Since the first American colonies existed, women have been characterized for having less civil rights with less career opportunities than men. For many years women have been fighting to enjoy their own rights. Women have raised their voices to demand their full civil and political rights. Women have had to overcome many economic, political, and even social obstacles created by men just to be treated in an equal way in the American society.
Generally, the women lives have been characterized for being women full of struggles, obstacles and pain.
That is why women decided to demand their own rights through their vote. Which their vote will symbolize the expression of their rights and voices in the face of the American society. The first obstacle that women had to overcome was to get their right to vote. It was an obstacle because women without vote married women did not have a legal voice in the face of the government. During the early history of the United States, a man owned his wife and children as they were any material of his possessions. For example if a poor man decided to drop his children to the poorhouse, the children mother was unable to defense her children (Women International Center 2).
They are some of several obstacles in the old American society. However these obstacles came from the traditional society custom. The traditional roles for women were to raise children and just to become a wife and a mother. Even thought it is hard to understand that motherhood and wifehood were the most significant professions that women could have (Women뭩 International Center 1). Women could not enter most professions. Women had to overcome the obstacle regarding educational areas.
To be more specific a daily life of a girl of 19-years-old was to be sitting for hours sewing gloves in the company of other women, working for low wages, with no aspiration, with no hope of going on in school or even owning any kind of property. In fact, if she decided to marry, her children and even the clothes on her body would belong to her husband (Clinton 35). Women had to study traditional areas like writing or teaching (Women뭩 International Center 3) and if they study those untraditional disciplines like medicine, economic or law, they will considered odd (Kreeps 35). This obstacle is more than an obstacle it is a limitation for the women뭩 development.
밯orking women often faced discrimination on the mistaken belief that, they were married or would most likely get married; they would not be permanent workers?(Women뭩 International Center 3). The women working in some 뱈en뭩 professions and jobs?(Women뭩 International Center 2), caused an huge economic obstacle in the American society because if a woman that worked in a same job than a men, women were paid about 45 percent less than men for the same jobs (Barko 43).
In the American society was a lot of limitation in the areas of career opportunities. However, in the United States during the World War II almost 300,000 women served in the Army and Navy, working as secretaries, typists, and nurses (Women뭩 International Center 3). It was a big step for women in the labor area because in 1989, women were part of a 45 percent of employed persons in the United States, but they had only a small participation in the decision-making jobs (Women뭩 International Center 3).
Women could not decide how many children they would like to have. Families had, on average seven children to take care. Many women died in childbirth, and many others did not see their own children grow into adulthood (Costello 25).
Abortion was also a political and, social obstacle because both the government and the church did not agree this idea. Women did not have the right to control even their own body, specially the right to control their own sexual reproduction (Eisenberg 5). Limitations on a woman뭩 rights included the inability to establish a legal identity separate from that of her husband, to control her reproductive capacity, to sue or be sued, to own property in her own name, or to pursue a career of her choice (Jarvis, 150). The inability of .
