A woman role in society was one no higher then a mistreated creature. Women were treated as inferior to any male, no matter what the situation. Women were not allowed to vote, couldn’t own property, they couldn’t enter skilled professions, no choice of gaining a high education, and were the property of their “affectionate” husband. They were at the COMPLETE mercy of their husbands or fathers decisions, they were robbed of their self-confidence and self-respect.

So how exactly were women treated as second class citizens?

In the past, Women had very few legal rights and most societies perceived women as the lesser gender compared to males. This was because women were seen to be more emotional, and therefore less decisive then males.

Because of the social and political views on women, they generally lived a private life, no active public responsibility, no social status. Upon marriage, the women would be considered to be the property of the husband. The came from the idea of “unito caro” or one flesh, meaning the woman didn’t have an identity outside her husband. Since the women were not seen as individuals in society, they also weren�

When a women was wed, she was forced to give up most of her rights and possessions to her husband. This gave her new husband an even more controlling power over his wife’s affairs and property (See appendix 1) . This is much like the male turning to his wife and announcing “What’s mine is mine, and what’s yours is mine”. Automatically, the wife would become the responsibility and property of the male. In some ways, women could have been considered a piece of land, or a bottle of whisky to the husband, and nothing more.

With all this inequality issues with women, one would think that all women would be protesting to gain their god-given freedom. Although because the women grew up in a society believing these social issues, most women believed, or at least accepted, these social values placed on them. This continued up until 1818’s, when the law started to adopt to changed values to grant women a more equitable position compared to men.

So with this, it leaves the questions in ones mind. “Why did women marry if it led to such devastation?” No matter if a woman was married or not, she was still someone’s property. She would have been her fathers, or maybe even another male relative. Also, single women were looked down upon in society. Because women’s main role in contributing to the community was by producing offspring, by bei

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