Pursuit of Equality Research Paper

  • Length: 9 pages
  • Sources: 2
  • Subject: Sports - Women
  • Type: Research Paper
  • Paper: #71232137

Excerpt from Research Paper :

Obstacle Women Face in Pursuit of Equality

When it comes to overcoming obstacles, two essays, "Ain't I a Woman" and "Watching Oprah Winfrey" from Behind the Veil," clearly show that women are encountering hindrances in chase of impartiality all over the world. However, although both essays touch on the same type of injustice which is gender inequality, they each have different themes. For instance, one delves into a country where the sexes are thoroughly kept apart from each other, where topics like sex and race are just about banned for even discussing them openly and where a severe enigma of public morality is imposed by police that are religious. However, the other touches on a period that goes back over a hundred of years where women of color were treated as cattle. Basically bought and sold by a society ran by men. Although these essays are worlds apart, they are yet close because they explore how women are mistreated and handled like they are second class citizens. Each essay explores a world that are dominated by women. By showing the existence of this hypocrisy that is current in the life of one oppressed woman, Sojurner Truth where she manages to invites her audience to understand possible inequalities in their own lives, while the other uses a popular icon such as Oprah Winfrey in the media to show how oppressed society is against women. Both essays explore that gender inequalities and how they stem from social structures that that have theses institutionalized conceptions of gender differences. These essays also search the social process in two different times in history and displays how current policies in place can are able to have some kind of affect on people, particularly women in both cases. It is obvious that discrimination takes place in this manner as men and women are subject to prejudicial treatment on the basis of gender alone.

Obstacle Women Face in Pursuit of Equality

When it comes to overcoming obstacles for women, it is clear that gender inequalities are one of those barriers. Supporting women in order to participate equally in organizations and profit from revenue producing investments and activities is an extremely intricate procedure. The realisms of gender inequality actually start to complicate efforts when it comes to transforming them. In a lot of areas cultures of patriarchal domination or basically men running everything means that active and effective contribution of women and men in projects is problematic to attain. Without having the proper education when can run into some great obstacles, and to a lesser extent men, to contribute and particularly take up effective management and leadership roles in their organizations. In addition most women have heavy domestic workloads and responsibilities, and numerous have little or no control over industrious assets. By using essays "Ain't I a Woman" and "Watching Oprah From behind the Veil" will be able to discuss the most reliable obstacle women face in pursuit of equality.

When it comes to "Ain't I a Woman" Sojourner found a way to establish some kind of sense of identity as a victim of discrimination by describing how she encounters bigotries as a black person and as a woman so as to provoke an emotional reaction in her audience. By using these personal stories, Sojourner was able to bring her audience, who are typically women who were suffering from their own types of discrimination, to understand the prejudices of which they too are sufferers. Sojourner in her speech even goes so far to points out a man in the crowd, requesting that he says "women need to be lifted over ditches, and helped into carriages, and have the best place everywhere."

Directly following this description of the way a white man was re-counting the way to treat women, she follows with a personal disproof. Sojourner frankly calls outs that no one performs these civilities for her, and she highlights this point by echoing each of the activities: "Nobody gives, or over mud-puddles, or gives me the best place!" By juxtaposing this perfect way of how a man mentions women need to be treated with courtliness with the realism that she has never went through any of this politeness, Sojourner is pointing out the existence of a brutal two-facedness.

The Veil, In Jeff Jacoby's point-of-view Oprah Winfrey seems to find a way appeals to a lot of women in Saudi Arabia for the reason that she exemplifies the perfect of what the Saudi Arabian women want their life to be. It is obvious that Oprah provides them with a sense of hope that even if the women are wedged in an unhappy circumstances, where they are not able to have any type of control over their life, that they are able to discover a way to take control in lesser ways and have a life that is beneficial for them. Although Oprah Winfrey did not come of age under the same conditions as a lot of these women did, she was confronted with issues that were almost the same. Her life was no walk in the park, she too dealt with poverty and oppression. Many Saudi Arabian women are "Forbidden to drive, vote, to freely marry or divorce, to appear in public without a male guardian's permission-not even in cases of domestic abuse when it is their "guardian" who attacked them. Nonetheless Oprah and these women were able to share the dreams of getting away from a corrupt world. Also, Oprah was able to come out on top and pursue her goals and dreams, now Oprah has her own channel and goes around teaching these women how to make their dreams come true and how to deal with a lot of disappointments going on in life. Women are needed as a group with which to fight the dissent of men and appease the West (Arabia). The state coopts women's aspirations in order to achieve new local and external legality.

When it comes to obstacles, both essays display this perfectly. However, one main theme stands out which in the inequality of women. For instance in "Ain't I a Woman" black and white women were separated and the white women were considered the treasure whereas the black woman was looked at as being the one that is less desirable. "Women's causes do not directly challenge authoritarian rule." (Frings-Hessami) According to this statement, women can make changes without involving government even though the men are in charge. Men ran the show and called the shots of the standards of beauty and how a woman should be treated. For instance, white men during the times of slavery believed that women should be placed on a pedestal. White men thought that women should be helped into carriages and lifted over ditches (Truth 531). They likewise assumed that women should never have to walk over mud and should have a nice place to live. The author makes it obvious in her argument that she was not getting that kind of treatment in any kind of way. She makes the point that, "Look at my arm! Look at me! I have planted and ploughed, and collected into barns, and no man could head (which means help) me! Ain't I a woman?"(Truth 531).

In Watching Oprah From Behind The Veil, the obstacle perceptibly shows gender inequality just like in "Ain't I a Woman" for instance, a recent article in this newspaper - "Oprah lifts a Saudi veil" -- talks about the petition of America's iconic talk-show host for the downgraded and the mistreated women of the Arabian cape. "In a country where the sexes are rigorously separated, where topics like sex and race are rarely discussed openly and where a strict code of public morality is enforced by religious police," the article noted, "Oprah manages to make sure that she gives a lot of young Saudi women new methods of thinking in regards to the way local taboos have emotional impact on their lives. Some of the women say that Winfrey's is very influential -- and gives off such self-confidence. Oprah has had a way of making the women feel as though they can do anything no matter how restricted or even abusive their circumstances are, they can are able to take control and produce lives of value - assists them in discovering some kind of meaning in their cramped, veiled existence."

On the other hand, it can go deeper within gender inequality and be recognized as being gender apartheid. Why is it called gender apartheid? Well, as mentioned in "Ain't I a Woman" the men are the ones that run the shows and, the women have to settle for being second class citizens. In Watching Oprah From behind the Veil the men are the ones with power, the ones who are looked up to whereas the women are left alone with the kids no one to take care of them with no food and no job. Some of these women were forced to stand on the streets…

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