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SEX DISCRIMINATION: HISTORYAlthough thorough examinations of how women were regarded throughout history can be found elsewhere (Bullough; Taylor) it is nonetheless instructive to consider briefly a few central points. Stereotypes about women have had a long tradition in our culture, and it is important to view current events not as isolated happenings but as part of a historical progression. Particularly germane to the discriminatory treatment of women is the age-old image of women as inferior to men and the long-standing image of women as both physically and emotionally frail. The idea that women are inferior to men has been accepted throughout Western history. The Greeks excluded women from any political, intellectual, or social activities, and gave them no legal status or education. Women were viewed as equipped only to bear children and to maintain the home, and they often had no contact with anyone outside their immediate households (Arthur). Aristotle perhaps best articulated the Greek image of women when he wrote, “We should look on the female state as I being … a deformity”. Plato, although more diplomatic, was no less biased in his view, “All the pursuits of men are the pursuits of women also, but in all of them a woman is inferior to a man”. Religious teachings also espoused this point of view (Hunter). In the creation story in the Book of Genesis, Eve is essentially an afterthought, created from Adam. Elsewhere in the Bible, women are depicted as property, first of their fathers, then of their husbands. Christianity, although ostensibly more liberal in its conception of women, largely through the writings of Paul, also has relegated women to a secondary status, allowing them no important role in the church. The Judeo-Christian tradition thus perpetuated the negative view of women so prevalent in antiquity. An alternative view of women began to emerge in France in the eleventh century. Chivalry came into being. Now a woman no longer was a man’s inferior but his inspiration to excellence and his duty to protect. Even so, women were confined to passive roles, waiting for knights to perform brave deeds to win their love. Although different, this also was a belittling role for women. Again their dependence upon men was highlighted, suggestive of a fundamental weakness and inability to cope with life’s realities. These views of women, women as inferior and women as weak and dependent, have predominated through the centuries. The consequence has been the legitimization of the differential treatment of women. Even the courts, until very recently, accepted womanhood as a condition warranting different treatment by the law (Agate and Meacham). Using the commonly accepted cultural conception of women, United States Supreme Court Justice Bradley in 1873 explained why a state could constitutionally ban women from practicing law: “The natural and proper timidity and delicacy which belongs to the female sex evidently unfits it for many of the occupations of civil life” (Bradwell v. Illinois, 83 U.S. (16 Wall) 130, 141). It was not until almost a hundred years later that the Supreme Court first ruled that sex was not a permissible basis for differential legal treatment. Stereotypes about what women are like are part of our heritage. Our legacy is the teaching that men and women are fundamentally different not only in the roles they have played, but also in their capabilities and talents. *163/187/5* Related Posts:Tags: Men’s Health Leave OneYou must be logged in to post a comment. |
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