Status of Women Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Status of Women - Essay Example Abigail Adams is often remembered for admonishing her husband to â€Å"remember the ladies† in framing the constitution, but in reply her husband in 1776 makes it clear that he has no intentions of redistributing power. He maintained that women and other disenfranchised groups ought to remain subordinates because of their lack of capacity to reason and for responsible use of liberty. To an extent, Adams’ persistence on patriarchal supremacy is based on fear of crisis, which proposes that he considers women as well as other politically powerless individuals as being possibly â€Å"wild† thus; they need to be tamed to maintain social order. However, Abigail appeals to her husband’s honor as well as the sense of responsibility concluding that men of senses in all ages detest customs that treat women as vessels of sex and beings of providence under men’s protection. Even though, Adams relied on her wife’s extraordinary resourcefulness to run the farm in his absence like keeping his records and even asking her to use her influence in implementing his political ideas, he is unable to acknowledge her real political power. Adams feared that chaos might arise if women were allowed to participate in public life since like his forbearers who subscribed to structures of female behavior; he was convinced that social order in the country would be undermined if women became part of the public life (Abigail and John, n.d). Early excitement after the French revolution enabled the legislators who overthrew the government-crafted statement of universal rights entitled â€Å"The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen†. However, crafters of the document wrote it for the political world where women played little role the declaration therefore applied to only half of human species according to Olympe de Gouge a revolutionary woman. In 1779 two years following The Declaration of rights of Man appeared, Olympe wrote rights of woman that included â€Å"The Declaration of the Rights of Woman† directly confronting revolutionaries. Her disquieting approach and thought about the revolutionary order considered the revolution to be nothing unless it included sweeping changes in women’s rights, which was radical to the revolutionary leaders. She felt that man alone raised his exceptional circumstances to a principle bloated with science and degenerated into ignorance of commanding as a despot a sex in full possession of its intellectual faculties; moreover, at the time men pretended to enjoy the revolution and claimed their rights to equality in order be mum about the issue (Olympe, n.d). Wollstonecraft in her introduction to her book â€Å"Vindication of the Rights of Women† shows her willingness to argue, dispute and suggest alternatives offer great source of wisdom and understanding for more than two hundred years. This approach was similar to that of Abigail Adams since constantly remaindered her husband to consider women in drafting the constitution and these women’s approach remain to be relevant even today. Wollstonecraft exposition was not limited to rights, which she devoted much attention in their ensuring their legislation, but her approach also reached a wide range of social and political

Review the book named middlemarch Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Review the book named middlemarch - Essay Example Featherstone as he was not much satisfied with her. To attend and serve a person who was always impulsive to you was what Mary was doing. She has always been polite to him and has never been harsh to him in return. She was sitting in silence and was reflecting on the events that happened that day when suddenly Mr. Featherstone woke up from his sleep and called Ms. Gray to his bedside. He gave her the keys of the safe and asked her to take out his will. Ms. Gray was ordered by Mr. Featherstone to burn the second will so that only his first will is considered to be valid. She was afraid to act on his orders as there was no one in the room to witness her act. She refused to act on his orders even when she was offered a bribe on it. She felt that Mr. Featherstone isn’t in the right mind and stays firm. Mr. Featherstone went to sleep and he was dead by the next morning. Analysis: Ms. Gray was a very sweet, humble and straightforward kind of person. She had a good understanding and knowledge about human nature with a good sense of humor. But these qualities of her cant be judged by her daily activities. She seemed very simple and plain throughout the novel which contradicts to what she actually is from inside. This made her characters suspicious to few people. She was believed to be very prudent as she felt that many people will be disappointed by Mr. Featherstone's will. The nervous tone of Mr. ... Eliot gave her less opportunity to show the strength of her personality however, when it appears, her character is shown as the strongest character in the whole novel. Her strong character is beautifully portrayed in the death scene of Mr. Featherstone. Ms. Gray proved to the reader that intellect and wisdom are not enough for a woman to surpass the situational problems faced by females. Ms. Gray’s decision secured her but did not help her to get freedom. Ms. Gray’s refusal to burn Mr. Featherstone's will showed an act of self-protection as well as ethical and moral strength. The speakers of Eliot’s novels deconstruct masculine authority which is replaced by feminine narrative power which actually has no inspirational base. A face of such feminine insight is Ms. Gray’s detached and sardonic wisdom. Ms. Gray’s Character is somewhat closest to Marian Evans. 2. Application of Act Utilitarianism: We need to look upon all the alternatives that can be con sidered while taking this decision. If I would be Ms. Gray’s position I would have acted according to Mr. Featherstone’s orders and would have burned the will on his demand as he was on his death bed and this act could have given him some satisfaction and happiness and would have made him felt better. He would have appreciated the efforts. The other option that I had was that I would have consulted someone else or would have arranged some witness in the presence of whom I could have helped Mr. Featherstone on his demands. Thirdly I would have talked to Mr. Featherstone on some other alternative than just to burn the will. I would have done that instead of just declining his request straightforwardly which lowered his morale to an extend that took his life. Furthermore I