Women in History

In the library today there were several people talking about women’s suffrage and women’s rights. They read about several different women in history and how their experiences have brought women to where we are today.

There is one thing I cannot imagine and that is being a black woman when slavery existed. To have 12, 13, 14 children and know that my children do not belong to me they belong to your master. I could not imagine how these women must have felt; to have affairs with certain men just to keep other men away from them. All I can say is Harriett Jacob was a brave woman. To be a slave and have to hide and pray you will be able to get out.  To live in Sarah Morgan’s day and have to write all my thoughts down because women just didn’t make exhibitions of themselves. It is amazing how any of these women were able to even have their own mind, but I am sure it was kept to a minimum.

In 1870, Julia Howe wrote the first Mother’s Day proclamation. She wrote this in response to the death and destruction she had witnessed during the civil war. Julia realized that war goes far beyond killing soldiers. She called on all mothers to come together for peaceful relations and disarmament.  She tried to rally women to take a stand. Emily Dickinson also wrote in the time of the civil war. She would write about loss and all emotions that accompany war.

Another time I would not want to have lived in, when women were fighting for the right to vote. Several women were arrested due to their strong belief that women should have the right to vote.  Virginia Woolf, who also was a part of women’s suffrage, was a victim of sexual abuse at the hands of her older step brother. I believe this is why she fought for women’s rights.

History has shown women suffered for years. Black women suffered in slavery, white women suffered in silence. After seeing all of this suffering some women decided, enough is enough, and went against the grain and fought for women’s rights. If for one second you could put yourself in some of these women of history’s shoes I believe we would all want to fight for more women’s rights. If women today had as much guts as some of the women in history maybe we as a country would be further than we are now.