Women In The Late 1800's

It is hard to imagine that anyone could argue the mistreatment experienced by women in the late 1800’s. Men have decided the legal framework within which women could operate. As could be expected, their rights were greatly diminished. As a general rule, they were treated as second rate citizens with little authority to control their own money, property, or even their own bodies. Treatment of women today has changed dramatically from that of the late 1800’s due to the Women’s Suffragette Movement. Several courageous individuals paved the way for the female generations to follow, each obtaining more rights than the previous. The suffrage movement, supported by some extremely brave ladies, ultimately allowed housewives the opportunity to be anything

Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s contribution to this cause was monumental to the start of this movement. They, along with plenty of other women and rights activists, fought for equality for women in society. Not having the right to vote made women feel as if their opinions and political views were trivial and not equal to those of men. However, men felt as if women were too emotional, less educated, and were unable to evaluate political issues that did not pertain to a group consisting of mostly stay at home mothers. Obviously, as history has now demonstrated, exactly the opposite is true. The female gender has been proven to be more capable than males in multiple ways. Statistics show that women have longer attention spans, a greater capacity for noting detail, larger memories, and are far better at multi-tasking. In addition, they are more empathetic and able to see other’s points of view. All of these factors would not only cause them to be equal to male voters, but arguably the favorable sex regarding this topic. This same bias was applied to a woman’s equivalency in marital

As a result of these constraints, the “fairer” sex united and fought diligently for change. This included marches and demonstrations, even going so far as to chain themselves to public fixtures to draw attention to their cause. It is critical to remember the weakened legal position from which they fought. Additionally, suffragette represented a considerable threat to the authoritarian position held by men. The financial position of many husbands could potentially be endangered by these changes, and many aspects of this uprising would, in effect, diminish the power previously held by men. It seems doubtful that few of that period, either man or woman, could have foreseen the changes that resulted when women were able to use their intellect and