ALTE DOCUMENTE
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Course: American Life and Institutions Petric Paula
Prof : Dr. Octavian Roske American Studies
19/ 01/ 2007 1st year
Women and politics
"Social class, status, and power are predetermined by one's gender". Since times out of mind women have been the "weak sex" and had a predetermined role in society: they were wives, mothers a 10410j921k nd housekeepers. It has always existed this natural difference between men and women in all areas of life, including in politics; men simply possess greater power than women, "and enjoy greater access to what is valued by the social group.". And for a woman to achieve a greater political influence, she must be considered equal to the man. Throughout history there have been made many changes for the women's status, but in reality nothing can be done if they don't lead to equality.
The first wave of feminism came in the 19th century and begun to compare women with African American slaves. They blamed men for all the restrictions of women's role, and argued that the relationship between the sexes was one-sided, controlling and oppressive. the slavery metaphor was joined by the image of the drunkard husband who batters his wife.So feminists focused on receiving basic citizenship rights.Their main focus was to gain the right to vote, believing that along with it they would gain political will to deal with any other issues and also that equality in the eyes of men was soon to follow.
Although
women won their right to vote in 1920, now they encountered another problem:
they continued to be disqualified from positions within the Senate because they were not
considered qualified "persons" as defined by the
But the legal rights they gained were not enough for them to have an influence in the political area. Within the nineteen sixties, and seventies, women continued to be considered as the second-class, and unable to change their status. "Women still performed most of the domestic duties; could not find adequate, affordable child care; were woefully under-represented in politics; earned a fraction of the pay men earned; faced spousal abuse, sexual assault, and sexual harassment; and had no legal access to birth control." (Brodie 1995, 70)
So women began to demand care for their children, equal pay, unrestrictive employment legislation, freedom of choice on abortion. But many of these issues remained unimportant to politicians and it became evident that the government was not concerned with women's rights. Decades full of protests for women's rights created several political gains, as well as improvements in their status; however, inequality remained.
It was because of the gender gap, that politicians from the major parties began to pay more attention to issues of importance for women .The women's vote was so different from men's that this attract the attention of political professionals.
" Traditionally , feminist concerns have received more attention from the Democrats than from the Republicans. Democratic platforms have supported both the Equal Rights Amendment and choice on the issue of abortion. The Democrats had policies supporting working women, including parental leave, affordable day-care and freedom from sexual harassment. In contrast, the Republican party at first failed to support feminist initiatives and only offered alternatives seen as insufficient."(Jack E. Holmes)
Women continued to face discrimination, unequal pay and workplace harassment in the working domain. They aren't yet seen as valuable as men and do not have influence in the political area so they continue to fight for liberal democratic political power. "The law has granted women a voice within politics; however, it remains weak and inaudible."
In 1879, Belva Lockwood became the first woman to practice law before the U.S. Supreme Court, and in 1981, Sandra Day O'Connor became the first woman to become a member of the Supreme Court.
Out of the women involved in politics, most of them support the Democrats."Democratic women outnumber Republican women in the House by mare than 2:1. five of seven women members of the Senate, and four of the five women elected senators in 1992 and 1993 are Democrats.the first woman vice-presidential candidate from a major party, Geraldine Ferraro in 1984, was also a Democrat.The National Organization for women has supported every Democratic presidential candidate since its inception in 1966."( Jack E. Holmes
All in all we can see that gradually women are gaining more power, and prestige in society. Soon, the number in high-paying jobs will increase, creating a less economically dependent gender.
Bibliography: www.echeat.com
Jack E. Holmes, "American Government"
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