Sexuality in U.S. History, Research Paper Example

How men, politics, and religion have shaped women’s sexuality from the antebellum until the present, with consideration given to the role of law, politics, popular press, medical and scientific research and public space?

One of the most dynamic and vivid period in all of America history was the antebellum era, according to Naeher (20080, and this was due to the industrial, transportation and marketing revolutions, unprecedented urban growth and its associated problems, religious revivals by figures such as Charles Finny and Joseph Smith and the many reform thrust against social ills like slavery and prostitution, all happening at the same time.

The industrialized communities of this nineteenth century period as well as the influence from the agrarian thinking of18^th century; viewed women as essentially different from men, and child bearers and excellent subservient home makers that were required by God to nourish, cherish and to protect the family from the evil world while men would go to work daily in the fields and factories, according to Fortin (2011).

These views according to Fortin (2011) were shaped by newspapers written to inform communities of events in the world and nationally, magazines distributed locally, books many of which offer advice on good housekeeping, and novels which were for entertainment, according to Fortin (2011).

The combination of the effect of the channels, according to Fortin (2011), help to simultaneously shape the characteristics of expected feminine mind, and in an article written by Freedom Sentinel, women were portrayed as tender, simple, more amiable to home than men, a man’s confidant as well as the mental and physical companion that will always be disappointed when such roles are not adequately fulfilled, according to Fortin (2011).

In terms of the religious perspectives of the early 19^th century era, women it was believed will become pure, self sacrificial, deeply submerging is respect of the talents due to love, when they are submissive to their husbands, according to Fortin (2011). They were not expected to have reason s for not being submissive and give of their best to their husband, and the July 22, 1828 edition of the Fitchburg Gazette seems to have communicate this religious belief, when it reported a story of entitled “Cruelty and Suicide“by a young lady that was subjected to a long series of beatings by her father, before committing the act.

A well respected lawyer writing in the Barre Gazette of the 19^th century period, seem to have echoed the views of the legal profession on women, when he wrote shamelessly that women that the comforting provided by women, when they appear in court with their loved ones, made the shame, sorrow, degradation and contempt experience in trials quickly become forgotten, as a result of their love.

The implications of this viewpoint was that women could not be expected to play the roles of legal advocate or judges on court cases, and can only serve in the capacity of comforter to men who perhaps may have even committed heinous crimes before being tried..

The societal effect of this prevailing philosophical belief on the educability of women were expressed by the Women International Center (WIC), (2011), when it remark that throughout  most of history , women generally had fewer legal rights and career opportunities than man, as wife-wood and mother-wood were regarded as their  most significant positions.

The statistics on women in the legal profession as a result of how their sexuality was shaped by the prevailing philosophy during and after the antebellum was quite reflective of the impact. By 1930 only 2% of all American lawyers and judges were women, and it took another 69 years, before any significant change in the disparity was experienced, when reports showed it had improved to 22%, according to WIC (2011).

According to WIC (2011), women were long considered the weaker then men, squeamish, and unable to perform work that demanded muscularity and high intellect, despite the fact that they were often assigned laborious work such as caring for children, milking cows and laundering of clothes by manual methods.

Physiological test conducted by the medical community, disproved the philosophy on women’s weakness due to their sexuality, when experts found that they showed greater capacity for pain and were more resistant to attack from various diseases, according to WIC (2011).

In colonial America, the educational system greatly shaped the career choice of girls, in that their formal education was treated as secondary to those of boys, they had to learn to read and write at dames, and were prepared basically for marriage and mother-wood

WIC (2011). The great disparity in general educational achievement manifested strongly in the governmental policy of the day, in that in 1870 only 1/5 of all resident colleges and university students were women.

Under common law in England on the 19^th century, the myth of the inferiority of women was expressed and significantly shaped their sexuality and the roles they played going forward, in that those who were unmarried could own property, make contracts and could sue and be sued, but the married women were defined as the property of their husbands, and were without the privilege owning or acquiring anything of value.

In the United States the scenario was no different except in some communities there were modification in  the common law,  to allow women to act as lawyers  to sue for property,  and own property in their husbands name as long as they are in agreement. The legal profession by this stance, was forcing women to play the dependency role with respect to their husbands, irrespective of their intellectual abilities, and as such in the long term robs the nation of benefits of human resource potentials of millions of women spread across the country for over at least one hundred year.

The passage of Equity Laws in England and the United States by 1854 helped to expedite the liberation process for women in terms of their legal rights. Laws were passed in Massachusetts, Mississippi and New York which allowed women to own properties separate from their husbands, but the shackles concerning those divorced remained in place, as men were given control of children and properties associated with the unions.

Significant economic and financial acts of discrimination against women continued from the antebellum right until 1960, when Federal laws were passed to improve their economic status. Women were given the freedom to work outside their homes in textile mills, and in garment shops in particular but the hours were long and the conditions oppressive.

Great Britain 1847 passage of laws to prevent women and children from working beyond 10 hours per day, was only affected the United States in 1910, but by this time financial institutions had strong discriminatory financial regulations in place to limit the financial independence of women, according to WIC (2011).

Women were free under the Equal Pay Act of 1963 to earn the same amount of money for similar jobs done by men, but were not allowed independent credit cards by retail stores if they were married, and those who were divorced or single found it difficult to obtain credit to buy cars or own houses.

Business leaders, by their employment practices were also discriminatory as a result of their beliefs that women were inherently inferior to men. Women employed mainly in clerical positions, on factory floors, in retail sales, service jobs, bookkeepers, typist, machine operators, assemblers, waitresses, cooks and other low paying jobs, but hardly as supervisors and managers, and as such had limited opportunities to receive the same pay as men.

Women during and before the Equal Pay Act, were severely limited in number in their developmental process to become leaders and managers of large national and multinational organizations, as men instituted policies and practices to ensure they maintained control of the working environment as well as in the homes.

United Statesmilitary organizations were also restrictive in the roles they allow women to play outside of the homes, until the Second World War, when approximately 300,000 of them were recruited to serve in the Navy and Army in non-combatant roles, such as typist, secretaries, and nurses, even though other countries in Europe had them fighting in underground resistance movement as well as alongside Israeli male counterparts on the battle field.

Rules and regulations within the political parties of the United States affected the sexuality of women,and significantly reduce the roles they play prior to 1927, because they had neither voting rights nor opportunities to gain election to political offices. This position did not stop Jeanette Rankin of Montana who won a seat in the United States House of Representative in 1917, becoming the first woman and in the process providing tangible evidence to other women what they can accomplish outside of their supposed place in the homes.

In terms of African American and other minority women, the situation regarding exercising their franchise electorally was even more dismal, in that it was not until 1968 that they had political representation in the US House of Representative in the form of Shirley Chisholm from the State of New York.

It could be argued that the glass ceiling was broken with respect to women running for political offices and holding positions in the highest court in the land, when Geraldine Ferraro was named as Vice Presidential running mate on the Democratic Party Ticket and Sandra Day O’Connor as Justice on Supreme Court  bench in the 1980’s, according to WIC (2011).

Additionally, the roles future Hispanic women would play in medicine and politics was also given a boost, when President George Bush appointed Antonio Novelio of similar origin, to the powerful office of US Surgeon General in 1990.

The scientific concept of Darwinism played a major role in the perception of women and the shaping of their sexuality in the 19^th century. This was as a result of the opinions and applications of many physicians at the time. They concluded according to Schultz (1999) that women had stopped evolving sooner than men as such were less developed mentally and less suited for education due to the stress it brought on the their structures.

The medical thinking in addition during this period, was that the body was a closed system which contain finite amount of energy and since women were for the sole purpose of childbearing, any other excessive energy demanding activity would be harmful to their existence.

In terms of self esteem, women were further subjected to more social abuse and ridicule as they struggle for civil and moral recognition, as a noted physician of the day wrote, “Woman has a head almost too small for intellect, but just enough for love” (Schultz, 1999).

The University of Wisconsin Regent in 1877 must have shared similar beliefs as the members of the medical fraternity, when in its annual report it recommended separate course of studies for women on the grounds that they could not handle the stressful demands the curriculum covered by the male students in their college courses (Shultz, 1999).

The institution also stated in the report that women attaining higher education is desirable, but it is better that the future matrons of the state be without university training , than  that it should be provided at the expense of their ruined health (Schultz, 1999).

Women had faced extremely stringent regulatory conditions during the antebellum and after, when it came to gaining admission to medical schools, especially those who were married and had children. They were out rightly prevented from entering many of these institutions. The American Medical Association in particular, was guilty of barring women from their membership and from entering their men’s medical colleges.

The impact on the roles women played in the medical field was severely limited and the statistical evidence bore this out. In1890 only 5% of doctors in the United States were women and this only rose to 17 % in 1980.

Within the Educational Department of the United States, women faced less opposition to their career advancement and made use of the largest opportunity given to the female gender in that by 1980, twice as many women more than men were employed as teachers in elementary schools and high schools, according to WIC (2011).

Women had come a far way in terms of casting off the stereotypes they had been cast in, especially the view that they were being disrespectful when seek to speak to mixed audiences, when Hillary Clinton outperformed a highly competitive male dominated political field and almost won the Democratic Party presidential nomination in 2008.

The paths to this ascension were undoubtedly played by men such as male abolitionists William Lloyd Garrison, Wendell Phillips and Frederick Douglas who positively helped women of their era advance their causes in a male dominated and controlled environment. They allowed women to speak and participate equally with men at anti-slavery rally activities, according to WIC (2011).

Garrison however, will be remembered for his personal token of support at the 1840 World’s Anti-Slavery Convention in London, when he refused his seat and proceeded to the balcony to sit with the women’s group that was barred from actively participating in the convention.

It was ironical that these very same men who were organizing themselves against the evils of slavery, were at the same time discriminating against women who were also possible of the same race and fighting for their civil rights, in addition to being victims of slavery themselves.

The resolve shown by people such as Mrs. Rosa Park in the Montgomery Bus boycott and Mrs. Coretta Scott-King fighting for civil rights alongside her husband Martin Luther King Jr., may have emanated from the acts of fortitude shown by these women at the London Conference as well as different suffrage groups.

Despite the negative influence of educational and business leaders, the legal and medical professionals, the news media houses and the very House of Congress, women in the period from the antebellum to the present had strong support to help shape their sexuality from a number of suffrage group, including the National Women Suffrage Association, the American Women Suffrage Association as well as individuals of prominence like Victoria Claffin Woodhull.

The National Women Suffrage Association (NWSA), accepted only women in their membership and was opposed to the Fifteenth Amendment on the basis of it offering enfranchisement only to African American males and fought hard to expose to other women nationally the inequalities that were being subjected was emanating from the prevailing family structure. They went even further to declare that the real purpose of marriages were to empower and gratify men while disempowering women at the same time (Schultz, 1999).

A more moderate approach in the fight to shape women’s sexuality was taken by the American Women Suffrage Association (AWSA), according to Schultz (1999), because it embrace men in its ranks and accepted the dictates of the Fifteenth Amendments as a step in the right direction as well as a foundation to secure other vital civil rights benefits for the women in general.

Women’s sexuality was enhanced during the period by the sterling individual contributions of Victoria-Claffin Woodhull, the owner of a newspaper and successful brokerage firm as well as a believer in Marxism. She showed defiance towards the stereotypical attachments placed on ladies and even announced her candidacy for the presidency of the United States after calling for it to be overthrown.

The effects of the different women suffrage group, feminists groups, abolitionists and other organizations were severely reduced by a common thread of disunity that flowed through them and a lack of proper focus. These no doubt caused their scarce resources to be poorly utilized. Had organizations like the AWSA and the AMSAfor example find middle ground and fight for the civil rights of all women together the results might have been different in terms of economic development and the timely enacting of laws that allow women to function without depending on their husbands.

Women’s sexuality and the greater roles they could have played societally therefore suffered as a result of perhaps the ego of the different leaders as well as ulterior desire to achieve fame and popularity taking precedence over the real gender needs, in what was a vicious, inhospitable male dominated society that was backed by even the very government itself.

The failures of these splintered suffrage organizations to find a leader as well as the strength of the oppositions in the medical, legal, scientific. cultural, religious, business and government  helped to reduce the roles women could have played during the antebellum and beyond , and forced them for long periods  to subject themselves to men in the legislatures as well as in business positions passing laws, and creating policies and regulations about how they should live their lives, without any reasonable contributions from them

Economically, the United States government may have contributed to the disintegration of the African American family during this period when it amended the 14^th and 15^th Amendments in 1860 and 1870 respectively and granted suffrage and citizenship to all non-African American women. The move ensure African American Women remained dependent on their male partners for economic survival well into the 20^th century and because of discrimination and poor education and skills, many of these men were often unable to find good jobs.

The 1963 Equal Pay Act as well as the laws allowing women to join their partners works in outside their homes open the way for these minority women to go to work at the expense of their children at home who were allowed to grow unsupervised and without the requisite discipline that prevailed in the more stable Caucasian families.

Children growing up in a climates that had such vicious poverty cycles, usually maintained the status quo generationally, and in many cases lead to lives of crime and violence.

The WIC statistical report bears out the impact the US government caused in not including the rightsof African American women in the 14^th and 15^th Amendments clauses, when it showed that since 1960, more and more women with children have been in the workforce, and African American women were found to be more likely at work in comparison to Caucasian and Hispanic women who have children.

Conclusion

Women as a gender however, have made significant progress on a number of fronts since the United States Senate rejected a bill that would have established Mothers Day as a national holiday, by saying that motherhood was too much of a sanctified entity for it be accorded only a day. Women have qualified to become astronauts, competed for vice and presidential nominations, become Secretary of State and National Security Adviser, Surgeon General, eminent jurist and lawyers, Supreme Court Judges , gained Nobel Prize for Peace, as well as successfully launching international and global business and ministries.

It could be argued that the oppositions have significantly reduced and more legal protections are place to prevent the replications of past immoralities and heartlessness, and many today may agree with the late Ted Kennedy, who utters that the dream will never die and hope spring eternal while fighting for the passage of national health insurance to assist poor and suffering women across the country.

Reference

Fortin, E. (2011). Early nineteenth century attitudes towards women and their roles as represented by Literature Popular in Worcester, Massachusetts Teach US History www.teachushistory.org/delocqueville-visit-united-states/articles/early/-19th-century-attitudes-towards-women , 12/09/11

Naeher, R. (2008). Antebellum Reforms Professional Development Workshop 2007-2008 College Board www.apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/members/respository/us-history-sf-antebellum-reform.pdf 12/09/11

Schultz S.K. (1999). Women, Feminism and Sex in Progressive America Civil War to the Present Lecture 14 American History 102 www.ushistroy.wisc.edu/hist102/lecturers/lecture14.html , 12/09/11

Women International Incorporated (2011). Women History in America www.wc.org/misc/history.html , 12/09/11