Women’s Rights, Essay Example

“Many misunderstandings remain in broad Puritan studies, and more research needs to be done in the narrower study of Puritan women in seventeenth and eighteenth century America”. (Rosenfeld, 2001) Today scholars are arguing that Puritan women enjoyed their roles as mothers, wives, and homemakers. This is contrary to previous to accounts that Puritan patriarchal oppression. Next, to serving Christ, women were committed to their husbands. This theory is supported by the writings of Anne Bradstreet and Sarah Goodhue. These women wrote accounts of how they were delighted with raising their children and serving God. Nonetheless, there are limited sources about this time frame from the female perspective.  On the contrary, women during the romantic period were quite different. Women of this time were trying to escape the child rearing title. This time frame ran parallel to the Industrial Revolution.  Women entered the work force. Nonetheless, there was inequality in social positions of women and men. Women were beginning to be recognized for their working ability, yet they had to fight for equal pay. Some women even began to work in factoring before they were married and started families.  Women were learning to read and write more adequately and many female writers rose to acclaim.

Women and men had separate roles in Puritan society. The Puritans has a hierarchal system in place. Women were secondary subjects to their husbands. In 1636, Puritan women could not speak in church, nor could they interpret bible scripture.  However, they could read scriptures. Puritans believe that everyone should be able to read so that they could read the bible; hence, all women were taught to read. Margaret Fuller advocated for equal positions in American society. In her essay, “The Great Lawsuit” , she spoke openly against inequality. She even supported the rights of African Americans. Many believed she was influenced by Ralph Waldo Emerson.  In her essay, The Great Radical Dualism, she argues that each person has the existence of two opposite principles. She says, “Male and female represent the two sides of the great radical dualism. But, in fact, they are perpetually passing into one another…There is no wholly masculine man, no purely feminine woman” (Rosenfeld, 2001).  It seems as if Fuller is conveying that the sole of women and men is different.  However, Emerson seemed to support more transcendentalism ideals. According to this theory, men and women are equal and that people must “transcend” what they can hear, see, taste, touch, or feel.  Today’s society has a little more of a transcendentalist view of women. Women own property and manage business. Statistics even show that more women are less concerned with getting married and more concerned with obtaining an education and a meaningful job. For example, “Women have been starting businesses at a higher rate than men for the last 20 years and tend to create home-based micro (less than 5 employees) and small businesses. Women will create over half of the 9.72 million new small business jobs expected to be created by 2018 and more and more are doing this from home offices across the country” (Bunch, 2004)

Women continued to struggle obtain equal rights for several more decades and the 1960s became known as women’s movement phenomenon. Women were influenced by the civil rights movement that African Americans were using to fight for racial equality.  Several groups lobbied against this movement and were viewed as unrestrained feminism. Perspectives of women in the United States have changed drastically over the years. Consequently, women are leading lives today that are much different the lives they would have lead in the 1950s in American.

Works Cited

Bunch, C. (2004) A Feminist Human Rights Lens, Peace Review, 16 (1), 29-34.

Rosenfeld, Alvin H (2001). Anne Bradstreet’s Contemplations: Patterns of Form and Meaning.  The New England Quarterly, 43 (1), 79-96