Page 33 - Historical Fiction.pdf

Women's Rights Today
identity and property was transferred to her
husband upon marriage.
There were times, however, where women,
unlike men, stepped outside their traditional
gender roles. Men did not need to because
they had all the freedom they wanted and
there was no need to. Women lacked that
freedom though. Women in power made men
feel out of control and unable to make sense of
their position. The insecurity the men felt, led
to their harsh treatment to women. Women
who ?broke the roles? faced public ridicule, and
sometimes legal reprimand for their actions,
?In the late 1600s, trials for fornication and
infanticide specifically directed at women
increased.?(?Gender Roles in Colonial America?).
If women were to somehow gain a position of
power, men did not have to worry because
they had a fail-safe plan for dealing with them.
All they had to do was simply accuse them of
witchcraft. This was very effective in the fact
that the woman accused rarely was able to gain
any public support afterwards.
The town girl has been found guilty of
witchcraft and is now walking to the gallows
with the hangman and judges.
Today women?s rights have expanded greatly
and women are achieving many positions of
power and changing society for the better.
Women are getting jobs that, in the past,
would have been viewed as unacceptable and
only ?for men.?
According to Nikki van der Gaag, ?There have
been huge changes for women in terms of
employment in the past decades, with women
moving into paid employment outside the
home in ways that their grandmothers and
even their mothers could only dream
of.?(Feminism and Men). Women have earned
the rights to vote, to have equal access to job
lists, to have the same pay as men, to be able
to divorce their husbands, and overall have a a
lot of the same rights and opportunities as
men. Women have come a long way from
Puritan society and on. However, women?s
rights can definitely improve even more. And
this is from an American point of view. There
are several places around the world that have
not come very far in terms of women?s rights,
and still need a lot of work like Indonesia and
Iraq, where there is a lot of discrimination of
the female gender (Radu).
Making a Change
Now think back to when you imagined your
life as a women in Puritan society. Do you feel
the same way? Do you think it would be easier
or harder? No matter how you feel about
women?s rights in the past, there is still the
matter of the present. Women have come a
very long way in their gender roles and their
equality in society, and there have been many
laws passed that acknowledge their
rights. However no matter how many
laws are passed, we still have people
that are treating women as if they are
below or not as good as men.
We need to continuously work to
grant women all the rights and
equality they deserve. We also need
to remember the women?s rights
from the past, and you need to ask
yourself: ?Would I want to live that
way?? It is important that society keeps
progressing and that women get treated as
equals and peers to men. In the words of
Maya Angelou, ?Each time a woman stands up
for herself, without knowing it possibly,
without claiming it, she stands up for all
women.?
talk and more information on
Each time a woman
stands up for herself,
without knowing it
possibly, without
claiming it, she stands
up for all women.
The Scarlet Letter
The Scarlet Letter is a book that explores guilt,
revenge, and redemption. Hawthorne mixes
supernatural components and historical
elements in his book about a woman?s
punishment for adultery. ln the book, Hester
Prynne is put on trial for refusing to name the
father of her three month old daughter, Pearl,
and is labeled as a sinner. Her punishment is to
wear a scarlet A on her chest for the rest of her
life. However chaos erupts when Hester?s
former husband, Roger Chillingworth, arrives at
Boston and dedicates himself to finding
Hester?s secret lover and getting revenge. All
the while, Arthur Dimmesdale, the minister, is
getting sicker and sicker with an unknown
ailment. You should read this book if you are
familiar with Nathaniel Hawthorne?s work or if
you enjoy early American literature and
historical fiction.
Visit this website for a book
The Scarlet Letter.
https://goo.gl/Y3J9EZ