Wollstonecraft, Fuller, and Steinem: Are We Equal?

As I have grown into womanhood, I have become increasingly aware of the stratified ideas that surround women. From old medieval chivalry to the suffragette movement in Britain there has always been confusion (of mostly men) on how to treat women. The works of Mary Wollstonecraft, Margaret Fuller, and Gloria Steinem offer a full range of masterful ideas and vernacular to thoroughly inspire my feminist spirit.

The history of the treatment of women is one full of hypocrisy and incongruity. One could even call it a dichotomy because of the two distinct schools of thought. One is the positive, chivalrous side that is so characteristic of poets and artists. It is the man who puts his woman on a pedestal and is everything she needs. Yet, while this side exists, there is also the sexist side that objectifies and labels women as the weaker sex. This is the side that enacts restrictions on jobs, and discriminates and abuses them.

I think Margaret Fuller describes it best in this quote, “The lover, the poet, the artist, are likely to view her nobly. The father and the philosopher have some chance of liberality; the man of the world, the legislator for expediency, none.” She very concisely outlines the views of certain men in a way that somehow makes it seem obvious.

As feminism has emerged it has very rightly focused on the acts in which women are treated poorly, the latter of the two sides before mentioned. Somehow, however, I find myself questioning whether to create a truly equal society we must eliminate the former side too. As long as we still believe that it is the man’s duty to pay for date night, we might as well not have the 19^th Amendment to the Constitution. This is a drastic thought, but one worth contemplating.

One specific stigma that has not yet been eradicated from our society is that of the domestic, superficial housewife or woman. Although women have begun their ascendance to the top of the workplace, discovered amazing things, and improved society, there is still an underlying idea that women somehow belong in the kitchen. A phrase that comes to mind that is easily found anywhere in a high school aged setting, “Make me a sammich, woman,” is the epitome of this idea.

Gloria Steinem very elaborately implicates that even though men justify this vulgar demand with “women are the weaker sex because they menstruate, etc.” if the tables were turned men would find a different story to stick to. She says, “The truth is that, if men could menstruate, the power justifications would go on and on.”

Being a teenager it is easy to get caught in the superficial, the things women “should think about.” Between shaving my legs, applying make up, picking the perfect outfit, and whatever other appearance-related item is on my agenda, I sometimes wonder if it’s worth it. I wonder if it is all some stupid scam to get women to look the way men want them to and to make money off of them. Despite these rebellious, virtuous ideas I always find myself too accustomed, too insecure to find the strength to step out from such standards. To have been raised to know that you “have to” do certain things so that you “look” right is quite a quagmire.

While I continue to develop my ideas on such an important issue, I can’t help but recall a link that I posted to Facebook this summer. It was entitled “What happened when I started a feminist society at school” and was written by a 17-year-old feminist. She describes the discrimination that even her school partook in while she struggled to find her way. Her story is the one that should make us all stop and think: Are we really equal yet?