9/9 Context Post

This week’s readings were particularly striking for me as they discussed the role of women in the Victorian era. The “political non-existence of women” is a series of statements outlining the sexism and mistreatment of women present in the early/mid-1800s–much of it blatantly demonstrated by law and government practices. The language in the piece is visceral and jarring. Women are referred to as property and slaves to their husbands or fathers and the entirety United States government. The text does a grand job of establishing problems present in the time period and setting the stage for a slow, eventual awakening of the nation of the great gender inequality. For my personal grounding in the time period, I want to be able to place these isolated pieces in a timeline. I’d like to see how men and women of the time reacted to this publication and what the general consensus of the public was: how did men continue to grip onto authority and did women exposed to these truths come to terms with their own mistreatment? In my mind, the progressive nature of this week’s readings feel well beyond their time; however, I want to know if this holds truth. Where does this time period fall into the fight for women’s rights and how long were and have people been socially aware of said injustices?

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