Student Paper SP002-05
Spring 2000, Section I
Reviewer Comments

 

CREATION OF EQUALITY

 

Women have been seen as many things in the past; but never as equals to men. For much of this time women accepted this as part of their life. Several women realized the inequalities that women faced and campaigned to change the status of women in Modern Europe in order to create equality between men and women.

 

Before the "feminist movement"  began, women were viewed as a way of repopulation and were never seen as women. Once birth control became accessible to women they began to be seen as sexual beings and less as a way to repopulate the population. Birth control was made available by the State in order to prevent the spread of STDs, especially syphilis, In the 1870s women had approximately six pregnancies in their lifetime, however, by 1900 it had decreased to three pregnancies. Once birth control, or contraceptives, had become available, morality was questioned. If contraceptives were available to protect oneself against STDs, what is to stop them from becoming part of the problem of prostitution? In France, strict rules were laid upon the kept mistresses in order to protect the citizens. Who was protecting the women?

 

Prostitution was looked upon as an immoral job, however, women tended to become part of the prostitution ring in order to make money to survive. The women who worked in the coal mines of England were paid very little money, beaten, and were treated as if they were prostitutes. If they were to endure all this in the coal mine, plus be expected to do hard labor, why should they not go in to prostitution to make money? Women and girls in the English coal pits dressed like their male counterparts in the coal pits: "stark naked down to the waist, their hair bound up with a tight cap, and trousers supported by their hips" (Women Miners in the English Coal Pits).

 

"When it is remembered that these girls hurry chiefly for men who are not their parents; that they go from 15 to 20 times a day into a dark chamber, which is often 50 yards apart from any one, to a man working naked, or next to naked, it is not to be supposed but that where opportunity thus prevails sexual vices are of common occurrence. Add to this the free intercourse, and the rendezvous at the shaft or bullstake, where the corves are brought, and consider the language to which the young ear is habituated, the absence of religious instruction, and the early age at which contamination begins, and you will have before you, in the coal-pits where females are employed, the picture of a nursery for juvenile vice which you will go far and we above ground to equal" (Women Miners in the English Coal Pits).

 

The women of England who started the "feminist movement" looked down upon those women who entered prostitution and the coal mines. The English suffragettes were women from upper level families who believed that they should have the vote. They decided to go on a destruction campaign in order to gain the attention of male political members. These women began to break windows and finally resorted to arson. They wanted to be arrested in order to explain that women should get the vote. "When British suffragettes went to prison, many of them went on hunger strikes. The response of the authorities was to force feed them by having physicians insert tubes down their throats through which liquid nourishment was pumped" (Kagan  p855). The suffragettes who wanted the vote wanted to prove that women were capable of taking care of themselves; that they were not property in a patriarchal society. Women were capable of thinking for themselves, especially politically.

 

In the Women's Petition in 1649, it is asked that "Have [women] not an equal interest with the men of this Nation, in those liberties and securities contained in the Petition of Right, and the other good laws of the land?" (Radical Women During the English Revolution). The English suffragettes agreed with the Radical Women in understanding that the laws were to be obeyed by women, but not necessarily did it help women. So why did it take so long for women to get the vote? The majority of men argued that women were ignorant creatures that needed to be cared for and looked after, no woman could think for herself, let alone understand politics. "We reproach the sex every day with folly and impertinence; while I am confident, had they the advantages of education equal to us, they would be guilty of less than ourselves" (The Education of Women). Daniel Defoe argues that women should be allowed to become educated and that men deny the advantages of learning to women. Daniel used the approach of God. He decided that God "made nothing needless" (The Education of Women) so women had the capacity to comprehend the teachings.

 

The suffragettes and others fighting for the vote accomplished many things. By 1857 England revised its divorce law to be equal between women and men (Kagan, p857). By 1865, with help from The Education of Women, the University of Zurich admitted women into its door to get degrees (Kagan, p857). Earlier women were allowed to take courses such as watercolors or life drawings, but nothing that included math, science, or anything previously associated with a male way of thinking. Thirteen years later, in 1878, the University of London also accepts women (Kagan, p857). By 1910 the suffragettes had moved on to radical tactics in order to obtain attention and receive the vote (Kagan, p857). It took eight years, but by 1918 the vote was extended to some British women (Kagan, p857). By 1928 Britain extended the vote to women on the same basis as men (Kagan, p857). Even though 1928 seems as though it was very late for women to get the vote; the French women did not get to vote until after World War II (Kagan, p857).

 

Women took radical movements in order to be treated fairly and be allowed to help in political decision making. They faced many tough roads on the way. When women first got the vote, single men were allowed to fill out one ballot whereas married men were allowed to fill out two ballots. Supposedly women were going to be irate at their husbands for not letting them vote that they would vote opposite of their husbands. Therefore, if married men received two votes, they would cancel out their wives votes.

 

Women today still face many of the same segregation and problems that their ancestors have faced. However, because of the British suffragettes and men like John Stuart Mill and Daniel Defoe women today do not have to be treated as property and are allowed to be politically active. Due to getting the vote, women are now able to become active in the public sphere rather than be expected to stay at home and repopulate the household. Women are still seen as sexual beings and sexually assaulted, but now women know that this does not have to be part of their life and are able to take action against it without fearing that they will not be able to find another job.