Difference between revisions of "Week 15 Questions/Comments"

When I was reading the 1st three pieces for class I thought that it was interesting how they all compared to each other. In the first reading Hellen Campbell talked about how difficult life was for working women, she compared the desperate women all seeking jobs in shops to the even more desperate women who were forced into doing difficult piece work like laundry, sewing, or ironing. The second piece, by Salmon was equally concerned about women working but this time in domestic service (as servants in another person's household) What I found most interesting about this was the problems women had with the profession some of which were very much racially driven- one woman even said that it was a problem for her to work with a Chinese man because he did not know how to "treat women". The final piece talked about how African American women needed jobs so desperately that even women who had college educations had to work as domestic servants. These women hated such work because it was too much like slavery for them. Honestly I think that the African American women have the most to be concerned about, they have a terrible time getting jobs they hate and in some cases are overqualified for. --Julie Castanien

When I was reading the 1st three pieces for class I thought that it was interesting how they all compared to each other. In the first reading Hellen Campbell talked about how difficult life was for working women, she compared the desperate women all seeking jobs in shops to the even more desperate women who were forced into doing difficult piece work like laundry, sewing, or ironing. The second piece, by Salmon was equally concerned about women working but this time in domestic service (as servants in another person's household) What I found most interesting about this was the problems women had with the profession some of which were very much racially driven- one woman even said that it was a problem for her to work with a Chinese man because he did not know how to "treat women". The final piece talked about how African American women needed jobs so desperately that even women who had college educations had to work as domestic servants. These women hated such work because it was too much like slavery for them. Honestly I think that the African American women have the most to be concerned about, they have a terrible time getting jobs they hate and in some cases are overqualified for. --Julie Castanien

In Julia Ward Howe's writing under "The Joys of Activism," whether this is intended as propaganda or not, it certainly could be and nicely done. I love how she describes the moment she realized that women could and should do better than where they were. "During the first two thirds of my life I looked to the masculine ideal of character as the only true one... In an unexpected hour a new light came to me... The new domain now made clear to me was that of true womanhood - woman no longer in her ancillary relation to her opposite, man, but in her direct relation to the divine plan and purpose, as a free agent, fully sharing with man every human right and every human responsibility." She's certainly encouraging any that read this that she 'saw the light' you could say and the reader can have these realizations too. -- Vanessa Smiley

In Julia Ward Howe's writing under "The Joys of Activism," whether this is intended as propaganda or not, it certainly could be and nicely done. I love how she describes the moment she realized that women could and should do better than where they were. "During the first two thirds of my life I looked to the masculine ideal of character as the only true one... In an unexpected hour a new light came to me... The new domain now made clear to me was that of true womanhood - woman no longer in her ancillary relation to her opposite, man, but in her direct relation to the divine plan and purpose, as a free agent, fully sharing with man every human right and every human responsibility." She's certainly encouraging any that read this that she 'saw the light' you could say and the reader can have these realizations too. -- Vanessa Smiley