From the beginning, women have
lived narrowly defined and restricted lives in roles submissive to
male dominance, and outlined with barriers and guidelines that limit
freedom to express and live openly. It takes special women to bring
it upon themselves to break these barriers for the good of all women,
sacrificing themselves so the future generations of women that follow
can live in a world where they are not forced to believe in male superiority.
It takes a special woman to create enough impact to serve as a role
model for women of the future. There have been several such women
in history who have fought for what is right and what they are passionate
about, and who have risen up, despite the rest of the world pushing
them down. The lives of Harriet Tubman and Susan B. Anthony were dedicated
to the truth and belief in equal rights for all races and genders.
These legacies prove that they were women of vision, women of strength,
and women of courage.
Born a slave, Araminta Ross, later known as Harriet Tubman, experienced
first hand the terrors of slavery. At the age of thirteen, Harriet
was beaten on the head with a two pound weight after disrupting
her supervisor from punishing another slave. This experience caused
Tubman's life to be laden by frequent blackouts, and contempt for
her white suppression. Tubman believed all slaves should enjoy the
taste of freedom. There was no justification for the evils of slavery
which lay in front of her. After escaping from Bucktown, Maryland
to her own freedom in Philadelphia in 1849, Tubman vowed to help
other slaves escape from slavery's grasp. Tubman saw the passing
of the Fugitive Act of 1850, which outlawed assisting in slave escapes,
as a signal to act on her promise. Bravely, Tubman returned to Maryland.
Using the Underground Railroad, she assisted in transporting many
slaves to free states or Canada. Tubman totaled nineteen trips back
to the south and helped more than 3,000 slaves find freedom. Tubman's
efforts prove capabilities of women. Her undeniable strength and
commitment illustrate a woman of great bravery, a woman willing
to risk everything for others, a model of humility.
Another such woman was born in Adams, Massachusetts in 1820. Susan
Brownell Anthony came from a strict home where order and discipline
came before play and enjoyment. Her father pulled her out of public
schools when a teacher refused to teach her long division. He set
up a school in their house and brought in a teacher by the name
of Mary Perkins. Perkins gave Anthony and her sisters a new perception
of womanhood, and image which later inspired Anthony. After completing
school, Anthony became a teacher at an all female boarding academy
named Eunice Kenyon's Quaker School in upstate New York. In 1849,
Anthony retreated with her family to Rochester, New York to settle
down. It was there that Anthony began to speak up on her crusade
for women. The temperance movement was the first expression of feminism
in the United States and Susan B. Anthony was one of the first involved.
In 1849, Anthony gave her first public speech to the Daughters of
Temperance group about the danger of alcoholism and its destructive
effects on families. From then on, Anthony wrapped herself in many
campaigns, dedicating herself to such causes as anti-slavery, women's
civil rights, and her signature movement, women's suffrage. Anthony
demanded that women be granted rights given to black males in the
14th and 15th amendments. In 1872, she led a group of Rochester
women to the polls to vote in a local election. Anthony was arrested
and while awaiting her trial, attempted to vote in another election.
Susan B. Anthony was convicted of violating voting laws, but continuing
her objection to these laws, she refused to pay her fine. The rest
of Anthony's life was devoted to women's suffrage until her death
in 1906. Sadly, Anthony never got to witness the ratification of
the 19th amendment in 1920, granting women the right to vote, but
it is obvious that her hand played and enormous role in its passing.
Anthony believed that women were not what the world has led them
to think. She did not feel that women should be confined to the
home and repressed by their husbands. Anthony stood up for herself
and fellow women in the face of adversity and harsh criticism. Forsaking
her reputation in order to act on what is right. Susan B. Anthony
gave all women a voice, an amazing privilege that has left generations
of women forever indebted to her efforts.
These women sacrificed their whole lives for their causes; a testament
to the power of the female. The fruits of their labor are not only
accomplishments for themselves, but for all humankind. But women
such as Harriet Tubman and Susan B. Anthony still live today. Their
spirits are captured in every women trying to make her way in this
decade of challenges and setbacks for women. Today's women live
in a world shaped by unspoken gender lines. The must deal with a
society that views the "perfect women" as a 110 pound
beauty, whose worth is measured in weight and appearance. Women
today must face sexual harassment, unequal pay, degradation, and
sexual discrimination. Today's women dare to play sports, join the
military, or take on traditionally male occupations. These women
must prove the old female stereotypes wrong and through their words
and actions, and show the world that the female spirit is one that
should not be ignored and will never go away. Everyday, the female
work force wakes up to these conditions and everyday they are reminded
of today's guidelines. But these women are our doctors that saving
lives, teachers that are educating our children, and politicians
that are shaping our country. With strong wills and open minds,
women set out to make a place for themselves in this society, shipping
away at the barriers surrounding them. Harriet and Susan would be
proud, for like them, today's women are making things happen and
refusing to believe that they are or ever were inferior to men.
Like them, we are all women of courage.
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Journal Volume 3, Number 1, Winter 2000
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