Atonement -Female Disempowerment

Martin Luther King Jr. once said “our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” However, I will not be silent. Sexism is a thing of the past, present, and future. Women have never been seen as equal to men. This idea and concept affect how women carry out their lives. Women may act different or speak different just based on society's thoughts about their gender. In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee and in today’s society it is clear that because of women’s perceived “weakness”, men now dominate women legally, physically and financially.

Women have long been fighting for their right to be seen as equal to men. Even to this day, women continue to fight for their rights, things such as the right to non-gender discriminatory wages. While there may be some arguments over the state of gender equality in the modern world, it is undeniable that there have been great strides made toward recognizing the female 's worth in the workforce and as a human being. Despite these strides, however, things are still not yet ideal for women and many of the issues females face today are the very same issues that have been plaguing them for decades. While it is unfortunate the oppression of women has been so long-lived, the length of that exposure has thankfully enabled many talented writers to both lament over the fact and emphasize the need for gender equality.

The 19th century, the time A Doll’s House was set in, was the turning point in the world where the idea of “male supremacy” slowly started to become a thing of the past. Women were on their way to being considered, “equal but different.” Although women were socially considered equal to their counterparts, there were still some things that men ruled hierarchy over women such as voting rights, and the ability to perform hard labored jobs, and were rarely granted the custody of their children in the case of divorce. Women were still considered caretakers, teachers, and organizers; primarily looking after the children, being maids, and organizing church groups and citizen groups as well. Men in the 19th century were the “laborers,” whom provided for their family; monetarily, put food on the table and a roof over their heads. Even though women began to earn their rights and were considered equal, men were still considered

In Khaled Hosseini 's A Thousand Splendid Suns, Henrik Isben 's A Doll 's House, and Kamala Markandaya 's Nectar in a Sieve, women face obstacles that disempower and silence them due to Men 's treatment of women, the societal view of women, and the objectification of women. Within the literary works analyzed this semester, disempowerment is a persisting theme that roots from the various obstacles and hardships women encounter. The woman 's ability to overcome this disempowerment is particularly challenging due to being oppressed by their peers, specifically men. Women countlessly serve as victims of verbal and physical abuse under their husbands, thus contributing to the idea of female inferiority. There are various stereotypical roles challenged between men and women in society leading to discrimination of women. The preconceived notions of women 's roles in society arise from those within society. During this time era, most of society depicts women as uneducated, essentially lacking economical and social opportunities, making the female population highly vulnerable to all types of exploitation. Nonetheless, men in these literary works display objectifying and degrading attitudes towards those of the female gender. The objectification of women notably dehumanizes the female population. Within these literary works, the authors exemplify this reality of obstacles that disempower and silence women. Though these women fight for their liberation and equality, they are victims of

Gender inequality is a very interesting topic in the world today or even in the past. All through the 17th to the 18th century, women expectations were entirely different from the expectations in the current 21st century. Females were expected to work typically in their homes only; those who did the opposite were looked down by the society. The sole purpose of women was to be a maker of the home and bear kids while the man was expected to work outside the house. This type of mentality is evidenced in “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, “Trifles” by Susan Glaspell, and “A&P” by John Updike; they all illuminates on the submissiveness, the obedience of women to a man 's authority that was considered unexceptional at the onset of the twentieth century because the themes of the inscrutability of women, domesticity, patriarchal dominance and female identity are present in all these works.

Throughout History, women have been permanently oppressed and treated as subordinate to men. They have been considered mentally weak and biologically inferior. The power of their opinion has been limited and in many situations ignored, being condemned to live in that condition for several years. Therefore, we can conclude that the only responsible for strengthening this characterization of women’s inferiority is our society.

In the nineteen-hundreds, society repressed women into an idealized depiction of a Victorian lady by imposing social restraints upon them. Sadly, women aimlessly gave into these terms and agreed to be submissive heterosexual mothers and housewives due to decades of cognitive manipulation. Mentally enslaved women led to the promotion of female oppression by psychologically conditioned matrons. If a woman diverged from the norm path that was set by the society since her birth, she would face extreme censure from not just the opposite gender but her own gender, which lead to an anti-social movement. This predicament is portrayed in Matthew Desmond’s book, Evicted, which illustrates the main female characters, such as Sherrena Tarver and Arleen,

The past history of subjection towards women by accounts of nature is one of the reasons that women are still oppressed today. John Stuart Mill in his writing

Furthermore, your last paragraph (para. 3) is, I believe, a significant contribution of the feminist theory. Systematic oppression of female (and other minorities’) voice in history has influenced people’s experiences and responses. The feminist perspective normalizes minority groups’ experiences. At the same time as Muzak (2009) pointed out, it is important that we do not get stuck in the victim’s

Throughout history, society often places women inferior to men, causing women to be predisposed to obeying their husband without a second thought. However, when a woman begins to question the idea of loyalty and obedience, her eyes are often opened to the mold that she is encased in and becomes determined to break through and develop her self-potential. In Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House and Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, the main female character is put through a revelation that changes her life forever.

Nevertheless, there is no doubt that throughout the history of mankind women have on occasion been demeaned, mistreated, looked upon and regarded as second-class citizens in humanity.4 I agree with Macculloch that historically women have not been allowed to work, vote or exercise many rights appreciated by men. 5

A Doll’s House and The Importance of Being Earnest were both written in the late nineteenth century at a period in time when gender roles in society were not only significant to the structure of society but were restrictive and oppressive to individuals. This was particularly true in the case of women who were seen as the upholders of morals in polite society and were expected to behave accordingly. A Doll’s House and The Importance of Being Earnest challenge society and its inclination to categorise and expect certain behaviour of individuals based on their gender.

In the early nineteen hundreds and even sometimes today, men and women have “a place” in society. Women, supposedly, have a place in the home. They are to do all of the cooking, all of the cleaning, take care of all their kids and never complain about any of it. Too often they were used for chores and sex in marriages and if they disobeyed or talked back, they would often be beaten. They had to take care of everyone and everything day in and day out, and accept their occasional beatings.

Everyone knows that women have been oppressed for years. Even in the 21st century women are still being treated as if they are less than men. A Room of One's Own(Woolf, Virginia) represents situations in which women were seen to be below men and treated unfairly. Women have been silenced due to the fact that they are female.

Women roles have drastically changed since the late 18th and early 19th century. During this time, women did not have the freedom to voice their opinions and be themselves. Today women don’t even have to worry about the rules and limitations like the women had to in this era. Edna in “The Awakening” by Kate Chopin and Nora in “A Doll House” by Henrik Ibsen were analogous protagonists. The trials they faced were also very similar. Edna and Nora were both faced with the fact that they face a repressive husband whom they both find and exit strategy for. For Nora this involved abandoning her family and running away, while Edna takes the option that Nora could not do-committing suicide. These distinct texts both show how women were forced to