Oppression of Women free essay sample

Women go through distressing cruelty and oppression mostly because America is a patriarchal society, a male dominated society in which older men are in positions of power. Many unfortunate evils run loose and free in this society because either society does little to stop it, or at times, even encourages this destructive behavior. In the articles â€Å"Battering: Who’s Going to Stop It† and â€Å"Protecting Male Abusers and Punishing the Women Who Confront Them† we see one of these unfortunate evils and the damaging effect of it against women. Women are beaten helplessly without the aid of any of our patriarchal authorities in achieving justice, as if justice falls solely on the footsteps of men. In the articles â€Å"The Politics of Housework† and â€Å"The Price of Motherhood†, we see more of these unfortunate evils of how sexism infiltrates into the household and of how the accomplishments of mothers are degraded and humbled. We will write a custom essay sample on Oppression of Women or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The roots of intimate partner violence lie in the grounds of the patriarchal family. The belief that the wife is the possession of the male, who should have the behaviors of all the other family members under control, lead the man to abuse the relationship and take advantage of her vulnerability. Women’s unpromising careers and their continued responsibility over the children reinforce their need to financially depend on their husband, making it very hard for them to leave the abusive relationship. In the article â€Å"Battering: Who’s Going to Stop It†, battering is brought out of the private household and into the spotlight. We see how violence toward women by the very people they love, make it a very frightening and dangerous place for millions of women who are abused each year. Numerous women live with the effects of male violence. To find a reason for this high rate of male violence, we look to the culprit. Many people still mistakenly believe that batterers are somehow crazy and lose control of themselves and blow up. However, it is quite the opposite. The men who batter women are actually not crazy, in fact, they’re very much stable and are in control of not only himself but also of the women they batter. After all, that’s the purpose of battering: to threaten, intimidate, abuse, and batter a women to make her do what he wants. Unfortunately, there is little justice done for the abused women by our patriarchal authorities. The reason why many men continue to use violence against women is because there isn’t enough justice in our system to stop them from doing so. Right now, most perpetrators suffer no social or legal consequences at all for their criminal behavior. In â€Å"Protecting Male Abusers and Punishing the Women Who Confront Them†, we see how the home is made into a dangerous place for not only mothers, but also now for daughters. We see how interfamilial sexual assault is apparent in the life of Ashley, who was only 14 once her father, Carmine, started preparing her to be his sexual abuse victim. Every night after dinner, he would take Ashley into his study and teach her the way grown women should dress and show their bodies. And after months of daily rape, when police asked her if she resisted, she said no. She genuinely believed her father was trying to help her. Ashley’s case showed how difficult it was to settle a conviction in even the most disturbing cases. Since she was over 13 and had consented to have sex with her father, the rape laws didn’t protect her. Additionally, since she was sexually abused by her father, he could only have been charged with the lightest sentences. Once again, we see how justice is overlooked, since it is seen as more important to â€Å"preserve† the family than convict a perpetrator of harm and trauma on young children. What’s even worse is that, instead of blaming the culprit, the larger society express more mother-blaming sentiments. Mothers are often threatened with loss of custody because their intimate partner molested their daughters. Mothers are even blamed for incest because it is believed that men molest their daughters because of the failings of their wives, who were not fulfilling their wifely duties. Plus, they are also blamed for allowing their man’s abusive behavior and failing to protect her child. Instead of blaming the true person in the wrong, the man, our patriarchal society once again puts the blame on the woman. Sexism is another unfortunate evil that is firmly fixed into our patriarchal structure of society. Our society has been organized around the idea that public fields of our society, such as work and education are a man’s territory, and the private matters, such as family, is a woman’s niche. The contradiction between the truth of many women’s lives and the social institutions shaped by this belief in division of roles is a major source of tension in contemporary society. It is even a major source of tension within the household, as seen in â€Å"The Politics of Housework†. The work done in the home, such as housework and nurturing, demands a lot of attention, attention and skill. Women still do much of this work at home even though their participation in the work field has increased. This article demonstrates the struggle involved in getting men to share in the responsibility for chores. Since housework is associated with women, it is seen as demeaning and lacing in value. The husband provides numerous complaints to doing housework since it should be a woman’s job. One was that he hates it more than her, but she doesn’t mind it so much. A comment which had a very sexist underlying meaning that housework is degrading and should be done by someone of a lower intelligence. Once again, we see the effect of the male dominated society and how sexism infiltrates into even the household In â€Å"The Price of Motherhood†, we again see the damaging effect of a male dominated society and the significant economic price for becoming mothers. When mothers do what is needed to raise children and nourish families, their reward is often a penalization for performing the very role that our society believes so important. They suffer from professional exclusion, a loss of status, and even long term losses in income and benefits due to lost time in time in the workplace. Inflexible and demanding workplaces almost guarantee that many women will have to cut back on, if not quit, their employment once they have kids. Also, government social polices don’t even recognize unpaid care of family members as real work, so mothers are not considered a full productive citizen, eligible for the major social insurance programs. We again see the affect of our male dominated society on mothers who are punished and discouraged from performing the very tasks that everyone agrees are essential. In conclusion, we see the impact of the patriarchal structure of our society on girls and women, and apparently, it’s not the least bit positive, in fact, much of the distressing cruelty and oppression women experience are due to this male dominated society. Many unfortunate evils run loose and free in this society because either society does little to stop it, or at times, even encourages this destructive behavior. By review these 4 articles, we can come to conclude that not only are women oppressed, but our patriarchal society works hard to keep women oppressed.