Girl Power

   There has always been a theory in society that men are superior to woman. Back in the nineteenth century woman were unable to vote, they were also hidden in there husband shadow. They had the reputation of doing light work around the  house, along with teaching and babysitting the kids. Even today, in some cases woman are still  inferior to men. Although this issue has gotten drastically better, women are still looked at less than men.
  The mid nineteenth century is when these woman deciding to take a stand for themselves. In July of 1848, a group of woman gathered at the Seneca falls convention in upstate New York. Here they made the Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions. This document states some flaws of their society like how woman were a subordinate position in church, how they had no say in the government, and how their husbands take all of their money and land etc. After, they made solutions to all these problems. This was one of the first true acts of feminism in America.

As you can see above, woman have many responsibilities in the house like taking care of children, cleaning, and sewing. The artist  purposely put in curtain to show that this is mostly behind the scenes work. Woman would not get as much credit for doing all that they did.

This paper shows the laws and practices for woman. It just shows how woman were not even close to being treated equally to men. The last bullet said they would only be paid 30-50% of what a man makes, for doing the exact same job. The females doing this job might have been better, but because of their gender they did not get the same wadges as the men.

  Since these woman reforming was such a rare occurrence, many people voiced their opinion on this situation. In the Oneida newspaper it states "If our ladies will insist on voting and legislating,where, gentlemen, will be our elbows and dinners?" This paper had a negative reaction, and also a very week argument for woman not being able to participate in the government. Also, in the Mechanics Advocate they said "Now it requires no argument to prove that this is all wrong. Every true-hearted female will instantly feel that is it womanly, and that to be practically carried out, the males must change their position  in society to the same extent in opposite direction..." Again another negative statement. These people honestly believe that a "true woman" would not want rights. What kind of human being wouldn't want the same privileges as every one else? With all this negativity there was some who agreed with this movement. The National reformer newspaper that came out on August 3, 1848 wrote " They (authority)  may ridicule but not reason away the facts and arguments there set fourth. For the want of space to publish the whole proceedings, we give this brief and imperfect sketch of this convention, which forms an era in the progress of the age; it being the first convention of the kind ever held, and one whose influence shall not cease until woman is guaranteed all the rights now enjoyed by the other half of creation-Social, Civil and Political." This writer agrees that the woman will fight until they get the same rights as men, that being social, civil, and political rights. But, authority may want to be against them, but they have no good reasoning for it besides the fact it has been tradition forever. Eventually, authority will give in to the woman's reform.

 Although the Seneca falls convention was huge step towards gender equality, the twenty first century still thinks of men and woman differently. In a Pantene commercial  it shows how men and woman will have the same roles, but will be called different names. That was filmed in 2013 in the Philippians. A more recent commercial was filmed in America by P & G during the Superbowl, called like a girl . It shows men and woman that are told to do something, for example "run like a girl", both genders run very spastically and giggle while they do a light jog, making fun of the way females run. From both of these television adds, you can see in some cases woman are still viewed as less capable than men. I half agree with these commercials, but in some families woman are the bread winner,woman can participate in the government, along with living independently with out a husband. Women and men will never be exactly equal due to our past, I feel that in today's American society, woman are just as capable if not more capable to do the same as men, even if they are judged for it.