CRJ #10

The first passage I read was “Constitutional Argument” by Susan B. Anthony that war written in 1898. This reading is the argument for women having to do with voting and the constitutional amendment that states that “All men are created equal…” Anthony argues that the constitution says that we are all equal and all have the right to vote as stated in the amendment. For that reason, if women are denied that right they are not living by the laws that our founders set out for us. I believe this is a wonderful argument that started much of the women’s rights era. Anthony explains herself very well and makes amazing points that are hard to ignore in a court of law. Thought we have made great strides since then, I believe that someone today could still make an argument about gender wages and how women are looked upon in society with this same constitutional amendment.


The second passage I read was “Unequal” by Jessica Neuwirth. This reading examined laws and acts that have been made in different countries around the world and how women’s equality is moving forward in each country. She starts with saying that there are many laws here to enforce women’s equality but in many different countries women still get treated very bad. Some countries don’t give any rights to women at all. The biggest problem though is with family situations regarding women and how men usually have the upper hand in the family and can tell or make his wife do anything he wants and she is the one that gets in trouble, not him. As Neuwirth points out at the end when she mentions a few countries who are finally taking a stand and changing some of these laws to ensure women’s rights, some of these changes are being made at a snail pace when it should be a drastic change that needs to be made immediately. I feel bad for many other countries and how they are being run because women are not getting the respect that they deserve. And though I am happy that some things are getting changed, I hope that many more things keep happening and each change in a law has a domino effect on another.


The third passage I read was “The Postwar Moment” by Cynthia Cockburn. This passage talks about how after wars there is a specific time in which the government starts to rebuild itself. The whole country’s policies have a chance to transform. Most of the time this rebuilding is for the good but sometimes there are certain things that are omitted from the policies that should not be, one very important one being gender issues. The one we have learned most from is in Bosnia. After finally reaching peace with Herzegovina their country had to rebuild. It failed to have anything concerning gender rights on its new policies and many things have gone wrong because of that in the recent years. To fix this problem, women need to be in the discussion and in the new policy making events so that in order to get what those gender rights, women are rightly represented in the making of them. I did not at all know this all was going on in countries around the world and I do not believe others do either. I think if you inform and educate more people about it, then it is something that, in time, we can fix so that everyone, no matter the gender, is represented and respected equally in this world