Collection 2 Essay The texts in this collection focus primarily on various gender roles in certain cultures and different centuries. In Geoffrey Chaucer’s “The Wife of Bath’s Tale”, women were manifested as holy figures who are to be treated purely. In the essay, “A Vindication of the Rights of Women”suggested that women were treated as housewives and instructed to be utterly submissive to men. In “The Men We Carry in Our Minds”, the gender roles of men were regarded and discussed. These numerous texts portray a shifting role in both genders. However, the roles of women changed more significantly. This collection debates the role of women during ancient times, specifically during the middle ages in England, during which women were manifested
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In her political argument, Mary Wollstonecraft argues against the theory that women should not be allowed to have education. In this time period, women were mostly taught subjects that would adequately prepare them for life as a housewife, maid, or a wealthy lady. Because of this system, women had limited opportunities and they stressed about their physical appearance, since the only way for a woman to survive until the twentieth century was to marry a man. Women were also treated more as ornaments rather than human beings. Concerned, Mary Wollstonecraft decided to confront the political office by encouraging women to abandon their way of fragility and to become more focused on pursuing education and gender equality. This precedes a second fluctuation in the progress of feminism in the following …show more content…
Men’s roles were disputed in the argumentative essay “The Men We Carry in Our Minds”, by Scott Russell Sanders. In his essay, Sanders discusses his perception of the conflict between gender equality during his life. From his personal experiences, Sanders believed that women struggle through significantly less hardships compared to men, who all seemed to survive in the world working only as a factory worker or a soldier: “The bodies of men I knew were twisted and maimed...Heavy lifting had given many of them finicky backs and guts weak from hernias...The fathers of my friends always seemed older than the mother. Men wore out sooner. Only women lived into old age.”(page 133; lines 70-80). Throughout his life, he visualized the pain and misery men experienced while at work. However, his view changed when he shockingly discovered that women experience just as much: “I was slow to understand the deep grievances of women...I didn’t see what a prison a house could be....because such things were never spoken of—how often women suffered from men’s bullying. I did learn about the wretchedness of abandoned wives, single mothers, widows; but I also learned about the wretchedness of lone men.”(page 135; lines 135-159). In this paragraph, he discovered the hidden reality of women’s hardships which proved to be just as painful to men. This is important because the essay proves that women are not so different
In her political argument, Mary Wollstonecraft argues against the theory that women should not be allowed to have education. In this time period, women were mostly taught subjects that would adequately prepare them for life as a housewife, maid, or a wealthy lady. Because of this system, women had limited opportunities and they stressed about their physical appearance, since the only way for a woman to survive until the twentieth century was to marry a man. Women were also treated more as ornaments rather than human beings. Concerned, Mary Wollstonecraft decided to confront the political office by encouraging women to abandon their way of fragility and to become more focused on pursuing education and gender equality. This precedes a second fluctuation in the progress of feminism in the following …show more content…
Men’s roles were disputed in the argumentative essay “The Men We Carry in Our Minds”, by Scott Russell Sanders. In his essay, Sanders discusses his perception of the conflict between gender equality during his life. From his personal experiences, Sanders believed that women struggle through significantly less hardships compared to men, who all seemed to survive in the world working only as a factory worker or a soldier: “The bodies of men I knew were twisted and maimed...Heavy lifting had given many of them finicky backs and guts weak from hernias...The fathers of my friends always seemed older than the mother. Men wore out sooner. Only women lived into old age.”(page 133; lines 70-80). Throughout his life, he visualized the pain and misery men experienced while at work. However, his view changed when he shockingly discovered that women experience just as much: “I was slow to understand the deep grievances of women...I didn’t see what a prison a house could be....because such things were never spoken of—how often women suffered from men’s bullying. I did learn about the wretchedness of abandoned wives, single mothers, widows; but I also learned about the wretchedness of lone men.”(page 135; lines 135-159). In this paragraph, he discovered the hidden reality of women’s hardships which proved to be just as painful to men. This is important because the essay proves that women are not so different