Women's Rights Movement

Women's Rights Movement

The Women’s Rights Movement started in 1848 in Seneca Falls New York. When men and women came together to sign the Declaration of Settlements, which outlined the need for men and women to be treated equality under the law. Over the next century women struggled to obtain these rights. Three voices that significantly help the women’s movement were, Charlotte Gilman who voiced about not being able to be economically successful compared to men, Margret Sanger who voiced about not being able to appease their sexual desire and Carrie Chapman who voiced about not being able to vote. Over time, the definition each of these women had of this “freedom” they were trying to achieve changed as well, depending on the time, the situation, and struggles that were faced by each individual woman, yet they all still had some similarities.

Women of the 1800’s were expected to stay at home and take care of household chores, from cooking to cleaning as well as raising the children. This began to change at the turn of the century, when more and more women started to desire a life long career. As stated in the book Women and Economics by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, women experienced the exact opposite of this goal. Women were oppressed and thought of as “mere housewives who were unproductive parasites dependent on their husbands” (Gilman 77). When in actuality they were not only working wage earning jobs but also taking care of domestic work as well. Gilman goes on to talk about how she thinks women getting jobs in nurseries, cafeterias, and laundries will help “free married women from house service.” (Gilman 77) This shows Gilman believes Freedom for women involves breaking the chain of domestic slavery women have been accustomed to since the beginning of time. This was a radical idea because at the time men were highly opposed to women getting jobs. Men believed if women got jobs they would begin to become successful, which would lead to women becoming financially independent of men. This would mean men would not be superior to women because women would not need to depend on men for finical stability. This shows the inner meaning of what Gilman was saying about how she wanted women to be able to get jobs and be treated equally to men when it comes to jobs so they could get out from under men in the work place.

The main purpose of women from the early 20th century when having sex was, to get pregnant and have children. (Mettler 2/08/13) This is why women were not allowed to have contraceptives or even learn about them. Men believed that if women knew about contraceptives it would break the sexual servitude men were accustomed to having from women. Margaret Sanger noted this and was very upset about it, she even stated advertising contraceptives in her journal and she opened a clinic that handed out free contraceptives to poor women. Sanger believed, “She who