Preview

Herland Paper

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1813 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Herland Paper
An extension of Herland In a secluded region of the world a society developed in isolation from external influences. Physical barriers allowed this culture to evolve uninhibited, and thus, be unique in almost every aspect of their society. The people work together as a collective whole for the betterment of the group. A person is secondary to the nation, which created a system of cooperation and growth. Traditional gender roles are non-existent. Women do not need protection from men, due to the ability to act as a whole to counter the possibility of a threat. Subjugation of any person would lessen their contribution to the group, so every person is respect as an equal member. This society is the fictitious "Herland" created by gender activist Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Through analytical study of Gilman's book Herland, and extrapolating from the information provided, scholars can theorize about the path the characters, as well as this nation, would take in the years following this story. The basic plot of Gilman's work followed the adventure of three man on an expedition resulting in their discovery of Herland. These three men, named Van, Terry, and Jeff, are amazed by the uniquely different and independent culture that exists there. Herland is comprised completely of women that resulted from catastrophic events nearly two-thousand years prior. This utopian society is the culmination of what women's activist Elizabeth Stanton wrote about in her "Declaration of Sentiments" at the Seneca Falls convention. In her address she stated, "That all men and women are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights governments are instituted, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed" (Stanton 1848, 548-149). Through self determination, and no subordinating force, the women of Herland established a society and governing

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    (C) The women in this novel are dependent on men to handle political and economical duties. Today there are some countries were they prohibit women from attending certain events or doing certain tasks. In the novel, they demonstrate that females don't have certain power and that men do obtain. For example. in India and some countries in Africa , it's the female's task to stay at home and take care the children or not even attend school.…

    • 747 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    "The grandest and greatest reform of all time,” Susan B. Anthony Stated proudly at the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848.The full importance of the revolutionary convention that changed the perceptions of women's history. The book covers 50 years of women's activism, from 1840-1890, focusing on four key figures in that specific period like Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucy Stone, and Susan B. Anthony. Just like the title states, McMillen tells the background stories from where they came from and their lives, how they came about to take upon the cause of women's rights, the astonishing advances they made during their life, and the memorable and astonishing moments they performed during their lifetime. To understand the pain women, felt,…

    • 824 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Elizabeth Cady Stanton, born in 1815 in Johnstown, New York, was a well known leader of the Women’s Rights Movement. She organized the first women’s rights convention, known as the Seneca Falls Convention, with others such as Lucretia Mott, Martha C. Wright, Jane Hunt and Mary Ann McClintock. At the convention, about three hundred people had attended to discuss and call attention to the unjust and unfair treatment of women. Elizabeth Cady Stanton wrote the Declaration of Sentiments, which outlined the issues of the inequality between genders and proposed rights that women should be able to have, and it was read at the Seneca Falls Convention and signed by about a hundred of its members.…

    • 115 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    As the author of The Seneca Falls Declaration, Stanton presents how the inequality among females and males is the product of a flawed government. Using the Declaration of Independence…

    • 143 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Throughout history, it has been made clear that women did not always have the same rights as men. Yet during the 1800s and early 1900s, or around the time of the Civil War, some women began to do something about this. During this time period began the women’s suffrage movement, in which women tried to gain voting rights for women in the United States. An article from History.com says that, “In 1848, a group of abolitionist activists–mostly women, but some men–gathered in Seneca Falls, New York to discuss the problem of women’s rights. (They were invited there by the reformers Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott.) Most of the delegates agreed: American women were autonomous individuals who deserved their own political identities” One of these women that participated in the women’s suffrage movement includes Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Stanton was born into a wealthy family in New York, Women like her contributed greatly to the women’s rights movement, and many of her actions could be traced to the creation of the Nineteenth Amendment, the amendment that finally gave women the right to vote. Elizabeth Cady Stanton was a successful suffragette despite not living to see the creation the Nineteenth Amendment. She founded the National Women's Loyal League, helped organized the first women's rights…

    • 1902 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Elizabeth Cady Stanton drafted the Declaration of sentiments for women’s rights suffrage at Wesleyan Chapel at Seneca Falls, New York, on July 19, 1848. (Scholastic) It was based on the Declaration of Independence and described the types if discrimination women faced in America. She presented at the first women’s rights convention. Other women like Lucrettia Mott helped play a major role. There was a list of issues that were “resolved” during this convention. Also, Stanton stated things such as women having to be obedient to their husbands, if married they were civilly dead in the eye of the law, and in case of separation, she loses all power goes to the man.…

    • 676 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Anthony made several significant impacts upon the United States’ Women Suffrage movement; most notable among those impacts was her 1872 speech entitled “Women’s Right to Vote.” Anthony’s text proved to be an effective document in arguing for women’s suffrage with her thought-provoking arguments of reason. In her analysis of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution, Anthony found women’s rights present in the rights of “all men.” Her reversal of logic concerning the use of gender pronouns in law documents served as a strong appeal to reasonable interpretation, and her examination of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments proved women’s voting right through the terms “person” and “slave.” It was through these claims by Susan B. Anthony and other powerful feminists alike that the foundation of women’s rights were laid in logic and reason to stand the test of time for future female…

    • 1438 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Swastika Nights Patriarchy

    • 1842 Words
    • 8 Pages

    “They had hardly more understanding than a really intelligent dog, and besides nearly everything was too sacred for them to hear” (Burdekin 415): so are the words of the Knight in Katharine Burdekin’s 1937 dystopia, Swastika Nights as he reflects on the treatment of women within his patriarchal society. This quote is representative of the harsh patriarchal ideologies present in the 1900s when Swastika Nights was written. This patriarchal and domineering language present in Swastika Nights is a clear example of a dehumanizing and degrading societal tone in regards to women. On the contrary, however, Herland, a 1915 utopian novel by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, describes a land where women are abundant and men are absent. The introduction of this…

    • 1842 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The power of ethos is reflected by the influence of each contributor of the declaration. One contributing factor to the success of the declaration was the the multitude of social identities including but not limited to race, age, and class. The other was Stanton’s connection to various activist groups. With these circumstances followed by using the Declaration of Independence as the blueprint, the authors who signed the historical document displayed significant credibility. Although it would seem as if ethos was not considered on account that women were not considered credible at the time, the role Stanton played proved that the character of women was no different than that of a man’s, and that both genders should be provided the same credibility.…

    • 302 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Antebellum Era Dbq

    • 1737 Words
    • 7 Pages

    For many women, and as shown in Document C, the two causes were intertwined because they work for their own liberty as well. The role of women in the household had begun to change with the ongoing Industrial Revolution. A group of young single women known as Lowell girls worked in factories. In the middle and upper classes, women became the moral and spiritual leaders of their households, known as the Cult of Domesticity. Along with speaking on temperance and abolition, some women began speaking on women's rights at conventions. One such woman was Lucretia Mott. She was focused mostly on women's rights, publishing her influential Discourse on Woman and founding Swarthmore College. She became a Quaker minister, and was noted for her speaking ability. She advocated the boycotting the products of slave labor. She was an early supporter of William Lloyd Garrison and the American Anti-Slavery Society. She worked with Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and the two women organized the first women's rights convention which was held in Seneca Falls, New York. At the convention, Stanton stated that they were assembled to “declare our right to be free as man is free” (Document I) and presented the Declaration of Sentiments, a document written by Stanton and based on the form of the Declaration of Independence. It declared that men and women were equal and that women had no representation since they couldn't vote. Frederick Douglass, who was in attendance at the convention and helped pass the resolutions in the Declaration of Sentiments called the document the “grand basis for attaining the civil, social, political, and religious rights of women”. The Grimke sisters, Harriet Tubman, and Sojourner Truth were also suffragists. The Women's Rights Movement expanded democratic ideals because it pushed for equality and the right to vote for…

    • 1737 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    From 1820 to 1840, the anti-slavery movement and the women’s rights movement come out and effectively worked for the political right in the government. In many ways, the feminism utterly grew out the abolition movement. Participating in many reform movements, women realized they could have more power and rights when they had opportunities to vote and controlled their properties. Women decided to fight for their suffrage through the women’s right movement. The most important woman who worked tirelessly for women’s right was Susan B Anthony. Anthony, along with her friend, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, started to strive for women’s voting rights. In 1848, Elizabeth Cady Stanton showed her opinion about women’s suffrage through the Seneca Falls Declaration,…

    • 401 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Herland, Gilman is suggesting that society and education could change for the better if motherhood rather than manliness became the cultural ideal. The people of Herland are strong, intelligent, independent women that have successfully built a society on their own, where the community’s needs come before their own. Gilman obviously feels that her society is unjust to women and does not allow them to achieve their full potential. In Looking Backward, it is evident that Bellamy’s feelings toward his society is that American independence led to the creation of an economy run by the wealthy which then created an oppressive class structure and weakened the freedom of…

    • 286 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    They started off with a convention, which was held in Seneca Falls, New York. After two days of discussion and debate, a handful of men and women signed a Declaration of Sentiments. This document adopted a set of twelve resolutions calling for equal rights for men and women under law as well as voting rights for women. But they still had many more issues at hand and one was; equality in the workplace, women did not receive the same wages as most men and were discriminated against. The quote shown in the visual although, is not credible. This picture would be considered ethically fallacious because it is misused, Anthony never said this. She said “I was never surer of my position that no self-respecting woman would wish or work for the success of a party which ignores her political rights.” The values of this visual are still principled, although the quote was not credible their morals stood…

    • 750 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In 1848, in Seneca Falls, New York, a conference of women led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott, formed what would be the basis for the National Organization for Women. It was here that a Declaration for the Women was drafted – one based on the Declaration of Independence, which won the United States freedom from Great Britain. Women wanted the same equal rights as men had always enjoyed.…

    • 532 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Anthony, and Matilda J. Gage. This was the beginning of change in how women viewed themselves as equals. Stanton’s declaration criticized the hypocrisy of the Declaration of Independence, which states that everyone has inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, which has been denied to women. She argues that women should be held to the same standards and have the same rights as men in law, education, and employment. There was also early discussion of giving women the right to…

    • 839 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays