Response post Jan 26

The three readings that we completed for today all addressed past waves of feminism and certain feminist movements…and all three readings left me with a slight feeling of emptiness. After reading Ellen DuBois article, I was discouraged by her final line: “Perhaps two waves of feminism will be enough to free us”. She repeatedly referred to the “shitwork” that women have been coerced into doing throughout history, but she hoped the second wave of feminism would be the final push to gender equality and female respect. We are currently in the third wave of feminism, and, from my perspective, we still have a long way to go until gender equality is realized.

We have certainly made great strides since the time when Elizabeth Cady Stanton wrote the “Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions” in 1848. Stanton declared that women should have the same legal rights as men, and she also wanted to implement change in how women are perceived in society. Of course, women are now equal to men in a court of law, so I think that Stanton’s goals have been achieved in the legal sense. However, sexism is still quite prevalent in our society…

I wanted to find a newspaper article that would be relevant to today’s readings, so I began browsing newyorktimes.com. I came across a letter to the editor in the opinion pages section entitled “Does test taking help students learn?” and my interest was sparked because memory/learning is one of my favorite subjects to study in psychology (my major). I clicked on the link, which brought me to the article and an accompanying image. The image is pictured in this post.

Perhaps I find this image sexist only because I saw the image while I was working on Women’s Studies…or, perhaps the image really is sexist. In a society where math and science has historically been considered a “male” subject, I think that it was extremely irresponsible of the Times to include two boys in this image, instead of one boy and one girl. The image reinforces the stereotype that men excel at certain subjects (math and science) where females may struggle.

DuBois and Stanton would not be pleased with this image. They both fought for women’s rights, and probably would have expected American society to have achieved full gender equality by now. Unfortunately, as the NYT image shows, gender equality has not been achieved in American society, despite all of the feminist efforts.

Response Post Jan. 27

It always comes as a bit of a shock when I remember how recently women were granted the right to vote in America. It comes as even more of a shock when you look back on the history and realize how active women were in the abolition movement, yet they remained unrepresented themselves. Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s declaration is particularly moving for this reason. By placing her grievances within the language of the Declaration of Independence she certainly makes a powerful statement, one that, at least today, is equally if not more justified than the original Declaration. It highlights the hypocrisy of founding a nation on the principles of forming a government chosen by the governed when more than half of those governed people are completely without a voice.

It is almost strange to read these documents in the contemporary context as these goals seem so foreign and distant (evidence of the younger generation not connecting with this struggle can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uPcthZL2RE ). I looked up the suffrage dates in a few other countries, which brought the importance of women’s participation in government a little closer to home, at least by measurement of time. Those dates can be found here: http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/politics/womens-suffrage/world-suffrage-timeline . Some are pretty shocking; Mexico in 1953, Switzerland in 1971, Portugal in 1975 and South Africa in 1994. These aren’t countries that we see in the news as terribly unjust or radical in their views towards women, and yet what we have very quickly accepted (since 1920) as a basic right went unrealized for so long in some of the world’s most “civilized” countries. These documents, then, stand as a reminder of how near we are, in the schemes of things, to the very beginning of the fight for true equality.

Leading Post: Stanton, Truth, and Dubois

Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions – Elizabeth Cady Stanton

By modeling this declaration for women’s rights off of the Declaration of Independence, Stanton is trying to make the connection that they are no different in what they represent. Both declarations were written as a result of making the decision to break away from an oppressing force. By use of comparisons, Stanton is essentially making the point that the call for equality is not far-fetched. In this declaration, Stanton lists her “sentiments” including the observation that men monopolize the job market. Following these lists of inequalities that she tries to illuminate, Stanton lists a set of resolutions, changes she wants to see implemented. These changes not only focus on legislative changes to include women in politics, but also include the expectations of women in public to match those of men. The purpose of Stanton writing this declaration is to publicly voice the inequalities observed everyday, but goes unaddressed. By doing so, Stanton is empowering the women among the three hundred that attended to look at their situation differently and ask for more.

Two Speeches – Sojourner Truth

Sojourner Truth, through repetition, questions all of the claims that speak to why females should remain subordinate to their male counterparts. She challenges arguments founded on physical capabilities, religious texts, and even hypothetical situations of women wanting more and more. With each of these rebuttals, she brings her focus to the fact that none of these arguments against women rights are grounded in fact, which leads to her questioning society: Why not?

Being a black woman, Sojourner Truth was torn as to which movement she would devote her passion towards. In her second speech in 1867, Sojourner Truth is disappointed to see that after men of color received the right to vote, the debate for women to gain suffrage was nonexistent. Truth recognizes that it is hard for the government (ruled by men) to consider such things because they still “think like a slaveholder,” which is a great example of internalized superiority. However, Truth still asks for the government to go through with giving equal rights to all types of people, regardless of how much it pains them because that is what’s right.

Feminism Old Wave and New Wave – Ellen DuBois

DuBois gives her readers a historical overview of feminism and the waxing and waning of each wave. The first wave of feminism grew out of their active participation in the abolitionist movement. As a result of their hard work not being rewarded and instead, separated from the leadership positions that men held, feminists joined together in this realization. DuBois also touched on something very interesting – how the feminist movement was perceived outside of the United States. The British were disgusted at the realization that they were collaborating with active women, even if it were for a positive agenda such as abolition. Just like how Friedan had illuminated the women’s role as a “sacrificer”, the waning of the first wave occurred as these feminists left their active roles for patriotic work. By the second wave, trends were observed. Waves of feminism seemed to be triggered by a realization of oppression, followed by discussion, a rising of interest and a call for action. DuBois questions how many times this has to occur for equality to be realized. She hopes for the second wave to be the last, but we all know by this time that DuBois was wrong.