First, I want to remind everyone that your research for the Multigenre project is due on Tuesday. Make sure you have set up your Noodle Tools account and have successfully "shared" with Ms. Gearty and me.
Second, complete the following as an extension of our document analysis work from last week. Considering the late timing of the post, I will extend the deadline until Tuesday.
Assignment: Gather all of the work that you have done in analyzing the provided historical documents relevant to women's history. Considering all that we have discussed, identify the trends that exist across these first-hand accounts of historical events thereby analyzing what life was like for American women in the 18th and 19th centuries. Be sure you use evidence to back up your position. And, be original!
When I first look at the story: "The Story Of An Hour" I can see that through this woman's eyes (Mrs. Mallard) that she obviously has been through something bad, with her husband. I see this because as soon as she hears that her husband is dead, she is happy and excited (after crying, of course). She believed that she was free. Now, when I compare this story to other events that were real, I see many trends about women being put down and such. In my document analysis, (along with all the other document analysi), I have seen that women, when in marriage, have had their rights taken away. Even without being married, women were taxed out of their minds if they owned property, so it was even very hard for them to live by themselves. My Document was a law suit that stated that a woman named Myra Bradwell, could not join the law bar, even though she passed the examination perfectly. She brought this to the supreme court, and was evidently, shot down. This is the same with the many other supreme court cases, where there was even events of physical abuse against a woman, and the man who did it was let free to beat her even more. This was all because the Supreme Court ruled upon these suits. On the abuse case, the lower courts said that the man was guilty, but like I said, the supreme court said he was free; free to beat his wife. I believe that the Supreme Court was behind most of these attacks upon Woman's rights. That is one of the major trends that I found whilst reading upon these many document analysi. When I read the Declaration of the Rights of Sentiments, I found that these trends carried over even further within the hatred against women. I have read accounts of women being forced upon their own will to practice religions (that the men chose for them). I have read the discrimination against women and their jobs: the fact that they couldn't even get a job or make a decent amount of money to live off of. I also have seen even more marriage problems: where women had no rights, and again, with the Coverature Laws. These Coverature laws basically traveled throughout these many documents, along with the fact that women could not even defend their ownselves, and live by themselves, and make their own money. I believe that through all of these accounts, at this time in the 19th Century, I would be helping these women fight for their rights and stop this sexism and discrimination.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the Story of an Hour I noticed that there were many hints she gives preluding her own death. The author wants all men and women to relize the wrong doing of the women. One of the major points that needs to be looked at was marriage laws. Men throughout the time period were always forcing women to give up thier rights. It wasn't until her husband died that Ms. Mallard realizes the wrong doing. But when she does realize this she is rejuvinated and looks at life in a whole new praspective. So the story shows women that they can survive in life without a Man "holding" their hands. At this time the idea of women surviving on their own was unheard of. That is why this document has so much meaning, it shows how women are trying to begin and break away from restraints set by men.
ReplyDeleteI read A womens guide book to correct behavior. this document shows how women have been forced through social norms to be perfect. women have been thought of to be on a pedestal and looked at as dolls almost. in this document there are instruction how how to be perfect basically. there is one where it tells you how to wash your freckles. also there is another where it tells you how to clean your breath.A womens guide book to correct behavior controls every aspect of your life. from your cloths to the way your hair is and what you eat with.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the story of an hour and looking at the different historical documents in class, I did in fact notice trends between them. One thing that I noticed was that they all showed how women were mistreated. For example Mrs. Mallard was not treated right by being in a binding marriage that she wasn't able to get out of until her husband died. Then in the Marriage Protest that I looked at, it showed both a man and a woman contradicting how women were being treated in the 18th and 19th centuries. Another thing that I noticed was that there was some discrimination regarding women. As time went on I noticed that women became more persistent and stayed with fighting for their rights. We can see this in the huge picket lines that were first done by Mott and Stanton. In conclusion, there are several trends that connect all of the documents and readings to central ideas.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteA trend that I noticed was that women's rights began to rise after the 1850's. My group read about Commentaries on the Laws of England, which was about marriage and how women ceased to be individuals afterward. Coverture law was heavily influenced by these commentaries. It was from 1765. Later on, from the Declaration of Sentiments in 1848, I see the beginning of better respect for women. Henry Blackwell and Lucy Stone's court battle over marriage was in 1855. From 1856, Cassie's group had a document on remedies for how to make women presentful. In addition, Amber's group's document was about women being allowed to be beaten in 1864 unless it was malicious.Around this time, the documents analyzed showed women as if they were something to own. However, it seems that the events portrayed by the documents were slowly shrinking in viciousness as time went on. Garrett's group about a lawsuit in Supreme Court was from 1873 and Terry's group talked about an article for reasons against women voting from 1910. From this viewpoint, after the 1850's was when women's rights disputes showed some risen respect for women of the time. To emphasize, the novel "The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin was published in 1894. The story of a wife coming to accept her husband's death for freedom but only dying once she learns he is alive is a subtle hint of women's feelings at the time. Already at this time, gender discrimination was carefully weaved into literature such as novels. It is through these events that I see a trend of increasing respect behind the cover of disputes. Because these disputes were becoming less and less malicious, it shows that women were slowly gaining their rights.
ReplyDeleteIn class I read the court document from 1864 about a woman who was suing her husband for beating her. But in that time period the law only applied to beatings and abuse if "a permanent injury or uses such excessive violence or cruelty as indicates malignity or vindictiveness; and it makes no difference that the husband and wife are living separate by agreement". In this time period the men of society ruled the life of women when it came to marriage, their own rights, and what was entirely acceptable women behavior in society. When it came to marriage the woman wasn't even a real individual anymore, the husband owned everything she had owned, the husband even owned his wife! Regarding their own rights in this time, they didn't have any rights, they couldn't control anything that happened to them because their were laws in place that allowed only the men to have the power. If a woman spoke up against these rules in society she would be frowned upon by the society because she would be going against the social norms for what she thought was right for women everywhere. When women started to speak out to gain rights many women and men were on both sides of the cause to get women their rightful place in society, to be equal to the men.
ReplyDeleteFor the class exercise on Women's History I read the article called "Bradwell v. Illinois, 1873." After reading over the constitutional argument and "The Story of an Hour," I noticed a few trends. The one major trend that I noticed between the two documents is how it outlines how women were maltreated during the 19th century. In the Bradwell v. Illinois document, Myra Bradwell stated that "the paramount destiny and mission of woman are to fulfill the noble and benign offices of wife and mother." To me this quote is important to Women's History, as well as relates to "The Story of an Hour" because it means that women are only good to take care of the household. If women did not follow this rule of law, then they would be beaten. In "The Story of an Hour," Mrs. Mallard was basically suffering throughout her entire marriage until the day she was told that her husband died. That just shows how she was basically living life in jail. Women during the 18th and 19th centuries were not given much credit for anything, and were beaten and abused by their own spouse.
ReplyDeleteIn the Declaration of Rights and Sentiments it states that "when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their duty to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security." This means that the women should be able to take control of their lives, but that can not exactly happen when the men in their lives are doing nothing but stopping them. I think that the documents that we have been studying in class are all relevant in ways that show how women did not deserve the way that they were treated. They couldn't control what happened, and there was no way that anyone would allow for them (especially men) to have the same rights as the rest of the society.
After I read "The Story of an Hour", I noticed many similarities between this story and documents presented in class. In "The Story of an Hour" the main character Mrs. Mallard discovers her husband is dead and after her mourning, she is optimistic and relieved about his death. In the story she is caught saying "Free! Body and soul free!" Through this we can gather that Mrs. Mallard's husband had control over her body and soul and she is now free because of his death. I realized that since the story was written in the late 1800's, its theme was very comparable to the social treatment of women. In a document I read during our Artifact Discovery, a man was on trial for beating his wife, but he was being found innocent because when he beat her she didn't sustain any permanent injuries. The document said the woman was disobeying him and therefore he had a right to beat her. Another document I read during class was the case of Myra Bradwell v. Illinois. In this document Bradwell was trying to gain permission to go to law school but the state of Illinois denied her based on the sole fact of her gender. Reading this document I realized it was unfair treatment to women because they worked just as hard as men and they were getting far less in return. Through "The Story of an Hour", the documents presented during class, and my own research, I have realized how poorly women have been treated throughout history.
ReplyDeleteIn all of the work we have done, and all of the reading we have done, I noticed a few trends that seem to be a part of all of it. First, women seem to be steriotyped as this "stay at home and keep quiet" type thing. Everybody always expects them to just stay at home, keep it clean, cook the meals, and make sure everyone in the family, especially the husband, is happy.
ReplyDeleteAnother trend that I noticed when going back and analyzing the work we have done is that women were never taken seriously. For example, in an atricle I read and analyzed in class, it talked about women attempting to gain the right to vote. When they decided to rebel against society in this effort to help women, they were shut down by men saying awful things such as "You don't need a ballot to clean your kitchen sink." Also, they would say that if a woman did what she was told, and voted the same as her husband, it would give married men an advantage; If women went against their husband, they would annul their husband's vote. They said "It is unwise to risk the good that we already have for the evil which may occur."
I was not in class on Wednesday, so I didn't get to look at any of the documents. But I did notice a trend between "the Story of an Hour" and the Declaration of Sentiments. In both it is cleart that women did not have any rights and were "civilly dead." Mrs. Mallard felt free when she heard that her husband had died, and the Declaration of Sentitments' goal was to gain that free feeling for all women in America. The declaration wanted to show everyone how women were being treated because it was generally hidden how women felt, which is similar to how Mrs. Mallard stayed hidden in her room when she got the news. After reading the above blogs I was surprised to find what Marissa said about how it was legal for men to beat their wives as long as it didn't result in permanent injury. Overall the trend is that women were treated poorly and were inferior to men in this time.
ReplyDeleteDuring the artifact discovery, one of the things I looked at was marriage, and when reading "The Story of an Hour", I saw the connection it made to the laws of marrying during that time. When a woman married in the 19th century, she potentially "gave" herself to the man-which is why woman proclaim the title "Mrs". Once they got married, a woman was limited to her own individual rights, and was expected amongst society to do everything she could to please the man. In relation to the story, Mrs. Mallard felt as if she lost all individuality when married to her husband. When she heard of his death, she felt a sense of sorrow as well as freedom from the burden he held over her. There's also relation between the Declaration of Sentiments as well as the other sources I've mentioned because the sentiments document overall declared the wrongs a man did do the woman he married.
ReplyDeleteIn Story of an Hour, when the woman's husband dies, she feels relieved because she can make her own decisions and she feels like she took back her own life. This relates to the quote from The Declaration of Rights and Sentiments, “her master—the law giving him power to deprive her of her liberty, and to administer chastisement.” It shows how controlling husbands were which explains the joy that overcomes the wife in Story of an Hour. We also saw in our Artifact Discovery that the husband's commandments were extremely demanding of the wife. On another note, in our Artifact discovery, one of the articles on marriage said that the husband and wife are one person by law. To add to that, The Declaration of Rights and Sentiments says, “He has made her, if married, in the eye of the law, civilly dead.” A woman will not even be penalized for breaking the law, instead her husband will be responsible. Like the quote says, she is dead, she no longer exists in the eye of the law.
ReplyDeleteBetween "The Story of an Hour" and "The Declaration of Rights and Sentiments " I have seen correlations. The Declaration was written in 1848, while “ The Story of an Hour” was written in 1894. This declaration was asking for women to be equal to be men and gain rights. In 1894, this book showed that women’s rights were still not gained. Women were still under the control of men at the time. Both of these documents showed women who were strong believers that everyone should be equal, although both of them developed critics. Over time, some people looked down upon their acts since they were speaking out against the traditional life.
ReplyDeleteAfter all the work we have done about women's rights, the worst trend that I saw was how women think they need to be a certain weight or look a certain way. In the artifact discovery, there were pictures that show women wearing corsets and how the corsets are ruining the internal organs. I also learned that when women marry men, it's like women did not have their own opinions and their own independence. Reading "The Declaration of Rights and Sentiments say, "He has compelled her to submit to laws, in the formation of which she had no voice." A woman does not the right to voice her opinion in 1848. When a woman gets married she basically looses her identity. In class when we did the critical analysis, the reading I received says, "By marriage, the husband and wife are one person in law." Women did not have their own identity or independence just because they were a women.
ReplyDeleteThroughout the many documents and stories we have read during this unit there has been one consistent pattern of women being treated unfairly. The brilliance of many women has been hidden behind their husbands and many other men during this time period. The Declaration of Sentiments was the first step that women took in gaining the rights they deserve. It focuses mainly on the unjust law of covertaure, where women become “civilly dead” once married. Women were forced to follow the ways of society and allow their husbands to be a higher power than them. Many women chose not to get married or regretted it. In “The Story of an Hour” this is proven; when Mrs. Mallard finds out her husband has passed away she feels more relief and freedom than she does sorrow. Women had hardly any power or rights to do anything. The rules of society banned them from being an individual apart from their husband and confined them to the roles portrayed as “proper women.”
ReplyDeleteAfter I look at the things that we have done during the Woman’s rights unit, I have noticed that many women have been seeing only for their looks rather than who they are. In the artifact discovery there were many things that showed me what men think when they look at an advertisement with a woman. Many men expect a beautiful woman advertising something. This hasn’t changed much over the years. Another thing that showed me woman are looked at only for their looks would be in the paper “A woman’s guide book to correct behavior” in this paper it had said ways woman had to take care of their skins and how their breath should smell . This packet had also talked about how woman should act. I believe that every woman should act the way they want and be their own person.
ReplyDeleteWe've read many documents for accounts on the suffering of American women in 18th and 19th century, all saying that women were ignored from the political standings and that all they were good for was keeping the house orderly and the family preserved. In the brochure "Vote NO on Woman Suffrage" 1910, the National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage who made the document don't approve of women being able to have the right to vote. Much of the content contains tips about how to clean spots off a shirt or cooking secrets for fish and birds. The women of the brochure were sending a message to say that women should be in a kitchen making dinner and cleaning spots and stains, not going out and having the right to vote when their husbands can do it for them. "There is, however, no method known by which mud-stained reputation may be cleaned after bitter political campaigns."
ReplyDeleteIndeed, these women really didn't want to have the right to vote, and they firmly believed that many women didn't care or would never want the chance. Out of the lists of reasons these women gave to vote NO on Woman Suffrage, this was the last of their reasons: "BECAUSE it is unwise to risk the good we already have for the evil which may occur." Women in this position saw politics to be evil and thought that nothing good would come from women being able to vote and come one step closer to gaining independence from their husbands. Even on the front of the brochure, it clearly states, "Votes of Women can accomplish no more than votes of Men. Why waste time, energy and money, without result?"
It's like a despereate attempt to tell other women that the laws made for men to control their wives were far greater than the women who were fighting to take them back. One such woman is Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who based the Declaration of Sentiments(1848) from the Declaration of Independence, asking for immediate equality and the return of sacred rights to women across America. "...because women do feel themselves aggrieved, oppressed, and fraudulently deprived...we insist they have immediate admission to all the rights and priveleges which belong to them as citizens of the United States."
After reviewing all the work we have gone over in the last week or so, there have been a few trends that stick out to me. One trend that sticks out to me from the artifact discovery, and our groups of 3 activity was the womens clothing. The women work so hard around the house everyday, making sure the house is clean, set, and everything is working. But they were working in these really tight heavy prom-like dresses that even slowly pushes their ribs in, hurting them and making their job slower.
ReplyDeleteAnother trend that I saw was that the women were always seen as the "stay home and clean" job, and that they couldnt do the dirty work the men do and that they are not capable of doing the work men do. In some cases, that was true, but not for everybody, because maybe some women did want jobs that paid but just couldnt get the? They were seen to be stay home moms, keeping everybody but themselves happy.
Since I was absent on Wednesday, I cannot relate to other documents. Since these two documents (Vote No on Woman Suffrage and The Declaration of Rights & Sentiments) were written within a few years of each other (eleven years), they are very much related. Both of these documents explain woman's' difficulty to be represented in society and in especially government. In "the Story of an Hour", the feeling Mrs. Mallard has towards her husband's death was a feeling that many women of the time wanted to feel. They wanted to enjoy and embrace their freedom from the control of the man, and at the same time own something that they can say is there's, like a house for example.
ReplyDeleteA trend that I see is that many of the wives in everything that we have studied are property to their husbands. They say that they cannot own anything and they are the property of their husbands. If they get something from a parent dying, it will automatically go to the man because women are not allowed to have property. In the case I got last Wednesday, the Husband and the wife got in a fight and it escalated. The man was not found guilty of assault because he did not cause permanent damage. In all of the other ones all of the women look forward to when they will get their own property and there own loves. They look forward because they will be free of abuse and have there own property. Most males take charge in the house and it is common for a man to beat his wife back in the 19th century. They feel as if it is there job to keep there house and feel in order.
ReplyDeleteAfter doing our artifact discovery, reading The Declaration of Rights and Sentiments, and The Story of an Hour there are many similarities that prove women were unhappy throughout the 18th and 19th century. During the artifact discovery I learned about suffrage, coverage, and body image. Suffrage which is voting was heavily fought against for no other reason then people just didn't think women needed or were capable of making those decisions. Coverage was though to protect women but it really just kept them away from laws they didn't have a vote in creating and took away all their possessions and rights while they were married. Body image was important because back when women had few rights they were told to cover up and not show skin which was depressing because they basically weren't aloud to express themselves in any physical way. The other two sources "The Story of an Hour" and "The Declaration of the Rights and Sentiments" both showed how women felt about the way they were being treated. In "The Story of an Hour" the main character Mrs. Mallard dies of a heart attack after having felt so free from the rules of being married then having that all taken away from her. This shows how depressed she actually was but it took something drastic for her to admit it. "The Declaration of Rights and Sentiments" has a list of sixteen things women want changed for them to have equal rights to men. For them to come together and make this list and start a movement that would eventually change all social norms for women is remarkable and shows how distressed they were.
ReplyDeleteall the stories and historical documents we have reviewed so far have very similar trends. In both a Story of an Hour and the Declaration of Rights and Sentiments, women authors were very vocal about their dissatisfaction with their roles. In every source we examined, the women authors were very specific about what they disliked. They all wanted to become equals with men, and this desire for equality is a main theme in all these sources.The women all spoke of becoming individuals, and becoming free of their husband's wishes and to be free to do what they please. This deep longing that had been gathering over generations is the main trend that dominated all women's literature in the time period.
ReplyDeleteWhat I saw in the artifact discovery, The Story of an Hour, and The Declaration of Rights and Sentiments was all very similar. In the story of an hour, I learned how a women was bound to a man, and "trapped" even by being married. This directly relates to The declaration of Rights and Sentiments because the document is meant to abolish this trapped feeling, and make it so that women were not bound to their husband, but are their own person. The artifact discovery also related to this poor treatment of women, because I read of laws that allowed men to beat their wives, and I also read about women's struggles to gain their rights. With all of this information gathered, I can see that women were poorly treated during the late 1800s and not many women fought back, even though some women, such as Stanton, did.
ReplyDeleteThe document that I read about in class included the coverature laws that used to exist. It stripped women of their civil rights and entitled their husband nearly full legal and civil control of their wives. If somebody was to bring their wife to court, they brought the husband to court. If any debt was owed by the wife, the husband then owed it too. The husband takes all responsibility for his wife and is going to protect her, though more often then not, the women are beaten and bruised. They are not treated with respect and the true meaning of coverature is misplaced. Such like Garrett said, with Mrs. Mallard, she is trapped in the coverature laws. Finally, when she is told that her husband is in fact dead, she jumped for joy. She was happy that she would no longer have to suffer to the laws of coverature. They take away women’s rights and limit the freedoms of women as a whole to a great extent.
ReplyDeleteWe read both The story of an Hour and The Declaration of Rights and Sentiments. Both of these were related to the discrimination against women and what they were doing to try and get rights in America. Then we also read a document in class that added to our knowledge on this topic. All of the readings showed that the people at that time were being completely discriminatory towards the women and the jobs that they had to do. They were also being discriminatory in the way that they did not let women contribute in society. One argument that stuck out was that if women could vote they would either cancel your vote or be an unfair vote because they are just going off of their husbands vote. The page then went on to tell that the women want something done about this and that there will be consequences if things do not change.
ReplyDeleteWhat i have noticed is that all the documents we have read, mainly are negative accounts towards males, mostly husbands, from a woman's standpoint. I've been hearing in class that some women didn't care about their lack of rights and how they had to be "property" of their husbands. But according to the documents we have read and a "Story of an Hour" women were so against having a lack of rights, and really started to step up to the plate and spread their views in america after the 1800s.
ReplyDelete