´t done before. The most important profession was doctor. A lot of women could study medicine and work as men doctors.
Another important profession for women was teacher. They did a great job as teachers and they could cover a big part of this profession.
Even when women could work in different professions, there were some iniquities on the salaries. Women were paid with lower salaries than men.
Also women showed us that it was not necessary to get married to be successful and if they got married, they continued working.
Another right that was given to women was the license of maternity that allows them to return working when they had a baby.
Opinion: women have shown that they can develop in all kind of jobs; sometimes they do a better job than men. Nowadays, the inequities continue in some companies. We must finish with those injustices if we want to improve the society.
Women in politics
Women could vote since 1920, but the way in which they had participated in politics had been so few. Little by little we could see how women took some important posts in the government and the organisms related with it. Women like Geraldine Ferraro, Jeanette Rankin de Montana, Miriam A. Ferguson, Paciencia Sewell Latting, Frances Perkins, Eleanor Roosevelt, and others have shown that women are capable of working in the government with good results.
Every time we can see more and more women participating in the creation of laws, in the meetings with presidents, in the posts of the government, and having great results in the political campaigns.
Opinion: the work that women do to help other and to help themselves with the legislations and the creation of laws to protect rights has been so useful. They can lead institutions, states and countries because they have the abilities and intelligence to do it.
Feminist Philosophies
Some women have emphasized the role of the women creating documents like “The Declaration of the rights of the woman” or writing articles like “'Woman in the Nineteenth Century” explaining with arguments the importance of women in society.
Another article like “women and economy” describes the way in which women participate in the economy of home.
Also, women have been part of a political party called “Socialist labor party” in which women had an important participation with ideas and work.
Another aspect in which women have been is the media and the press.
Those are the feminist philosophies that have been considered like the end of the traditional home in some cases, but the truth is that the model of the typical family has been modified by other reasons.
Opinion: Feminist philosophies help to emphasize the importance of women in society , but it is very important to keep prudence with these philosophies in order to avoid a phenomenon like feminism.
Women in Reform Movements
The contribution of women to some movements and reforms has been so important. Some women have supported movements and protest against slavery, poverty and agriculture, achieving great changes in favor of the equity and justice.
Women have also participated in some legislation of issues like birthrate and the right to vote. They have done a very good job and have leaded important reforms and ideologies.
Opinion: women can be capable of moving people and influences to achieve good things and this is one of the main reasons that let them be important now.
Fighting for the Vote
In the first meeting to try to achieve that women could vote, there were a lot foe posed arguments that showed that women had to be given with the same rights than men.
Women were discriminated and they could not vote. Even, the right to vote was given at first to black people, but it was not granted to women.
The process of achieving the right to vote for women was a very slowly process. A lot of women fought to have this right. The proposal was presented to the curt so many times but it was rejected.
Opinion: Women have the right to decide the important things about a country, even they have the right to work on the government and particpate actively on it.
