Essay on Underestimation of Women and Struggling to Overcome

Harriet Jacob is the woman who lived in the year 1813 to 1879. She wrote a novel The Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Harriet had a strong will and great dignity. She was considered as a slave and was willing to do anything for the freedom of her two children. She took a name Linda Brent in her book. Mary Wollstonecraft was also a woman with one desire of freedom among women. Mary was born in the 18th century, the so-called enlightenment age. She became the first feminist after she wrote the book A Vindication of the Rights of women which advocates for human rights. The two women lived far apart from each other, but they had similar work. Harriet was freed from slavery, but she wanted freedom for all and not just herself. The two texts were to inspire liberation and change for certain groups of people. Jacobs wanted a revolutionary change to slaves and Wollstonecraft, the group she wanted to liberate was women. The two texts have many instances where women are undermined in the society. They also show the struggle women endure as they fight against these factors that undermine them. The two texts appeal to the audience to fight against anything that is making them be captives and deprive their freedom. The essay will describe the underestimation of women in the society and also how they are struggling to overcome these challenges.

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Slavery is a major challenge that women face in the society. Jacob in her text tries to explain how she suffered under the master holders who had no molarity at all. Dr. Flint was a slaveholder who was very inhuman. She exposed all kinds of torture to the servants. According to the masters, servants were almost like objects and animals and can be treated however they wanted. When describing her incident to her brother she says that One day when his father and his mistress both happened to call him at the same time, he hesitated between the two; being perplexed to know which had the strongest claim upon his obedience (Jacobs 423). The boy fears what the master will do to him, and therefore he chose to obey his master despite knowing he has a claim to his father. Jacob shows how women as subjected to slavery and end up being tortured from her experience as an enslaved woman. Slavery had corrupted everybody, and even the good masters are involved in it. Women received a lot of torture and burns from slavery, and therefore Jacobs suggests that since women were able to handle the huge difficulties they face during slavery, they should also look for ways to overcome it.

Mary Wollstonecraft in her texts shows slavery of women to men. Women had to subject to everything men have to say because they are mens legal properties. Men force women to do as they wish and therefore women remain their slaves. According to Wollstonecraft, men have no valid reason why they treat women as slaves, and therefore she continues to argue this is equality. Men act like dictators and bullies by oppressing women for no valid reason. She hoped that just the way tyranny was being unjustified and opposed in French Revolutions, men should also be stopped from treating women as slaves. She urges that Slavery can be justified just not in the case of women. (Wollstonecraft p. 230). Women must learn that women are equal to men and therefore there should be no slavery since both parties are equal.

Women are not educated. Wollstonecraft says that the conduct and manner of women, in fact, evidently prove that their minds are not in a healthy state.strength and usefulness is sacrificed to beauty p. 22. She argues that women do not know their rights since there is no enough education given to them. Women are taught how to cook, wash dishes and make themselves beautiful for men. According to the author argues that when women have no knowledge about their rights men take advantage of this and mistreat them by forcing them subject to their will. Wollstonecraft suggests men be taught subjects such as science, math, art and philosophy to make them become equal and stand against men orders Wollstonecraft suggests that using her experience she will offer herself as a teacher of girls. She was a woman who educated herself .she knew for the fact that gender did not disable women intelligently, she refers to the impacts of denying them of the opportunity to train their minds (Wollstonecraft p.300). Education would make women very productive in the society. Jacobs also states that poor education has caused to women being subjected to slavery because they were not being educated at that time. Education will improve women ability to stand and fight against slavery basing their arguments on human rights.

Women face unhappy marriages. Wollstonecraft argues that women in the society marry because of appearances and sexual attraction which leads to unhappy marriages. Women face difficulties in marriages because they did not admire their minds and therefore do not support one another morally. Eventually, men end up dominating their homes and women has no voice. Men force women to do according to their wishes. Wollstonecraft says that I will go still further, and advance, without dreaming of a paradox, that an unhappy marriage is often very advantageous to a family, and that the neglected wife is, in general, the best mother. (2.47). She believes that when a man become unfaithful and tyrant, it makes the woman unhappy in marriage. Marriage is a road for women slavery and does not create happiness at all. To overcome this challenge, Wollstonecraft suggests that women should not marry for sexual interests (Wollstonecraft p.270). The society should rethink of marriage as an institution, and this will change this challenge. In Harriet Jacobs Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl describe how the author had to struggle with her two children. When she was mistreated she wanted to leave, but she could not do it without the children, and her grandmother explained that "Stand by your children and suffer with them till death. Nobody respects a mother who forsakes her children: and if you leave them, you will never have a happy moment."(Jacobs, 417) The choices of women in life have been limited for the sake of children. Women have a chance to be happy in marriage since they may take divorce if their marriages make them so unhappy.

In both texts, there is sexual misuse. In Wollstonecraft text, she uses the word love to mean sexual attraction between a man and a woman and when she use the word friendship she means mutual admiration and respect. She is sure that sex cannot sustain a marriage and therefore some men end up forcing their wives to engage in sexual intercourse against their will (Wollstonecraft p.380). Marriage should not be based on sex. In Jacobs texts sexual abuse is also evident for instance, she gets sexually abused by her master, but she cannot talk about it publically because she is a slave. Jacobs is troubled and ashamed of her sexual history. However, she talks about it in a way that politicizes it. Jacob was also forced to sleep with the neighbor. She now wants every woman to know about the existence of sexual abuse and reject it in all manners (Jacobs, 460). She talks to the women in the North about how to prevent sexual abuse.

Women are faced with the challenge of objectification to beauty and work where they are treated as objects. In a vindication of the rights of women are supposed to look beautiful and marry rich men and eventually they could dictate their husbands using their beauty. The society denies women a chance to acquire education. The woman cannot be able to think critically when faced with a difficult situation because they are only born to look pretty (Wollstonecraft p.430). According to Wollstonecraft, appearances are not as important as education, and therefore women should fight for their right to education. Jacob also describes how the society objects women to work. The role of a woman is working at home and also plantations. The master forced her to work tirelessly because she was a woman (Jacobs, 480)

In conclusion, women face many undermined situations in the society. The two texts show these instances which include lack of education, unhappy marriages. They also face gender stereotypes and objectification to their beauty. According to these texts teaching women about gender equality and their rights can help them overcome these challenges. Women and men are equal, and therefore there should be gender balance in the society.

Work Cited

Wollstonecraft, Mary. "A Vindication of the Rights of Women, ed." Ulrich H. Hardt (New York: Whitston, 1982) (1982): 359.

Jacobs, Harriet Ann. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Ed. Lydia Maria Child. National Cash Register Company, 2002.