It is through rebellion that change is made. According to Oscar Wilde, “Disobedience, in the eyes of anyone who has read history, is man’s original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made, through disobedience and through rebellion.” Reviewing America’s journey from the up and coming country to the established yet still changing nation we are today, Wilde definitely makes a strong claim that these changes are driven with disobedience. Without civil disobedience, many social progressions such as women’s suffrage, the Civil Rights Movement, and the LGBT movements would not have brought success. In fact, without this sense of rebellion, women would not be voting, Martin Luther King Jr. would not have had his dream, and queer Americans would not have the right to marry. Overall, America: “Land of the Free” would still be segregated in many ways. Laurel Thatcher Ulrich once said, “Well-behaved women seldom make history.” It is taking a stand and disobeying the normal or refusing to conform that makes a leader well-known and successful. After all, we never hear about the lady that always does everything she is told and never argues. We hear about the wonderful activists that made a change for the future of women and equal rights. Women’s rights in particular called for much disobedience and rebellion to obtain. From voting rights to equal pay, women have a lot to fight for. This “fight” calls for rebellion to make a change. Women’s rights activists such as
For hundreds of years, people have gone against the higher authority to fight for what they believe to be true. Only a fool will think that the development of society does not depend on the disobedience of individuals who yearn to make a progressive difference in the world. For example, women fought against the belief that they were not considered to be equal as men. An individual who participated in this justice is Alice Paul; she dedicated her entire life to bring equality to both men and women by advocating for the women’s right to vote and held many rallies in support of it.
Perhaps the form of rebellion will become acceptable because it is familiar. Although Willis is passionate about the reform that current feminists try to achieve, she believes that they way that the feminists go about in doing so is incorrect. Rather, she argues that, “the conviction that moral victories are the only ones that stick, that over the long haul social change happens, and political conflicts are resolved, only through transforming people’s consciousness” (Ministries of Fear 210), which
Susan B. Anthony once said, “The day may be approaching when the whole world will recognize women as the equal of man.” That day will come, but many obstacles are in the way of women fulling earning their rights. Women had many viewpoints back in the 19th century ranging from slavery to presidential campaigns, but could never voice their opinions due to not having the rights to do so. Not having the rights to voice their opinions lead women to an abolitionism that inspired a movement for women’s rights leading to Seneca Falls Convention. The impact of Seneca Falls Convention caused a national movement in women’s rights.
Sydney Krcmarik AP Argument Essay 30 January 2023 Disobedience Sparks Progression Oscar Wilde’s statement about disobedience being a valuable way to promote social change is valid as long as those who are fighting remember that they are fighting to bring positive change to their community. When citizens are motivated to really see change and think more about their community as a whole, rather than their own personal power, real change is possible. For example, Susan B. Anthony’s fight for women's rights led to her doing many disobedient acts. Nonetheless, she did them unapologetically, knowing that she was bringing necessary change and progress. However, when the angry civilians of the French Revolutions rebelled, their leaders tried to strike
Women Fighting for Justice “When you deprive people of their right to live in dignity, to hope for a better future, to have control over their lives, when you deprive them of that choice, then you expect them to fight for these rights.” – Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan. The missions of all of these activists is summed up in this. All of them are strong women who fought for what they believed in: Mother Jones fought for children’s working rights; Harriet Tubman fought for African Americans and racial equality; and Kimberly Bryant is fighting to help get more African American girls into the IT industry.
Thousands of women have screamed at the top of their lungs, clawed at the patriarchy, and tirelessly fought for their rights as citizens of the United States of America. From the beginning of mankind, women have been labeled as inferior to men not only physically, but mentally and intellectually as well. Only in 1920 did women gain the right to voice their opinions in government elections while wealthy white men received the expected right since the creation of the United States. A pioneer in women’s suffrage, Susan B. Anthony publicly spoke out against this hypocrisy in a time when women were only seen as child bearers and household keepers. Using the United State’s very own Constitution and Declaration as ammunition, Anthony wrote countless
The Women’s Rights Movement originated from the public protest meeting in Seneca Falls, New York in 1848. Many at the meeting were skeptical about the demands being made to allow women to exercise the right to participate in government and vote. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the primary organizer of the meeting, remembered that many attending, including radical Lucretia Mott, thought that the demand was too far advanced for the time. They believed that advocating for political equality was also “too morally questionable” to include in this movement
In the Progressive Era, ‘women reformers did not have faith in the traditional biased government. The women reform group adopted new political techniques. There techniques included marching, and demonstrating as unbiased pressure groups’. (Goldfield, ed., The American Journey: A History of the United State, pgs.
"It took me quite a long time to develop a voice, and now that I have it, I am not going to be silent." —Madeleine Albright. In the 19th century, women did not have many rights to their name. They could not vote, they could not own property, and even speaking in public was looked down upon. Anti-slavery advocates existed, but women’s rights advocates did not. However, women began to speak out for their beliefs and slowly but surely, a women’s rights movement arose.
I believe that civil disobedience is good for the advancement of the American society. This a simple fact which has been proven many times by history all around the world. A few examples of important historical participants and leaders in civil disobedience include Mohandas Gandhi, Susan B. Anthony, Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks and much more. Mohandas Gandhi was an Indian man who spent his life protesting the unjust anti-Indian law in Britan using, you guessed it, civil disobedience. Most importantly on March 30, 1930, when he lead a defiance march to the sea.
Those who engage in civil disobedience do so knowing that they may be punished for it. In Boston Harbor, a group of Massachusetts’s colonists disguised as Mohawk Indians board three British tea ships and dump 342 chests of tea into the harbor. The colonists’ main complaint was that they were not directly represented in the British Parliament. Therefore, any laws the British passed on taxing the colonists were illegal under the British Bill of Rights of 1689. Seemingly, this taxation without representation would render the laws unjust.
“Women are coaxed, flattered, courted, but they are not respected by many men as they out to be; neither do they respect themselves as they should” (Horace Greeley ”Women’s Rights”). After the Revolutionary War women’s rights did not see a dramatic change. Some states allowed women to vote while others did not. With the adoption of the Bill of Rights, these amendments only attain to white males only. It wasn’t until the mid-1800 that Elizabeth Stanton began to lead for women right movements. In 1848 “three hundred men and women attend the convention in the Wesleyan Methodist chapel; of those one hundred signed the Declaration of Rights and Sentiments” (Alison Parker, The Seneca Falls Convention).
Women’s suffrage Have you ever thought about women 's rights and equality? It’s not as pretty or memorable as you think it is. But just like Shirley Chisholm said “at present, our country need’s womens idealism and determination, perhaps more in politics than anywhere else.” Which is true but back then it certainly wasn’t. Let me take you way back to when women and men were not equal, and when men had more power over women.
Irish author Oscar Wilde claimed that disobedience is a valuable human trait, and that it promotes social progress; thus, without it, social progress would not be made. Civil disobedience is to social progress as hard work is to academic success. With hard work comes academic success, and with civil disobedience comes social progress. Though some see disobedience as a negative trait, it is what has promoted social progress in history by challenging social standards and requiring new social rules to be made. Civil disobedience challenges social standards by expanding views on the current guidelines.
Woman have been fighting for equality for a long time. We are still fighting to today to close the wage gap between men and women. The women's movement fought for their unalienable rights and the right to vote. The arguments of the women's movements were revolutionary.