A Woman's Wrath

A Women's WrathWomen have been under appreciated and under privileged. Women have always been the power behind the thrown. The women in the early America have been attempting to encourage the four fathers of the rights of women.

It was a land mark for today's independent women, that in 1776 Abigail Adams told her husband John Adams to, "Remember the ladies" (American Lives). As most men of the past and unfortunately today, ignored her ideas. The roles of women of 1776 were wife, mother, lover, daughter, and a help mate. They were married young, most young widows re-married; they were always tied to a man.

Real estate was always inherited in a primogeniture way. The first son always received the property and any inheritance money. The wives and daughters never inherited anything that could help to ensure them of an independent future. The majority of rural farm wives were in some manner self-sufficient. The women were never important enough to become independent from men, yet they stood beside their men behind a plow.

Women hauled water weighting about 8 pounds per gallon. It was the women's soul responsibility to grind the meal, salt the meat, preserve the fruits and the vegetables, and bake bread in the time consuming and dangerous Dutch ovens. It was also due to the skill of women that the family had clothes. The women would spend hours spinning, weaving, cutting, and sewing their families clothing apparel. Women also had the duty of making the household soap out of lye, ash, and fat. Over one-third of their day was dedicated to laundry for the family. Women churned butter and milked the cows. They not only provided the child care, but they also helped their husbands in the field. The men worked, while the women had chores. Women were fine domestic manufactures in a household industry.

Women are equal to men in every aspect. Even in the Revolutionary War women fought, nursed, spied, boycotted, and cooked for the military and the fallen soldiers of war. Women have always held their part in history.

Once the American Independence was won, the equality of women was forgotten. American women could not vote, yet many women tried and were arrested for their efforts. Women were not privileged enough to hold a political office. Unfortunately they were unable to draft a will for their children, even if they were the only care giver. They were not allowed to sue or be sued, nor were they permitted to speak in church. They were forbidden to attend a congressional convention. The purchasing of land was also out of the women's reach. It was not until much later in history that the women were permitted to attend college, when they did they were restricted to the domestic science classes. In other words, they were allowed to learn how to cook. The saddest of all was the inability to divorce a husband, regardless of the conditions, it was unheard of. Their husbands could divorce the wives and take the children, since they belong to him and not her. The puritan church did not allow the membership of women. At this point, women could legally be beaten like livestock.

The independent women became more popular once the Industrial Revolution began. This enforced the development of textiles. The men still away at war, the women began to work in factory jobs and declare their own independence and responsibilities (War Grandma). Large amounts of women were waking up to the independent women's idea. There spirits were easily damaged by the Judeo-Christian tradition of patriarchy.

The public education system was open to women to study in the domestic science. On of the first colleges that allowed women to participate in their school was the Oberlin College (American Lives).

At this time our four mothers were emerging from the silent crowd of lost and abused women. These four mothers of the women today, include; Lucretia Mott, a Massachusetts Quaker, who believed that the tuition was equal among the co-education students, why was the salaries of the co-ed professors not equal? She also fought for a welfare reform. Elizabeth Cady Stanton from New York was later known as the brains behind the Women's Right's Movement. Susan B. Anthony from Massachusetts will always be known as the voice. She was a school teacher who fought for child custody and a legal reform (Liberty and Equality).

On July 19, 1848, at the Seneca Falls Convention in New York, was born the Declaration of Rights of Women. After ten thousand women protested the White House in 1920, the 19^th Amendment was passed. The independence of women became wide spread.

Things did not change immediately; it took another fifty years, until the second Women's Right's Movement to get the women their rights. The second movement was encouraged by Margaret Songer a New York nurse, who emphasized the distribution of birth control, condoms. Because she believed in Planned Parenthood, she was jailed. By 1967, panty-hose, penicillin, and the pill have speared from the minds of the active independent women. One thing remains the same, the inequality of the pay distribution between the sexes. In the United States the pay for a woman is seventy two cents to a man's dollar.

The Industrial revolution had marked the way of a new era. "The evangelist, abolitionist, and women's rights activist claims equality as her birth right, grounded in the strength of women forced to work the land of others" (Women's Writers). I'm 1851; the world was introduced to Sojourner Truth, and her unprecedented approach to the revelation of truth.

Sojourner Truth exposed what the sheet covered of women. She asked why there were fine divisions between the classes. "Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain't I a women?" (Ain't I). Why is there a distinction between classes? That's right, it's a democracy that the Americans live in.

Sojourner Truth exposed the treatment of women, and showed every man, that every woman is his equal. Then she directs her quotes to the women. Asking why they do sit aside while their men make all the decisions? If the first women God ever made was strong enough to turn this world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back, and get it right side up again" (Ain't I). She tries to inform women of how to be independent and successful. The only way to accomplish this lies behind the lines of unity. Stop butting heads and join the rights of women's alliance.

She tells the men that, "You have been having our rights so long, that you think like a slave holder, that you own us...What we want is a little money...When we get our rights we shall not have to come to you for money, for then we shall have money enough in our own pocket" (Things Stirring).

If the men would have understood her, or even listened to her on the occasion, then they would have realized that they already lost. She was telling them that the only humane thing to do was to grant women their rights. They wanted the legal rights to become citizens, not just baby makers. Had they truly listened to her words and her message, then the rights would have never been forfeited over. For if the women had their own rights, regardless of what their husband's opinions of them were, they had an opportunity for a future. Maybe not immediately, but their daughters would surely know this future.

It is only human nature to want more for your children and yourself. Women have possessed the courage to believe in themselves and their own abilities enough to bring a subject like Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky media attention, and almost have a president impeached. There is no White House footage or official records of the children George Washington and John Adams spawned with their female house slaves. That does not seem to be an issue of our founding fathers.

The founding fathers like George Washington, a drunken general of the United States Army, who lost the majority of his battles, still show their influence by being on the paper currency. One of our founding mothers Susan B. Anthony, a school teacher who was arrested trying to vote, also shares her mark on the United States currency.

Men have turned their backs on women for many years. They had no belief in women. The men gave very little opportunity for women, but when they did, women took the offensive position and took advantage of it. In order for women to have gotten as far as today, there were many who were shot down in the face of their controller, but also there were many who looked them in the eyes and showed the wrath of a scorned woman.