Role of Women in the Modern World - Essay Example

? Role of Women: In today’s world, women are not far behind than men. They are making rapid progress in every sphere of life. Women have no longer confined themselves only to their household duties. The progress of women is quite visible across the world. However, there still arises a question over whether gender equality has really been achieved across the world and across every field. While in some countries women have made huge progress, in some other nations they are still lagging far behind than men. Similarly, while in some fields, their progress is really startling, in some other spheres there is not much development. This paper will try to focus on the role of women in the area of politics of two countries. For the purpose of this study, USA and France have been chosen. Role of Women in USA: In this present world, women are no less than men. They are treated at par with men. In these past thirty years, the world has progressed to a huge extent and so as women. The women who reside in USA have seen to explore the outer space, run in the Olympic marathons and also occupying a respectable position on the highest court in the land. Then now the question comes in then why not women are given a due chance to be the president of America. This is because it is been studied in early history that according to Kathryn Kish Sklar who has been a distinguished professor of history and co-director of the Center for the historical study of women and gender has said that United States has put its focus on gender over the class as the basis for political rights and has made the White male as to be the empowering category in the culture. She has also added saying that America has made a successful experiment in enfranchising men without property well ahead of Great Britain, where the class system was much stronger. (Han, 2010) But as days progressed, at about in the 19th century, American women started to contribute to the political culture, in spite of being enfranchised, through the means of their social activism in the areas of abolition, prison and labor reform and temperature. According to Kathryn Kish Sklar, American women achieved unprecedented clout in society as various factors coalesced during the Victorian era. Domestic feminism, in other words, a woman's demand of her partner's sexual abstinence as a form of birth control, meant mothers with fewer children could spend more time raising each one. The mother's role as nurturer superseded the father's former importance as disciplinarian, and thus required women to receive more education to satisfy this new societal charge. As per Sklar, the schoolmarm of the American frontier was a direct result of this surge in the number of educated women in the late 1800s, as was the growth of powerful organizations such as the Women's Christian Temperance Union, also known as WCTU. (Paxton and Hughes, 2007). This organization called WCTU started to support women’s suffrage in the year 1880, and as the progressive period got underway, these educated, socially conscious women dealt with various industrial issues. Sklar also noted that the women of middle-class America rallied for fundamental labor rights, which was the goal of working-class men in other countries, mainly Great Britain. As for example, the National Consumers League, created in 1898, lobbied for minimum-wage protection for female workers. By 1915, 22 states had such legislation for women only, and the minimum wage was not extended to men until the New Deal in 1938. Sklar also added that in the year 1920, the women who were newly franchised, received a less than cordial welcome from the Republican Party. They told women to lose their agenda of social issues. It is therefore that all women organizations turned out to promote women right for them who were captive of sufferings, like of getting women their due right on juries. (Paxton, and Hughes, 2007; Paxton, 2010). Therefore, as a result, younger women aligned themselves with the Democratic Party, which already espoused concern regarding social-justice issues. It was of no surprise that the first woman appointed to a cabinet position was Frances Perkins, who was made the Secretary of Labor, rather than Secretary of Education or Health, because women had always been so mobilized by labor issues, as per Kathryn Kish Sklar.( (Paxton, and Hughes, 2007) After since the Second World War, America has experienced a lot of economic booms and busts, political conservatism and societal liberalism. Throughout all this period, it has been very tough for women to get elected and fight for their due rights. According to Debbie Walsh, Director of the Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP) at Rutgers University's Eagleton Institute of Politics as well as Director of CAWP's Program for Women Public Officials, in the year 1979, she observed that although there was, at present, a record number of women serving in Congress - 60 out of 435 in the House, and 13 out of 100 in the Senate, but still there is something missing in resembling the parity. The post-census redistricting of Congress in 1992, which made more seats available to female political newcomers, contributed to this current high water mark of women in Congress. But Walsh notes it is their gender that makes women candidates most appealing during times of voter frustration. Debbie Walsh also added that when people want change in politics, when they become sick of corruption and back-room deals, then at that time women become attractive candidates because they look different - they look like a refreshing change. (Han, 2010) According to Walsh, in spite of being small in number, women legislators have been successful in pushing issues onto the national agenda. In the post Cold war era, these women issues drew their focus mainly on health, education and employment, which became the mainstream voter concerns, and the relatively few women politicians have been the ones to push through relevant legislation in recent years. Women became effective national legislators, but getting elected still requires substantial fund raising, which many female candidates feel uncomfortable doing on their own behalf. They hesitated to take the bold move of stepping forward to announce their candidature, as per Walsh. She also added that men are predominantly self-starters in politics but women waited to be asked -but politics, finally was not a dance show.( (Han, 2010) In the year 2000, Alexandra Acker who assists Chair Nita M. Lowey (NY-18) of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in Washington, D.C said that fundraising was not the only issue that deters many women from seeking national office. Acker has also heard from women politicians with young children at home that Congressional seats in Washington are less attractive because it is easier to juggle family and job at a local level. The still-powerful women's organizations are well positioned to overcome these financial and personal hurdles, according to Sklar. They can raise campaign money and provide excellent advice about key election issues. Therefore, women organizations that supported the election of women to local and state office in preparation for national campaigns correlated strongly to women candidates to win their elections. (Han, 2010) Role of Women in France: In France, the battle for equality in the women rights movement still continued. Despite having the much hailed equal right laws and also a women being leading the presidential campaign, the realm of French politics still remained to be very unjust and rude to women. Only 13 percent of French parliamentary seats are held by women and the prospects for swift change were also very poor. It would not have been very far off from the mark to say that 2006 has been the year of the women in France. Women were having more political power in their position these days than ever before. Segolene Royal had thrown her hat into the ring in the Presidential campaign, along with her, there were six female ministers in the cabinet of Prime Minister- Dominique de Villepin, and also the Defense Ministry had been led by a woman. Nevertheless, when it comes to distributing positions of great responsibility, women are still neglected in the country of liberty, equality and fraternity. Equal rights legislation passed by the government in 2000 did lead to greater feminization of politics at the local and regional levels and at the European Parliament, but women are still dramatically underrepresented in French Parliament and within the country's chief political parties. (Allwood. and Wadia, 2000) In spite of avoiding all the talk about equal rights, women still represent a mere 13 percent of the seats in the French parliament, the Assembly National, putting France at 25th place in Europe for the percentage of women in parliament. The country is trying its best to change the situation through additional legislation, but previous attempts have all failed. The new women rights movement during the 1960s and 1970s resulted in the birth of the MLF (Movement de la Liberation de la Femme).The MLF succeeded in enacting the legislative changes. There was little progress that was made in increasing the number of female elected officials. (Allwood. and Wadia, 2000; Ramsay, 2003) As a result, the wage gap between male workers and female workers were becoming less. Although positive changes have occurred in the status and role of women in French society, their battle for equality was far from winning the battle. For instance, liberalization of abortion enhanced the freedom of French women. However, stereotypes continued to be a bound in French education. Although women increased their presence in medicine and law, most have not made in-roads into the traditionally male skilled blue-collar trades. Thus church doctrine has a minimal effect on public attitudes, particularly in terms of women rights. In reality, women, however, enjoy a much more limited domain in France than women in the United States. French marriage reforms during the 1960 s and 1970 s struck down the legal basis for paternal authority over the children and the choice of domicile for the family. The MLF succeeded in changing prevailing attitudes about women and in getting important legislation passed that enhanced the status of all females. But due to the group's reluctance behavior, women got deprived in having a chance in mainstream politics which in turn contributed to the death of women in positions of governmental power. (Allwood. and Wadia, 2000; Ramsay, 2003) At the national level of political representation in France, the actual percentage of women candidates were increasing at a slower rate compared to the increasing power of women in American politics. As being influenced by the American women's movement, Marxist-Leninism, and anti-Gaulism, the MLF has concentrated its struggle on certain main areas like abortion, contraception, pornography, violence and crimes against women, equal work and pay, childbirth, and rights and legislation pertaining to all these factors. But unfortunately they gave little importance to the role of women in the area of politics. Women's rights were, however, considered to be the issues of political power. According to French feminists, French law was designed to serve the interests of a Western liberal democracy, which was inadequate to address either the physical, social, and political reality of women bodies. In fact, there were fewer female members of France Senate and Assembly National in 1983 than there were in 1946. The issue was still considered central to feminist analysis, however, as French women came to terms with their vision of liberated motherhood and women rights to control their bodies and their destinies. (Allwood. and Wadia, 2000; Ramsay, 2003) In France, women are still expected to make their main contribution in family. The official French view was that women share in the creation of French culture, as evidenced by the glorification of the feminine in art and advertisement. In terms of health care, French women, like their American counterparts, have longer life expectancies than men. Legal challenges to presumed paternal authority have been successful. According to French political leaders, although under represented in politics, female candidates have equal chance of success as males. In grounds of employment, although the labor force participation of women has risen in the past three years, female workers still tend to be more heavily concentrated than men in a few industries and occupations. Little progress was made in increasing the number of female elected officials. All men and women are treated equally in school and in workplace. The French legal system generally turns a deaf ear to women causes. Recent changes in French law have granted women greater independence in terms of marital relations, but the potential for abuse of French women exists because the courts regularly turn a deaf ear to feminist causes. However, so far the laws that were made had little impact on gender equality in the politics of France. The conservative Union for a Popular Movement, also called as UMP, party of Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, also a presidential contender, was forced to pay a fine of 4.26 million dollar in 2002 for not having an equal number of women on its candidate list. Even the left-wing Socialists broke the law and were forced to pay a fine of 1.65 million dollar. Indeed, the Greens were the only party to play by the gender rules. (Ramsay, 2003) The atmosphere of sex discrimination was not terribly surprising because the major parties of France, today also remained to be bastions of male power. In both the Socialist party and the UNP, only about one-third of members were women. The Communist Party in that case was little better and fair as it comprised of about forty percent of female membership. ((Allwood. and Wadia, 2000) Conclusion: On the basis of the whole discussion, it can be said that although women has made serious progress in terms of their educational attainment, health status, labor market participation, etc., they are still lagging behind men in the area of politics. One can still find relatively smaller number of women compared to men in political arena of both USA and France. Actually, women are still not getting enough opportunities to participate in political spheres of life. However, the situation of women in the area of politics is relatively better in USA compared to France in terms political representation and holding of essential posts. References: 1. Allwood, G. and Wadia, K. (2000). Women and politics in France 1958-2000. Routledge. 2. Ramsay, R. L. (2003). French women in politics: writing power, paternal legitimization, and maternal legacies. Berghahn Books. 3. Han, L. C. (2010). WOMEN AND US POLITICS: THE SPECTRUM OF POLITICAL LEADERSHIP. Lynne Rienner Publishers. 4. Paxton, P. and Hughes, M. M. (2007). Women, politics, and power: a global perspective. Sociology for a new century. Pine Forge Press. 5. Paxton, P. (2010). UNITED STATES IS JUST AVERAGE IN TERMS OF WOMEN’S ROLE IN POLITICS, AUTHORS SAY. Retrieved from http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/wompoli.htm on 20th April, 2011. Read More