Today Women and Men are equal in almost all aspects, but a few decades ago that was not the case. Imagine ladies that you couldn’t vote, you couldn’t decide things for yourself. That you where looked at as a lower role model than a man. I cannot even begin to imagine how horrible life would have been.
But women in the 18th and 19th centuries have been there and survived. They were both very different in many aspects. The eighteenth century helped mold and shape the way women were treated in the nineteenth centuries which all helped to lead us to where we are today.In this essay I am going to tell you how the role of women changed from the 18th to the 19th centuries and what significant contributions they made in terms of political, philosophical, and artistic achievements. Also, I will supply you with three women as examples of these events during these times.
First, let’s take a look at the eighteenth century during the enlightenment and women’s rights. Mary Wollstonecraft is a great example during this time.She fought for women’s right and really pointed out how women where acting poorly and pathetic. She criticized women embracing their roles in society so well “the great art of pleasing (men)”.
She was a self educated Britain whom believed in the equality of sexes and wasn’t scared to share her views. Wollstonecraft died at the age of thirty-eight following the birth of her daughter Mary Shelley. She is still looked at as the one who influenced the threshold of the modern movement for female equality.Not only was Mary apart of the 18th century but many things happened to women during this century. By the time of the enlightenment almost 75 percent of women could read and write which eventually influenced the course of modern history. To continue, later in the eighteenth century Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence was written and released.
Despite that it made clear the fathers’ beliefs in equality among men and women; they still didn’t believe in women exercising any political rights.So American women did not secure the legal right to vote or could they hold political office until well into the twentieth century. But finally in 1791 Olympe de Gouges, a vocal advocate of women’s rights drafted a declaration of the Rights of Women and the Female Citizen. This declaration demanded equal political rights and responsibilities for women. For the first time in history women mad a revolutionary force, making demands for equal property rights, government employment for women, but after two years this declaration lost and was never passed into law.
Although women didn’t get many rights during this time, the eighteenth century held good value for a few really good female artists by the name of Maria Van Oosterwyck and Judith Leyster who painted still life subjects and portrait painting. But also there was Angelica Kauffman who became one of the most sought-after and highly paid portrait painters of her day. Many of her history subjects served as models for wall and ceiling designs in the neoclassical interiors of Robert Adam.
