Role of Women Workforce in History - Essay Example

In the 21st century, women now make up 44% of the workforce compared to women barely working outside of the home at all in the medieval period. During Medieval times, Stuard points out that it was the male that had almost all of the legal say so over the rights of his family, land ownership, and further, even holding a position of dominance in marriage as well. However, many of the social customs of that time era were developed by the roles of women. Nevertheless, history does show that men carried the majority of the weight in the basic aspects of life during the medieval period. Furthermore, class and stature played a crucial role in what legal restrictions were placed on an entire family in the medieval period also. This of course has changed in the 21st century even though there can still be found different classes of people spread throughout the world. Even so, there is not the heavy emphasis on this as there once was. The many issues of equality, family values, and economic concerns for the family as a whole, are what is predominant in today’s period. To confirm this point it is found that the idea of social work is most profound to guarantee that families have some level of equality in society. In medieval times there were never resources available for families to turn time but now, in the 21st century, Iverson defines the fact that it is a priority to ensure families can acquire essential employment, and have an economic structure to depend on in order to keep a degree of sustenance in their lives. Social workers now tune into the needs of the poorer classes of people to help them function in society today. Medieval times were found to disclude the poorer classes of people and there was basically no help for them at all. This is one of the many reasons that during that period disease and illness ran rampant for the poorer classes and there was a high mortality rate because many could not afford health care services, the ones that existed anyway. These ideas move on to a new theory into how medicine has rapidly progressed in comparison to the medieval period. In medieval times it is shown that diseases were still trying to be understood under only a microscopic and the most basic of tools known to medicine. Following the information set out by Sheldon Watts, medieval doctors and researchers were trying to understand why diseases affected the human body the way they did, and there were barely any forms of immunizations or cures for many diseases such as small pox, TB, and many other chronic disease conditions. When you compare medicine from then to now it is easily seen that technology has come a long way. Society now can look inside the body with the use of X-rays, MRIs, CT scans, Ultrasounds, specialized blood work tests, and many other ways as well. There was no special equipment like this available in the medieval period and it caused a great deal of hardship on people in society. They died of the simplest of illnesses.  What was only the common cold turned to forms of bronchitis and pneumonia which ultimately killed many people due to a lack of antibiotics and intensive treatment regimens.   Obviously it has taken many, many years to develop medicine and treatments in a way to improve the life and mortality rate of people throughout the world.

To conclude, history shows us that human beings have come a long way in technology, politics, and equality among genders, discrimination, and many other socioeconomic factors. However, without our past history and the many inventions and theories that were discovered in medieval times, society would not be where it is today. So although we see many adversities from the past, it was these very negative factors that urged scientists to try and implement changes to improve the quality of life. This is the same from a political standpoint as well, and also in the areas of labor and development. So our history is what undoubtedly helps us to develop a better and brighter future for man kind.