Women_Roles_in_16th_Century

Analysis of “The Rights of Women” during Romantic Period What women had to fight and go through in the 18th century to break the views men had of women. I will focus on women writers of the romantic period that stood for their rights and changed the women's title forever. Many people would consider Mary Wollstonecraft the "mother of feminism" and her piece on the Rights of Women was the beginning of a lot of later arguments and struggles for woman equality. Many of women activists, such as Catherine Macaulay, Priscilla Bell Wakefield, and Mary Anne Radcliffe came after Wollstonecraft to take a stance and speak their voice. The definition of equality is having the same quantity, measure, or values as another. For decades woman such as those mentioned fought for this description to be true amongst males and females. Many males, including Rousseau, claimed that "Nature intended that subjection of the one sex to the other; and that consequently there must be an inferiority of intellect in the subjected party" (320). Women in the late 1700s and early 1800s were observed more as objects of possession to the male population than as an equal human being. According to Macaulay, women were told that "they must abstain from those vices which are contrary to their personal happiness" (321). Men were not necessarily intelligent in all manners but rather speak out of pride and indulge in the interest of their own happiness. Rather, they were simply useful for nurturing the children, working around the house, needle work, and other various trivial tasks. According to Radcliffe, “women seemed formed by nature to seek protection from man" (332). In actuality, men just saw females like children and did not concern them with any serious affairs. Women, nevertheless did have unrecognizable advantages over men in that they have and use their "systems of mundane creation" and have a "natural influence over the male mind" (321). It is said that if women were to exert these advantages properly, "they might carry every point of any importance to their honor and happiness" (321). The reason women do not have the ability to exert these advantages properly, according to Macaulay, is because, "their system of nerves is depraved before they come out of the nursery" (321). This depravity has a great influence over a women's mind and morals. This is what caused women to refrain from finding their own personal happiness. Likewise, men did not believe that females were coherent enough to be educated. As Rousseau puts it, "till that period arrives in which women will act wisely, we will amuse ourselves in talking of their follies" (321). Without any education, women were unable to find any suitable employment. Even if a woman's husband or father let them work, they could only find professions in a few fields, such as hair-dressing, at this point in time, according to Priscilla Wakefield, "their duties have lately occupied the pens of writers of eminence" (328). There were limited occupations that were fit for women according to the male population. Even in these occupations, men were the primary worker. These professions were constructive while "filling up their time in a useful manner" (328). The only way women could engage in these professions, is "without encroaching upon those professions, which are appropriate to men" (328). They could only employ their time and talents as long as they are not "exceeding the most exact limits of modesty and decorum" (328). According to St. Luke, "there is no other alternative for these poor women, but beggary or vice. Women were forced to be "reduced to the same low state of wretchedness" (Radcliffe 333). Women were also only seen as a thing of beauty, according to Macaulay, "the admiration of the other sex is held out to women as the highest honour they can attain" (321). This is the only thing that kept men interested in women at any cost. If women were not functional, according to men, at least they can be something to gaze at. In the poem of The Unsexed Females, Richard Polwhele writes an entire stanza on the "female shape and mind" (ll 39). Women knew that they were just an object to look at and women were then forced to "hide their emotions from congenial man" (ll 86). This is most evident in the poem by Robert Browning, My Last Duchess. In the poem, the duke has a painting of his last duchess that he can gaze at all day, but cannot do things that he does not approve of. This is all he apparently wants from his women. He also covers up the painting with a curtain so that he can be the only one who gets to look at this beautiful young woman. Towards the end of the poem, while finding a new wife, he even claims that she "is my object" (ll 53). He only wants a wife as property and not for who she is. There are many women activists during this time that did however believe that women had the ability to rise above the norms and beliefs of women in this age, according to Pope, "a perfect woman's but a softer man" (320). We must look at the fact that we are all human and come from the similar laws of Nature. Priscilla Wakefield claims that, "the result of this improper treatment has been a neglect of the mental powers, which woman really posses, but know not how to exercise" (328). As Mary Anne Radcliffe puts it, "All women possess not the Amazonian spirit of a Wollstonecraft but, unremitted oppression is sometimes a sufficient apology for their throwing off gentle garb of a female, and assuming some more masculine appearance" (332). So if women put to use these powers and spirits, they will be seen as a more masculine figure. Either way, the women gets a negative outlook on their character. They must oppress their talents and powers to not be looked upon in a masculine way. Hannah More speaks about this injustice and feels that it is not fair "to give them a very defective education, and then to expect from them the most undeviating purity of conduct" (339). Women have come a long way since that period of time and no longer have to oppress their feelings and talents. They have moved from being just objects of lust for males to being able to work in the same place as men, vote with men, and even engage in numerous other activities with men and be considered equal. Bibliography 1. Browning, Robert, "My Last Duchess." The Longman Anthology of British Literature, Vol. 2B. Damrosch, David and Dettmar, Kevin J. H. New York: Pearson Education, Inc., 2006. pg. 1415-1416. 2. Macaulay, Catherine, "Letters on Education." The Longman Anthology of British Literature, Vol. 2A. Damrosch, David and Dettmar, Kevin J. H. New York: Pearson Education, Inc., 2006. pg. 320-322. 3. More, Hannah, "Strictures on the Modern System of Female Education." The Longman Anthology of British Literature, Vol. 2A. Damrosch, David and Dettmar, Kevin J. H. New York: Pearson Education, Inc., 2006. pg. 339- 344. 4. Polwhele, Richard, "The Unsexed Females." The Longman Anthology of British Literature, Vol. 2A. Damrosch, David and Dettmar, Kevin J. H. New York: Pearson Education, Inc., 2006. pg. 323-327. 5. Radcliffe, Mary Anne, "The Female Advocate." The Longman Anthology of British Literature, Vol. 2A. Damrosch, David and Dettmar, Kevin J. H. New York: Pearson Education, Inc., 2006. pg. 332-338. 6. Wakefield, Priscilla Bell, "Reflections on the Present Condition of the Female Sex." The Longman Anthology of British Literature, Vol. 2A. Damrosch, David and Dettmar, Kevin J. H. New York: Pearson Education, Inc., 2006. pg. 328-331. Latonja Williams March 16, 2011 Dr. Wilson History 1320-15Q