Minorities Are An Optimistic

The Populist Party was the people’s party, hence the name Populist, the party was created in the late 1800s when the Southern Famer alliance contacted Powderly, the head of The Knights of Labor. The party’s first platform was called the Omaha Platform which called for the abolition of the national bank, graduated income tax, direct election of senators, civil service reform, an eight hour work week, and the gov’t control of railroads, telegraphs and telephones. The Populists supported the Prohibition

Charlotte Perkins Gilman primarily advocated for women to be financially self-supporting through many of her works specifically Women and Economics. Gilman believed that to achieve the ideal “new woman,” females needed to be educated in economics and have no need to rely on men. Gilman further analyzed this idea in her book Women and Economics where

Growing up in America, children are taught by their grade school teachers to be proud of being American. They chant “Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492” and harmoniously sing patriotic songs such as The Star Spangled Banner while being utterly oblivious of America’s corrupt political system. It may not be until one is pursing their final years of high school, or perhaps even in college when they are aware of America’s history of possessing a highly restrictive political system. For minorities, America is not the land of the free. It is the land of oppression to progression, yet we still wear our scars and our heads up high. Struggles to expand the breadth of political and civil rights in the United States have been critical to fostering greater inclusion and equality for racial/ethnic minorities in America. Various reforms such as the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Acts were implemented during the civil rights era as they helped promote greater inclusion and equity to, but not limited to, African Americans and Mexican-Americans.

Women are known to be the nurturing part of human nature. It is women who birth and generally care for the young of human kind; however, the roles of women have progressed to be so much more in today’s society. Now women are looked to not only as a homemaker, but a breadwinner as well. In many families, the women provide a major source of income and are responsible for the wellbeing of the family. “More than a quarter century has passed since Arlie Hochschild’s The Second Shift powerfully made the case that women cannot compete fairly with men when they are doing two jobs and men are doing only one.” (Moravcsik). He goes on to say that women’s roles have shifted to being able to balance a job and a family at one time. Despite the many jobs that

The populist party was a party of reform for the common citizens, a party that planned to restore democracy and economic opportunity to a country facing

A nation with an infinitely diverse population, such as America, contains many minorities, but being a minority in A country has set backs. Being a minority comes with stereotypes and prejudice; although the majority faces prejudice too, it may not be as prevalent as prejudice towards the minority. Equality in America is on the rise, but most minorities face problems that they faced years ago. African-Americans, Latinos, Asians, Native Americans, and Cajuns have struggled in different ways while residing in the United States of America.

Although the movement eventually accomplished many of its goals, and bettered the life of numerous females, the women’s movement of the 1970’s failed to completely liberate American women. As Dixon (1977) states, the first major task faced by early organizers of the movement was to convince women to admit that they in fact were oppressed. Once organizers were able to do so, they aimed to obtain equality within the workplace. Before the women’s movement emerged in the 1970s, the traditional family consisted of a father who worked outside of the home as the breadwinner and a mother who worked within the home as the primary caregiver and homemaker.

Charlotte Gilman was known for being an advocate for gender equality and feminism. Although there is no certainty that this story is about her life, it was safe to assume that parts of this story were pulled from her personal life. This story critiques society’s view on women and gives more of a feminist view on the entire concept of marriage and how women should behave.

Many minorities are targets for oppression. Oppression is defined as an unjust treatment or control. This can be seen as being taken advantage of or being made inferior. There are many ways to resist and fight the oppressions. Some of the ways I will discuss include civil disobedience and forming declarations. In order to break from the oppression, the most effective way is to stay persistent with the movement being created. To support my thesis, I will compare and contrast “Class and Race in the Early Women’s Rights Campaign” and, a film, The Workers’

(citation) Gilman lived her life, for the most part vigorously repudiated societal norms and western practices. Due to this resistance to conventional values and what she later characterized as “masculinist” ideals, Gilman produced a great deal of critical writings and what we would call self-consciously feminist fiction that crowned Gilman as the leading theoretician, lecturer, and writer of women issues of her time. Gilman had begun to explore the issue of gender discrepancy within society in the mid-1880's when she first began her career as a writer. Throughout all her works on women and education, Gilman's ultimate goal was to develop autonomous individuals, for rational behavior was possible only if self-governing men and women could connect knowledge with action and could judge others' opinions in relation to their own. Autonomy depended on the development of two powers, "a clear, far-reaching judgment, and a strong, well used will." Gilman was born on July 3rd 1860 in Hartford, Connecticut. Shortly after her birth her father abandoned her and her family. Gilman made many efforts to establish a relationship with her father and unfortunately was unsuccessful. Mr. Perkins, was a minor literary figure. He would send Gilman occasional letters that included a list of books she should read. Gilman’s

When this uprising occurred, men appeared insecure about the possibilities of losing their power and superiority, women also seemed to become more mentally ill and the ‘rest cure’ was then created. Gilman supported the change in roles for woman. She agreed that we as women deserved more equality when it came to cooperating with men, in their roles. Gilman brings several of these ideas to the table in her well-known nonfiction writing, titled Women and Economics (1898) and argues that we deserve to work outside the home and that we should strive to also. Gilman shared her opinions on the financial stability she believed every woman should have, apart from the men.

Women have to encounter many different hardships to survive in society. Our own society places obstacles in front of women to have a capitalist country that men control everything. The theme is presented in the assigned readings are the reality that many individuals are facing in making a home, and working all at the same time. However, in one assigned reading, The Mommy Tax states the decision making that mothers have to do to be mothers in the United States. Mothers have to try to find a balance in being a good mother and having a successful career. “American women, in particular, are stunningly unaware that their “choices” between a career and a family are much more limited than those of women in many European counties…”(Crittenden pg.349).

Going back into America’s history, the expectations of a woman from the late 1800’s and early 1900s, were to be a good homemaker and wife. Now into the late 1900’s and 2000’s, this role has added on much more responsibility and expectations of today’s woman, such as returning to school and working a full time job, while continuing to take care of home. Though the type of work a woman can execute has changed, it also brings along societal issues. Issues such as: unequal pay wages differentiations between men and women and between different races amongst women, the concern of maternity leave and of course, the struggle of balancing work and a family.

Thus, her identity remains the same no matter what. Furthermore, Korb writes, “Gilman’s narrator is so cruelly trapped both by the conventions of nineteenth-century American society, which says that a woman's function is to bear and raise children, and by her husband's inflexible belief in this code. John has attempted to take away one of the few things that bring her consistent pleasure, her writing” (3). During the 1800s in the United States, men and women expected to have the same notion that women are reproductive tools. A woman’s objective is to produce babies for the family and educate their kids to behave properly.

In the poem “To the Indifferent Women” Gilman proposes that women are quite capable of love and keeping peace. She reasons that women are naturally nurturing; which she proposes when referencing them as “Mothers”. My personal experience of being a mother persuades me to agree with Gilman’s stance, that women want to nurture those closest to us. However, she states women are preoccupied with only what is going on in their own homes and social circles keeping their thoughts secluded to just that (805). I recognize that during the time frame, of when this poem was written this very well could be the case, yet in our society today women have taken on a variety of roles. Over the years many changes have transpired as far as a women’s role in today’s