Fighting for Womens Rights - Essay Example

Women's Rights Claim: The true emancipation of woman is only achieved by acceptance of the fact that between her and man, there must exist an acceptance of the other's worth and an openness to the fact that one needs the other to be whole and free. In 1917 edition of Emma Goldman's Anarchism and Other Essays, I was struck by her statement that "Now, woman is confronted with the necessity of emancipating herself from emancipation, if she really desires to be free". Those were surprising words from a woman who is as vocal of her arguments for the emancipation of women as the rest of us who believe in fighting for women's rights. However, having seen first hand the effort and the cost of achieving what most of my fellow Feminist's believe as "equal footing" with man, I cannot help but believe that in doing so, we have upset a balance of nature and veered away from that which we, as women, have always hoped to achieve. Of what use is it to be an equal to someone with whom we consider from nigh Puritanical viewpoints as someone less able than us I believe that the true emancipation of woman is only achieved by acceptance of the fact that between her and man, there must exist an acceptance of the other's worth and an openness to the fact that one needs the other to be whole and free. The Bible has often been used to benefit the cause of men who wished to maintain the 'status quo' they had created for so long. Interpretation is leans on the idea that women were created to serve as servants to man. She is the caretaker of the home, the bearer of children and nothing more. It is against this idea that women's emancipation movement has long fought against. We have struggled to show that there are more to women than this 'archetype' man has Set and in our efforts to disprove their claim, we have failed to see that the Biblically, a woman's role is not just as a servant but also as an equal and companion from the start. A useful anecdote comes to mind where an argument is made for women as equals: God takes her from man's side, not above him to be his superior, not from his feet to be his servant, but from his side to be his equal - a partner with whom he husbands the beauty of the Garden of Eden. In our efforts to defy the conventions to which we have been shackled, we have overlooked this one key point and have thus upset the balance of nature in our efforts to prove that we are not inferior, but are in fact, the more superior gender. Consider the price of our effort to prove our worth. Goldman describes that for today's modern woman to achieve a level of equality with man, she needs to exert all her effort to the point of exhaustion and she closes herself off to anything else that might hinder her from achieving this objective. The modern woman denies herself her natural need to nurture and care by taking on aspects, heretofore considered man's dominion. She becomes driven by an ambition so total that she becomes cold and calculating that she denies herself the most vital right of loving and being loved.Even Elisabeth Cady Stanton, one of the great leaders of the women's emancipation movement and who had so shocked the world with her arguments in "Home Life" a speech she made on marriage and divorce: "from a woman's standpoint, I see that marriage as an indissoluble tie is slavery for women, because law, religion, and public sentiment all combine under this relation, whatever it may be and there is no other human slavery that knows such depths of dedregation [sic] as a wife chained to a man whom she neither loves nor respects". Even in that statement it is acknowledge that it is no bad thing for a woman to have someone whom she loves and respects. The view that men are to be looked on as 'oppressors', a view unfortunately held by some of the more radical activists for the women's right s movement, reflects a sorry state of affairs as these women deprive themselves of their true freedom. The fact that they look upon women who have abdicated this view by virtue of their having married as betrayers of the Women's Emancipation movement is a pity indeed. It is a petty and narrow view that fails to acknowledge that this is a choice a woman can make without devaluing herself. As Goldman (1917) states: "The narrowness of the existing conception of woman's independence and emancipation; the dread of love for a man who is not her social equal; the fear that love will rob her of her freedom and independence; the horror that love or the joy of motherhood will only hinder her in the full exercise of her profession--all these together make of the emancipated modern woman a compulsory vestal, before whom life, with its great clarifying sorrows and its deep, entrancing joys, rolls on without touching or gripping her soul." Is Hillary Clinton any less of a personage because she is married to Bill Clinton Was Lady Diana less of a woman because she was married to Prince Charles The Puritans will argue that it does, but does it really I do not believe motherhood or marriage has deprived these women in any way. It has in fact made them more. Man for all his faults should not be forced into the role most women's rights groups are trying to force them into - that of mere progenitor of the race - a role forced upon women through the centuries. I consider this view an act of pettiness and an obstacle to a woman's true growth because she allows herself to be haunted and bound by the dictates of tradition. Only by unfettering herself from the views and from a vengeful attitude of giving a man a 'taste of his own medicine' shall a woman be able to truly say that she is emancipated. Again I turn to Goldman (1917) in full agreement that we will have to shed the "ridiculous notion that to be loved, to be sweetheart and mother, is synonymous with being slave or subordinate. It will have to do away with the absurd notion of the dualism of the sexes, or that man and woman represent two antagonistic worlds". The acknowledgement of the need to be loved and respected should never be taken as a sign of weakness in a Feminist or any advocate of Women's Rights. It is only by accepting our role as man's partner, and recognizing that we need each one another can a woman truly say that she is emancipated, free. Read More