Something that has been a recurring irritation for me as
we read through these chapters is the position and roles of women throughout
the history of the world. It seems that no matter what women do to become
educated or participate in history they are never seen as more then housewives;
incapable of doing anything important. Throughout this chapter I found it
repeatedly irritating how women, especially in France and Latin America,
participated in revolutionary actions and fought for change in many different
ways yet they failed to gain any liberties or benefits for their actions. I
truly believe that slavery, racism and classism are all bad and should never be
institutionalized within a society; however I am curious to understand why
after the revolution people of color were granted civil liberties and rights
while women were not. What made them so inferior to men? How could perspectives
of those from a different race be drastically altered while those for women
stayed the same? I feel like women, just like those of color, had to and still
do work harder than white males in many ways yet they are not taken seriously
or considered “smart enough” to participate in “male” duties or roles. For
example in the French Revolution, women participated in the “major events of
the Revolution” yet afterward they were seen as such a threat to men that the
legislature shut down all of the 60 women’s clubs and some declared that, ‘women
are ill-suited for elevated thoughts and serious meditation’ and one orator
said, ‘women who aspired to do so were “denatured viragos” meaning not really
women at all’. What is it about women participating in political matters that
becomes so threatening to males, and why does it lead to such degradation of
the female species?
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