A Womans World and the Spiritual Role of Women - Essay Example

TOPIC ONE: A Woman's World (499 words - excluding In the Letters on Equality of the Sexes, and the Condition of Women Letter VIII: On the Condition of Women in the United States, Sarah Moore Grimke talks about the status that women enjoyed in that day and age in the United States of America - the America that people refer to as the land of opportunity; the America that people have been flocking to in thousands over the past century. This is the where the foundation stone of modern feminist issues was laid. An essay that conveys the ideals that women have stood for through the ages is the purpose of this essay which will help define a thesis statement. Through this thesis I will seek to explore the same in context of today's world through a concerted effort towards basing the thesis on case studies and the widespread literature that has culminated into the foundation of modern feminist studies. Sarah Moore Grimke sets the mood of her letter by talking about the set or "appropriate sphere" as she terms it, for women to lack intellectual inclinations and invite discussions about her character by not dressing, eating, socializing in a certain way or even reading novels that have been shunned by the press or people in general. This "appropriate sphere" has come to mean many things to many people where feminist policies and their formulation is concerned. Further, if she is to be believed, this period of time boasted of a distinct class consisting of a sizable amount of people, where owing to a certain amount of awareness and achievement of academic qualifications, women believe that arranged marriages are not the end all and be all. Also, this class of people held the belief that catering to the husband's every whim and fancy is not the only chore in life. While these ideals struck many as "absurd", in Grimke's own words, majority of the women were "trained" to carry out wifely duties and not bother about choosing a husband of their own liking. In this regard, it was made clear that a woman may never have a choice in anything in her life. Was this fair According to Grimke - not at all. In her letter, Grimke uses an underscore of sarcasm to show the absurdity of the situation where men enjoyed more freedom than women merely due physical strength and other attributes. Unfair as it was, this attitude shaped the belief that women are a machine that produces babies besides cooking and cleaning - a machine that does not and should not, require any kind of education or intellectual stimulation, let alone having a say in how her home must be run. This thought process was mainly an overthrow from the common notion that men are more superior. This was apparent in the fact that even if a woman did the heavy work that generally only a man does, she is not given the same pay or compensation as a man. In this way, there was always major discrimination regarding the areas of work that a woman could enter into - if at all she was allowed to embark on making a career for herself. Further, there was consensus to slavery especially among women, who have always been regarded among minorities. This led Grimke to end her letter by saying that rendering dignity alone will lead a woman to truly serve and respect her husband besides giving her a real objective and sense of duty in life. Therefore, in her letter, Grimke mirrored the trends of her time by going ahead of the same to show her concern for this plight. TOPIC 2: The Spiritual Role of Women (550 words - excluding title) No woman is complete unless she reaches into her soul to show the world her strength and to use this very ocean of strength to build a family and keep a happy home. In the Appeal to the Christian Women of the South - Heath Anthology of American Literature, Angelina Grimke starts her letter by taking a stance - one that revolves around genuine interest in the welfare of women belonging to the Christian sympathy, as she refers to it. Talking to the women from the same religious denomination as that of the Gospel fellowship, Angelina wishes to inform women all over from the Christian kingdom that they are not alone irrespective of the fact that she may not have seen or met most of them in person. She reaches out to them with the sole aim of demonstrating that they always have a friend, especially in times of need. She reaches out to women on the subject of prejudice the resulting ideas of slavery associated with the role of a woman. Angelina clarifies these misconceptions by talking about the human rights case that has been building up from the time Jesus passed on the mantle of independence to Noah. At this point, she makes it clear that the seven propositions do not in any way support such ideas of slavery by clearly pointing out that she is reaching out to women where the topic of slavery is concerned, and not just men, owing to the fact that the scriptures speak of a different route. In this way, Angelina's letter prompts the reader to indulge in some amount of soul searching so as to find the core of these issues and the essence of humanity, which lies in respecting the person in front of you irrespective of sex, caste, creed, color or race. In her letter, Angelina reaches out to women to promote and propagate this soul searching process because she feels that only a woman has the softness and compassion to feel deeply about matters concerning slavery. In doing so, she places immense faith in the strength and wonder of a woman's will power and describes it as something that can move mountains will the sheer power of convincing and gentle handling of any issue - big or small. Angelina then goes on to encourage women to read material on slavery carefully, apart from speaking the truth about the scriptures discouraging any form of slavery and not the opposite. Also, she says one must follow these acts by praying and acting in accordance. In this way, she asserts that we will be embracing our duty as set forth by the scriptures and embracing every human as our own. In this letter, Angelina puts forth a rational argument in terms of proof in the nuances derived from the scriptures that most people claim to follow, apart from examples of events. Apart from being a detailed piece of work, her letter is one that brings people face to face with the reality surrounding slavery and provides the motivation to sit up and do something to avert the problem. In an age when the slavery practices were rampant, Angelina has appealed to the right set of women to reach into their religious and spiritual cores to help abolish slavery by appealing to people's conscience. Through this essay I aim at depicting the trends that have followed over the times towards the groupings of women - religious and social - so as to demonstrate the role played by such women in the eradication of social ills like slavery and drudgery over the years in roles of leadership or through efforts of such groupings. Read More