Telling
of the story concerning women that lived in America in the sixties and in the
seventies has continued to be a favorite topic for scholars. The women revolution of the latter part of
the nineteenth century and the early parts of the twentieth century is often
referred to as the “Second wave.” It may still not be clear who coined the
phrase but the contribution of Norton Beth stand tall especially in her book
entitled, “Major Problems in American
Women’s History.”
The
book captures challenges that women of yester years face and how they came up
with creative solutions to meet the day to day challenges. The modern day woman
may feel discriminated in terms of employment, social status and other areas, but
her state is nothing in comparison to the woman that lived in the nineteenth
century. The olden day woman had very little influence in society and it was
the norm that her place was at home to do the laundry and cook for her family.
There was a lot of male chauvinism that dominated the society. But even in such
environments, women still found a way to be heard.
They
came up with ingenious ways to create their identities, a task that needed the
surmounting of many hurdles. They succeeded in rising above the tides of social
pressure and as Norton (XVI) points out in her book, these women should indeed
be commended for their important contribution towards the shaping of the modern
day “social history” Norton continues to underscore that it was as a result of
this that graduates can now look back in the sands of time and make something
out of the footprints that were left by these virtuous women. The females of
the modern society can take a good leaf from their forefathers while the males
of the modern society can be admonished by the experience.
The Home
The
traditional concept of the role of a woman was that her position was to be at
home taking care of the house by cleaning, gardening and cooking. The males
were traditionally viewed as the bread winners who spent their entire day
sweating it out in the offices or in the factories. What went unnoticed to may
people is that the women were actually doing more than merely seating at home
to wait for their husbands to return in the evening. As quoted by Norton (1)
Kate Haulum observed that the women had
a lot of free time on their hands an they converted this free time into making
of very strong covalent friends hips amongst themselves.
The
relationships that were forged by the women right in their homes were the same
relationships that ultimately led them to come up with creative ways of making
money, the women formed organizations and guilds and they literally “spun straw
into gold” (Norton 1). But there was another important importance of their
associations, the political movements that resulted from their social groupings
benefited from the closely knot relationships which helped fuel the revolution
(Norton 4).
Reproduction
One
of the e biggest concerns for the women activist was the discrimination the
women faced as far as sexuality was concerned. They were against the idea of a
woman carrying a pregnancy she did not want as many women were exposed to
sexual harassment and rape. The women activists also began to realize that the
Sexual behaviors and the societal beliefs and taboos on the subject directly
impacted on the woman more than it ever did on the male.
It
was this that led the female activists to begin the debate that was to be
heated on the subject of induced abortion. The debate may have begun in the
late nineteenth century but it was only until the twentieth century that the
debate began yielding some fruit when some \nations began legalizing abortion.
The law traditionally did not permit abortion unless the life of the female carrying
the pregnancy was in danger. The legal
experts were concerned that the provision for abortion was based on a condition
that seldom occurred (Norton 437).
Equal
and different
Norton
(12) points out a very important fact, that the gender dichotomy was an
umbrella of other bigger and discriminative dichotomies. The most important of
this is the equality debate which has continued to be the center of debate even
in modern times. The debate continues to take different connotations across the
boarders although the initiators of the debate were merely asking whether women
were equal. In fact, they were not directly alluding to the fact that women
were disadvantaged or much less that men were to blame, a position that has
since changed in the views of the current activists.
The
early activists were referring to the story of creation in which God created
Adam and afterwards created Eve. As the account of creation in the holy
writings goes, God gave all the creation to Adam and eve to dominate but God
never gave the dominance of the male to the female or the dominance of the
female to the male. Ideally, they were equal partners. The activists based on
this concept to insist on the need for equality of the men and the women
(Norton 164).
But the legal experts of the nineteenth
century were the group that took the debate to a new level altogether when they
decide to rewrite the social contract. The lawyers came up with the concept of
co-equality in a bid to affirm the position of the women as equals and not
subordinates in the male dominated society. By so doing, they had successfully
created a space for the women even though the space was being created in an
original social contract that was theoretical (Norton 164). This was perhaps
the step that led to the calling for the creation of institutions that realized
the need for affirmative action to help the woman achieve equality in the male
dominated society (Norton 451).
Employment
One
of the issues that concerned the activists was the issue of employment. As
Barrie Fannie discovered, the coloreds that lived in the 1900s were better
placed at securing employment than the other races. The main reason was that the colored women
had the required technical expertise and they also had a general good grasp of
their different vocations. The African Americans were therefore discriminated
from securing any meaningful employment (Norton 262).
The
African America women began to push for a change of view to also allow them to
enjoy equality. It was widely realized that the black women were the last hired
during an economic boom and the first fired during a recession. This led them
to begin agitating for reform in the employment sector and as Norton records,
the black women soon began to get employment opportunities albeit very slowly
over the years. The main wheels for these changes were the unions they formed
on the ground as the government was not very supportive in the initial stages.
Politicians were too concerned with being politically correct (Norton 479).
The
discrepancy in employment was however not merely a thing of race for indeed,
even the coloreds were locked out of some jobs and they lacked a fair ground to
compete with their male counterparts for opportunities. The first ever census
that was done with a view of identifying the ratio of men to women across the
different jobs was conducted in the year 1870. There were a number of women in
some odd jobs but there were only a handful in the notable careers like law.
This is also one of the facts that inspired the call for affirmative action.
The
role and the importance of the women were fully appreciated in the economic
with the onset of the concept of fundraising. It was a relatively new concept
and people were not initially excited it since it was a typically case of one
sowing his or her sweat. The woman run organization emerged as a very
successful organization as far as fundraisings was concerned and it was
therefore realized that the woman should be given more and more responsibility
in the market place (Norton 170).
Conclusion
The analytical approach of essays
and the other sources that together make up Norton’s book are very instrumental
to the knowledge and realization of the position of the woman in the society of
yester years and the price that was paid for her liberation. The writer
inspires critical thinking in the issues that surround the history of the
American woman and how such issues influenced and continue to influence the
formation of American societies. In summary, it is clear that the woman has
since time immoral been subject to discrimination and abuse and has had to
chart her own destiny through the help of the concerted efforts of her peers
until she has finally achieved the present status. It is still clear however
that the fight for equality has not completely been worn although considerable
progress has been made.
Works
Cited
Norton, Mary
Beth. Major Problems in American Women’s
History. Fourth Edition. New York:
Houghton Mifflin, 2007
No comments:
Post a Comment