The fight for women’s freedom under the constraints of patriarchy, religion, marriage, law, and of the victimized individual, all have a long history dating back to the first established norms in societies. For all intensive purposes looking at the three main feminist movements, the first wave, second wave, and third wave will address the attempts of women and men to equal the disparages women have felt throughout time. Like wise, forgetting to discuss basic ideas and levels of gender inequality in ancient periods of history, would not do justice in addressing the fight for women’s rights, as countless issues in a variety of circumstances speak truths about inequitable practices and the basic discriminatory treatment of women.
While the majority of time will be devoted to the discussion of women’s fight against religious oppression, early colonial North America, Patriarchy, and the feminist Ideology, a brief description of the foundation of social norms in relation to gender roles, will be included to start the discussion of the feminist movement.
Foundation of Oppression
Norms within a society whether intentional or not consign specific roles and identities upon the actors within it’s boundaries. Contained inside the boundaries of social norms there lies an inherent hierarchy, purposefully or not, the different levels of hierarchy levy burdens on some and responsibility on others. Aristotle in his book Politics raises this question of a ruling party and a ruled party,
“The soul has naturally two elements, a ruling and a ruled; and each has its different goodness, one belonging to the rational and ruling element, and the other to the irrational and ruled. What is true of the soul is evidently also true of the other cases; and we may thus conclude that it is natural in most cases for there to be both a ruling element and one that is rules. The rule of the freeman over the slave is one kind of rule; that of the male over the female another;” (Aristotle’s politics ,35).
Through the teachings and observations of Aristotle it can be understood that through time women have been subservient to men in culture. Not only is this proven by Aristotle’s writings but reinforced by them as well. The teachings and observations made in Politics sets the president and foundation of obedience; this book was one of the first written records of standards for the “women’s” place in society.
Aristotle being one of the great thinkers in history does not exclusively hold the title for thinking about gender roles in society as a struggle between the powerful and the weak. John Stuart Mill also believed that women in essence were weak because of their allowance of men to dominate over them. Mill explains that this dominance continues because of its natural appearance, “The subjection of women to men being a universal custom, any departure from it quite naturally appears unnatural. But how entirely, even in this case, the feeling is dependent on custom, appears by ample experience,” (mill, 75). This explanation through its display of women allowing and accepting the dominance of women proves that women are the weaker sex because of this very acceptance. The acceptances of lower status in society, being the second sex has deep roots in history throughout culture. Pervasive and degrading it is the position of feminist to overcome being the subjugation of men’s biding and pleasure.
Early Colonization
Early life in British North America allowed for the advancement of women in numerous roles within society. As it was thought to be to dangerous in the treacherous new land of North America, few women went on the first voyages to the colonies. The scarcity of Labor, and there being a high need and demand for labor to plant crops and work in the fields, it enabled women to fill new responsibilities.
Farming, being a very intensive manual practice was believed to be the place for the man not the women. As this position was also enormously important to the survival of a community it was often equated with prestige, once again delegating women to a lower class in society and elevating males dominance in society. But during the initial years of colonization and a scarcity of labor women inherited the place in the social order. Having the imbalance of six men to every woman permitted these women to occupy these jobs. With economic necessity being a driving force, women gained a relatively small advancement in the level of respect as citizens and people then were formerly received in England. Some felt that men and women were spiritually equal as human beings, this helped mitigate the problems that ere plaguing colonial life. Salaries and wages were awarded to the women of the fields, though were still considerably lower then that of the men.
Women fulfilling different roles in culture than was formerly allowed, presence a situation that women could and did do the same jobs and work as men, for the advancement of society and survival of the settlement. While this situation is important in understanding how women gained a different level of prestige in early American life, the unequal treatment of women was still prevalent in the disparages of wages and later in the re-relegation of women to traditional roles previously held in the Settlements.
Religious Subjugation
Often religion is discussed in topics of the feminist struggle as a social construct, a devise to control and maintain the natural order in social life, while this can be understood as true. Religion is going to be discussed as a historic precedence that has dominated culture throughout history. The ideas of female oppression from religion are a historic factor that was accepted as truth, and not often debated.
The story of Anne Hutchinson and Anne Hibbens outlines some of the first struggles within America to rebel against male authorities in the church. Anne Hutchinson was an immigrant to the colonies in America and was admitted into the first church of Boston. After becoming disgruntled with the minister in charge Mrs. Hutchinson began holding meetings for women to attend. At these assemblies Hutchison began to speak out against the teachings of the church, and that men residing over the congregation were wrong. She protested that the true word of god was not being spoken through the minister. The ramification of a woman in early colonial North America speaking out against the church in a public forum was an unacceptable deviation from social boundaries.
In response to Mrs. Hutchinson’s meetings minister Wilson’s was feeling threatened and attended meetings to take note of errors in Mrs. Hutchinson’s’ understanding of the bible and the word of god. Though she had done nothing legally wrong, minister Wilson used her errors to charge her with heresy and blasphemy. When Mrs. Hutchinson was standing in judgment her arguments were working to her benefit until discussions turned to gender roles in society. Even through Mrs. Hutchinson was valid in her arguments about religion, justifying different gender roles in society was out of her scope of influence. Her actions were said to be leading women to neglect their families and she was impressing the idea that men were wrong to the women in the meeting.
The story with Anne Hibbens was much the same as with Mrs. Hutchinson. The Church charged her with ungoverned speech, arguing that against nature she was trying to tell men what to do. As it was not within the boundaries of social norms to speak out against men, especially considering the town was run by men. The church said that she acted outside of the natural order by speaking out, and therefore usurped her husbands power to barter with men in business. Mrs. Hibbens reputation of having a sharp tongue and being outspoken in the community did not help her particular situation. Quite a few years later after these proceedings Anne Hibbens was hung for being a witch.
These stories outline a common thread that women in colonial times endured. Nothing lent greater authority to the people besides the dictates of tradition and conformity. The combination of Law and religion shaped and controlled women in these times. With further inspection of society in history the connection between religions doctrines, law and traditions sanctioned harsh treatment of women. As society has grown in time so has the invisible hand of religions oppression. This has happened with the codification of American society based on contractarian theories of Hobbes and Locke. Contactarian theory holds that the Constitution is a social contract between peoples and government, but from the conception of the Constitution women were excluded and left out of the political and social nature, touted by Hobbes and Locke.
The Black Stone principals utilized in 1765 were over one thousand years old and held that women were not accountable for petty theft and negligible crimes because of their inability to think, act and be rational creates. All crimes but for the exceptionally Haines acts akin to murder, were held responsible to the husband. During the 1700s men, empirically, committed burglary twice as much as women. Even with this knowledge there was a distinction between Male Criminality and female criminality. There was a clear difference between male badness and female badness, when men did wrong in society it was because something had happened in a particular moment within their person that made them not follow the rules set forth by man and god. But for women to act badly and go against social norms of the church was accredited to their inability to hold their insatiable sexual instability at bay.
Patriarchy
Stemming from the questions raised by Christian De Pizan to god over the evil nature of women, began the question of patriarchies dominating presence in society. The concept that women were suppressed and were held to a double standard in society by men became controversial. Questions over women’s ability to make rational choices and decide the outcome of their own lives arose.
Gathering an understanding of Patriarchy and its affects within a societal structure are import to recognize its insidious nature. Patriarchy is a way to organize society and social relationships, how people act collectively and how ideas are transmitted in society. Patriarchy builds a social structure that places interest and emphasis on men and boys above women and girls, creating a social hierarchy with males at the top. The natural progression of this idea in American society has created a structure that in “invisible”, that inequality is not seen. Due to the natural condition of these ideas over time the inequitable treatment of women and girls is understood as natural. A natural invisibility of inequality is understood within feminist literature as one of the most devastating and dangerous aspects of patriarchy.
The Fishbowl metaphor seeks to explain the reality of invisible natural conditions. The fishbowl gives meaning to the world we live in, acting as a representation of the social norms within a society, Patriarchy. Like the fishbowl we see and understand the world that reside in it sphere of influence, watching the world as it works observing every day seemingly benign activities. While patriarchy in society is the glass to the fishbowl, the danger comes when there is a lack of understanding of the locus of control. The Glass of the fishbowl like patriarchy in the normative social environment holding the power of the world, and it is this invisible power that is know as a natural condition in and society that subjugates women to the whims of man.
Feminist Ideology
The Goal of feminism is to challenge the established ideals and value system in society, in the hope to provide insight into the societal structure in place and how to improve them. The heart of feminism looks at the differences of men and women in society and how they have been used as a mechanism to justify patriarchy. It is the breaking down of these invisible rules in the societal structure that feminist try to achieve. By breaking down the rules applied to gender and the disparages in society caused by artificial gender dichotomy will enable a system and culture based on truly equal conditions to be built.
* Information based off lectures by Dr. Edward Taylor
