The oppression of half the world

One of the biggest examples of oppression in history is the ongoing oppression of women throughout time. This injustice on approximately half the population lasted far too long, until change came about in the 19th century. One of the first great examples of call to change this was Seneca Falls, the first convention to call attention to women's rights. During this event, a document known as the Declaration of rights was written, listing most injustices they wanted fixed. This sparked a reaction among the rest of the United States, with people supplying words of support, and mocking words alike.

When analyzing the newspapers of people reporting on the subject, mixed results will be found. Newspapers such as the Northstar were supportive of the act, offering words of praise to the speeches that were written and the people delivering them. there were other newspapers as well that while not quite supportive, were not actively denouncing these woman. Instead they would basically just wish them luck.

However, there were about equal amounts of newspaper that laughed at and mocked the people demanding reform. An example of this is "The Recorder", a newspaper that was based in Syracuse, New York. They listed all the demands of the women in their report, but mocked it, saying it was silly, and that their 'declaration' for 'independence' was preposterous, and that they didn't know what they were talking about. Another example of people laughing at their movement was in the 'Mechanics Advocate'. They say that these conventions are a sorry sight to see, and that they are a waste of time. They say that the women attending these conventions are no doubt doing it at the expense of their more important jobs. They also say that any level-headed woman would know that this is preposterous, and stop what their doing. So while their were people saying yeah, this is a change that needs to happen, there were just as money trying to stop it, and kill the movement.

Now, fast forward to today. While conditions have improved vastly, there is still injustice left. While women have access to just about everything that men do, people see what they are doing differently. People judge men and women's actions completely different from each other. A good source of this is the video posted below. It accurately depicts all the inequality in how society views each gender, and their actions even if they are very similar.

Video depicting society's views of acts in public

Newspaper sources: http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/trr040.html