How To Get Powerless In The 1920s

Women's Rights In the year of 1920 women were finally given the right to vote for office. Women's rights have had a great absence in U.S. history for as long as 1920. In The Handmaid's Tale and in history, women were never given any rights or right to vote. In the book there are many examples of what history once looked like for women and how powerless they really were. By the women not having any say or opinion it made them way more powerless then the men in society. In The Handmaids Tale and throughout history, women are seen to have no rights for themselves, making them powerless. Throughout history, women's rights has been an ongoing struggle for equality and power. Women have been struggling to have equal rights for as long as history

During “the second wave of feminism was to focus on equal rights and opportunities” (Britannica). The first wave was aimed at equal legal rights, such as the “right to vote” (Britannica). Later on in history the movement group “National Organization for Women was born” (Britanica). This group was not always successful with what they were doing, but when they were they made major changes. There is no discrimination in the workforce, including maternity leave and child care deductions. One of their major rulings was making “employers barred from firing women due to pregnancy” (Britanica). The NOW organization will lead women's rights into an uphill rise and help many women be heard in history. In The Handmaid's Tale, women are seen as reproductive slaves and have no rights to what they want. In the handmaid's head the saying “give me children, or else I die” (Atwood 61) is engraved. The women in the book are forced to have children for the commander and his wife in order to stay. Failure to do so will lead the handmaid to either be shipped off to dig holes in toxic environments or even be

In the book, it shows what it was like to be fired as a woman by your employers. One day the boss of Offred came in and said to all the women “I have to let you all go” (Atwood 176). They were forced to fire the women because they were making money and didn’t want them to have any financial power. In the book, the handmaids are also stolen from their finances and property. “Women can’t hold property anymore, it’s the new law” (Atwood 178) was the rumor that was going around all over. The government took away the women's rights to own property and have their own finances. When they take the women's property, it is given to their husband and he gets the say in what happens with it. Offred says “you get all my money” to Luke and that's when she realizes she's powerless and all of her stuff is in Luke's hands. Due to having no power or rights, the women had to fight back to earn everything they wanted. In the book, the alliance “Mayday” was created to fight against the government of Gilead and help women escape. The women would help each other escape and not be killed if they were caught going against rules. Just like in modern day with the creation of “National Woman's Suffrage Association” (History). The founders of the association were Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Statanton, just how Ofglen and Aunt Lydia helped Mayday. These “organizations