For centuries, numerous demonstrations by feminist movements have accompanied women's emancipation. Their profoundly in-egalitarian status has dramatically changed. Women broke into all sectors of public life. However, we still notice today a lot of inequalities in the American society. Whether in the workplace, in politics or in everyday life, regarding domestic and educational tasks, women are struggling to achieve parity. Male and female identity seems to be increasingly taken into account today. However, relations between men and women seem to have changed over the years. What are these new relations today, and why do differences between men and women still persist, making gender one of the most important issues in the American society?
[...] She was actually against the Equal Rights Amendment and denounces, in The Power of the Positive Woman, the “contemporary feminist movement for having had a negative effect on women's happiness and fulfillment.” Gender issue is thus a real problem with controversial aspects. After decades of struggle, fight, demands for social equality by feminist revolutionists, such as Stanton, Goldman or again Friedan, differences between the two sexes still persist. Today men and women's differences are cultural. One has seen it through the concept of habits or stereotypes. [...]
[...] This is called “feminity” or “being a real woman” in our cultural lingo.” Thus, the structure of jobs held by the working population of each sex is still very contrasted. In the Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions, Stanton also highlighted that “from those profitable employments the woman is permitted to follow, she receives but a scanty remuneration. This is sad to say but after 161 years, this is still actual. Not only the representation of women in leader professions is bad, but moreover they do earn less than men for an equivalent job. [...]
[...] Elizabeth Stanton, in 1848, already demanded the vote in the Address at the Seneca Falls Convention and in the Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions, who argued for a radical overhaul of American Democracy. Then, in 1917, Emma Goldman wrote Woman Suffrage, where she also asked for the women's equal right to vote with men. Finally, from 1919, American women have the opportunity to vote. However, women's access to electoral mandate remains limited. Thus, after 90 years of voting, women are still under-represented as elected representatives in the political arena. [...]
[...] clearly differentiated in the distribution of domestic work. Even if the behavior of men has slightly changed, women still spend twice as much time on housework (4:30 daily average against 2:05 for men). There are also educational practices differentiated very early. Mother/baby interactions are different depending on whether the child is a girl or a boy. It seems that one more stimulates the "social behavior" of girls than boys. A father will easily tell his son to "defend himself", while to his daughter, he will say "be nice." Masculine construction is based on virility, while feminine construction is more aesthetic. [...]
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