The Progressions of the Role of Women in American Society

The Progressions of the Role of Women in American Society

Monserratt Rodriguez

ENWR 105                          

Essay #3

Professor Tobin

11/17/2015

All throughout time women have progressed into important, in fact, essential assets to the stability of society. In the beginning of time women’s role was diminished. Men were the dominant sex and women’s role was to accommodate the males and their children. Throughout the many generations, women have progressed into strong, independent, and hardworking characters redefining their role in society and becoming substantially more equal to men. Despite the miniscule role of women in the past, it is safe to say that women have progressed and become a crucial part of today’s society, economy, household and entertainment.

When individuals today think of the role of women in society they see the revolutionized interpretation, the twenty-first century view, because in the early eras of time women had a completely different role in society especially in their homes. Women were seen specifically for taking care of their families and households, “wifehood and motherhood were regarded as women's most significant professions” in society during that time (WIC - Women's History in America). It was very rare to see a woman working as an owner of a shop or in a job that required a degree.  It wasn’t until “the 1990s, [that] American women learned that they can rise to leadership roles, but surveys show that it requires more effort, that they have to be exceptionally better, and that they must devote a great deal more time, than men.” (Kimberly M.

Radek). Women progressively began to view their worth and realize that they could do more than just change diapers, clean their homes, and cook for their husbands, like society had taught them to believe.

In the past women where seen as the weaker sex in difference to today, where women are also seen as strong individuals who have the same potential to be successful as men. Women were “considered naturally weaker than men, squeamish, and unable to perform work requiring muscular or intellectual development”(WIC - Women's History in America). Women were viewed as fragile, weak individuals who were not physically or mentally capable of preforming anything nearly the same tasks as men. Progressively women have comprehended that they aren’t anything like what they were being stereotypes as. In fact,  “physiological tests now suggest that women have a greater tolerance for pain, and statistics reveal that women live longer and are more resistant to many diseases” than men (WIC - Women's History in America). It has been proven with research that women are equally as capable, if not beyond capable, to do the same activities as men in terms of exercise and strength all the way to their ability to work in the same jobs and have the same knowledge.