The Status and Role of Women

The section in The Scarlet Letter on pages 246-253 was very interesting and made me think a lot about the differences between women today and women back then. A lot of the opinions in this reading really disgusted me. Most of the people who talked about women in this section believed they were below men and shouldn’t be treated the same. Many said that women shouldn’t have the right to do the same things a man does such as vote, have a job, etc. Men and women are both human beings, so not being treated equally really doesn’t make sense to me.

The first thing I though about while reading this is how much as changed regarding women from the 1600s to today. Women still complain and get mad over how they are not treated fairly, but if they knew just how bad women were treated back then, they wouldn’t have anything to grumble about. William Blackstone stated, “By marriage, the husband and wife are one person in law: that is, the very being or legal existence of the woman is suspended during the marriage… “ Today, women who are married can make their own decisions and are independent from their husbands. Likewise, today men who are married do not have to “give his wife moderate correction,” as said by William Blackstone. The whole outlook on women and even marriages has changed so much from back then and it was definitely for the better.

Even though most of the people in this passage had bias opinions about women, Catharine Beecher brought up a very fascinating point that I have never even considered before. She said, “women are always treated as superiors.” She goes on to explain that, basically, women had a lot of things handed to them that men didn’t. Women were not expected to go out and work a hard job or perform strenuous physical labor; they got to stay at home and do the less demanding tasks. Also, men would hold doors for women, carry things for them, stand when a lady entered the room, etc. This idea definitely makes sense, but women didn’t have to treated this way. I’m sure a lot of them would have liked to work a job if they were allowed. In addition, men didn’t have to those things for women. Of course it’s courteous, but women were capable to do all of those of their own.

In conclusion, the views on women have changed immensely over the years. Now women can actually have a say in most things. They can have jobs alongside men and don’t have to stay at home all the time. It is somewhat understandable as to why people thought women were so delicate and needed taken care of, but they took it to the extreme. Women are plenty capable of doing most things men are and can function perfectly without the cover or protection of a man.