Feminism

Feminism is perceived by the majority of men to be immoral and insane, due to the fact that they believe that women do not deserve the same rights as men. Women have been dealing with this oppression for hundreds of years and it is now, in the 21ST century, that women have been able to come closer as equals with men. They have been speaking out about this oppression for decades, but nothing was being done until recently. Over the centuries women have been treated like slaves and there was nothing they could do about it. Women today are still not satisfied and do not believe they are treated equal to men. Over the years how have women in Canada and all over the world changed society with their feminists views? If women did not fight for the freedom and rights that they now posses and deserve, would our lifestyle still be the same today? How did feminism begin and how were women permitted to vote? How are women treated in third world countries and in different cultures? What are the different types of feminism? How are women treated on the job and how did they join the labor force?

The past decades there has been a dramatic increase of women participating in the labor force from countries all over the world including Canada. In 1950, one Canadian worker in five was a woman. By 1980 this percentage had doubled, and women are expected to make up more than 44 percent of the labor force by the end of this century.

The increase in female participation started occurring during the 1970's. This increase also caused the largest baby boom that the Canadian female labor force had ever witnessed. In North America it is common for women to have part Part time or summer jobs, and the participation rate of teenage girls is high. It is also mostly high throughout the world in places as United Kingdom because of the fewer women going to school. But in places like France, Italy, and Japan the female participation rate is very low. In most of the countries the labor force is most participated in the age groups between 20 and 24. The labour force of mature women is very high in Sweden, because of the encouraged day care facilities, which also provides the females with legislation that provides them with excellent benefits. In Japan there is a drop in female economic activity, the reason why is it affects their marriage and the care of their only child.

If women did not fight for their freedom and rights, I believe our lifestyle and our respect for women would be completely different. Firstly, you would not see women at work, school, or anywhere that you see today. Women would be at home cooking, cleaning, and taking care of the children, while the men would dominate the work place. Women would not be given they have today, for example, they would not be permitted to get an education nor would they be permitted to play professional sports or carry jobs. Women would not be permitted these necessities of life because it was believed that the man would take care of the fragile women. If the men did not have control over their women they would not be considered men. These women were oppressed; they were not allowed to be independent so that they would be trapped and unable to ever leave their husband's side. The women would not be able to leave their husband's side because they would never be able to survive without them. Now a days many women don't have husbands because they are so independent that they don't need a man to dominate and oppress them. Modern women have come a long way from not being allowed to vote to now having a national sports team watched by millions of people including men.

Feminism began when women could take no more and needed things to change. The women believed they could change the system if they if they were allowed to vote. The men in charge at the time (1800's) new that if they let one woman vote, that they would have to let them all vote and that could take away the power the men already possessed. When the women told the government (men) that they wanted to vote the reply was, “It has been claimed as a right that women should vote. It is no right, but a wrong.” The women continued to strive for equal rights, when they had a women's rights convention, which led to the National Women Suffrage Association from 1869 to 1890. The leader of this group, Ms. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, argued that even though men and women are different in some way, that doesn't change the fact that the right of the vote belongs to all citizens, regardless of their sex. As time continued men knew that they could oppress women no longer. More and more rights were given to women, but the women always wanted more because they didn't feel like they were being treated equally.