More challenges conventional Renaissance views of Women in Utopia
Thomas More coined the word Utopia in his book that was about the conventional Renaissance views of women and feminism. Utopia is a fictional place in which More has written about the discourse of Raphael Hythloday. The views about women from well-known people are quoted in this novel and incorporated in the fictional land of Utopia. In his book, More has discussed the role of women and the way they are treated in the society In contrast and comparison with the utopia. More has his own strong opinions and values on the situation which might seem outright disgraceful to some feminist today. Women have always been treated different and less than equal than men because of their obvious differences physically however unlike the past the one difference in this outrage is that woman now have legal rights to stand up to people who make it difficult for them to receive fair and equal treatment in the world. This does not always change the discrimination but it does give them a voice that they never had before when facing extreme diversity.
In this paper, various aspects of gender discrimination for example how women were treated by Greeks are discussed. From early ages, women were dominated as they were considered the weaker gender and not capable of working alongside men. Men earned food and shelter for women and children and women were responsible for taking care of their children, cooking and cleaning. As women did not participate in physical activities, they were considered weak and were dominated by men in all walks of life. More in his book discusses the role of women as they did not take part in physical activities like the males did. More claimed that women restricted themselves to home only and took care of children while men were more inclined to do all of what was considered the hard work. It indicates that women are the weaker gender and could be dominated easily. Women were suppressed of their rights, and there were not allowed to participate in various activities.The study of Classical Antiquity also discussed women as it states that women were discriminated in all walks of life, and they were not given equal rights. This really puts women in a losing situation when it comes to having any equality with men and deprives them of the rights that today they have proven they deserve and are capable of.
The book Utopia
The book Utopia discusses how Women were treated as slaves and were also brutally beaten by men as a discussion of the hardships that women had to face in their lives. The study of Classical Antiquity gives us an idea about the lives of women and the way men in the society treated them. Gender differences were a major issue of that time as women were not strong enough to fight for their rights .Gender differences had always been an issue as stated by More in his book. Gender difference is the difference that one gender (in this case woman) has to face because it is considered weak in the eyes of society. The society has long been a dominated by men because they have deprived women of their rights on the basis that they did not have any. In the past, women were not allowed to work because they were considered incompetent and very emotional, as well as physically incapable of providing equal quality work as men. Men in general believe women were incapable of doing the work equally, as emotions can affect their ability to perform. It has always been difficult for women to demand their rights and when they attempted to men ignored the women. Men were always preferred over women because of their strengths in all types of work which were considered dominant in comparison. More challenged the rights of women in his fictional society as he also considered women to be weak in contrast to their male counterparts. He himself commits gender discrimination against women by giving such views about them in the book. Gender difference is a major issue in our society, and it must be avoided so that the women can enjoy their rights, respect, and freedom. Women have ample opportunities to showcase their abilities today however they continue to fight for men to see them as equals capable of delivering the same quality of work. The culture also portrays women as the weaker gender. It is the norms and rules of society that instill such thinking in the minds of men that women are weak and are not capable of working along with men. The society plays a significant role as it encourages men to be dominant to rule over women. The culture of society needs to be changed in order to amend the misconception that women are the weak gender, and they are not capable of working.
Though some women are physically weak in certain aspects, they are certainly capable of working in the same roles as men and delivering the same results sometimes even better. Woman today are demanding to have the right to work and earn food and shelter for themselves as well as for their children. The society must accept women and provide them with their due rights. Gender discrimination must be avoided, and women must be promoted to work so that they can earn food and shelter in a respectable manner. It is well known to most that gender differences are part of this society and others with significant differences depending on the cultural beliefs. Different cultures treat women as they were raised to see woman and this varies depending on the culture and their views. The behavior of men has also changed towards women with the passage of time. There are many cultures where women are not treated well and are deprived of their rights. While on the other hand, some cultures respect women and treat them equally by providing them with their due rights as well as giving them the respect they have earned. It has been noted that many cultures did not give women their rights but with the passage of time they realized women must be respected, and their rights must be recognized. Over the centuries gender differences have reduced in many cultures, and many laws have been enacted to reserve the rights of the women. Currently, women are treated equally in almost all parts of the world and have been given rights by law to fight for their right. Gender differences have surely been reduced with the passage of time, but it has not been eliminated from the society.
Different cultures same issue
Social life is deeply gendered as women are restricted to their homes, and they are not given an opportunity to socialize. More has discussed in his book that men had to go out and do the work and women had to be at home and take care of children. It is noticed that men enjoyed socializing with other men while women were not very social as they did not have much experience of the outside world. In ancient Rome, women were not very social as they were not even allowed to take an active part in the politics. Women in Rome had to face many restrictions because of the predominant male society. Women socializing were reduced because of restrictions imposed on them by the society, over time changes can be seen as women are social, they are allowed to go out and meet other people. Women are a part of the society, and they must be given a fair chance to participate in the activities of the society and they also have the right to socialize with anyone they want.
Women are considered to be emotional and unstable by the society. Women are more emotional and unstable in comparison with men but it does not mean that they should not be allowed to take a part in the activities of the society as equals for the other qualities they possess. It is mentioned in the book that women were mostly not allowed to work as they were thought to be incompetent because of high emotions. It is considered that emotions while working can reduce the working efficiency of a person, therefore women were not given jobs. In the past, there were not many opportunities for women but now there are many fields where women can work, and their work is also appreciated.
In ancient Greece women were treated different, it was considered a male dominant society like many other societies. Women were deprived of their rights as men figured that they could not harm them if their rights are not considered (Risman, Lorber and Sherwood 2012.The people of the ancient Greek realized that they were not doing justice by doing such an act so they stopped men from doing so and created many laws which protected the rights of women in society (More 2002). Views of Aristotle about women were also discouraging. It could be said that he also discriminated individuals on the basis of their gender as he is quoted in the book stating, “Again, the male is by nature superior, and the female inferior; and the one rules, and the other is ruled.” Aristotle did however agree that women act wiser than men at times, but these records were not enough to give a statement that women are wiser than men as these were rare cases. Similarly, views of Alberti about women were not as encouraging as he had not also done much for the rights of women when he spoke of them either. His quotes in several books are not in favor of women, and he described women as soft, slow, and of timid nature. Alberti claims that men are stronger physically, and they are fully capable of taking care of their wives, home, and family. He claimed that men are stronger and must be given importance as they work hard. On the other hand, women perform household chores as they are only good at doing easier work (More 2002).
Conclusion
It could be concluded that society plays a significant role in the minds of a human being. The culture of the society can create a perception of anything, and if a perception is made that is one sided about something then it is hard to overcome the flaws that will prevail in the society because of such discerning views. Women have long been treated unequally with men because of what is considered norms of the society but by the passage of time the opinion of many men have changed about women. Nowadays, women are not deprived of their rights as much as they used to be in the past. Moreover, they are permitted by law to take legal action against those who deprive them of their equal rights.
Bibliography
- Moore, Sir Thomas. 2002. Utopia. Britain: Cambridge university press.
- Riseman, Barbara, Judith Lorber, and Jessica Sherwood. 2014. 'SSCC - Home'. Ssc.Wisc.Edu. http://www.ssc.wisc.edu.
