Ignoring Societal Standards

The feminist movement has been going on for centuries and it is still around at this point in time. In Henrik Ibsen’s play A Doll House, the very last scene of the play where the door slams shut, signifying Nora’s departure from home, tends to be iconic in the movement of women’s rights. Her actions within the play were ludicrous if looked upon with the attitude that one commonly held within the 19th century and conflicted with the image that many found acceptable of women during that time frame. But when one acts out of the ordinary, it in turn can cause others to reevaluate what is ordinary. It can cause others to realize that it is time for change and that action must take course for it to do so and that is what this last scene does. It drew attention to the unhappiness women felt being treated like an inferior and coddled and drew further attention because she did something about it; this caused some to reexamine their own views on gender roles (Slamming 949). With this last scene, one can see how acting out of societal standards and not caring what society says has helped with the advancement of women in society and around the world. Many have witnessed and read about times where women were deprived of rights that men were allowed to enjoy. Women were expected to stay at home and do their “womanly duties”. They were expected to be docile and dedicate their lives to their husband and children, keeping women as passive figures in society. Countless women have been aware of the unfair treatment and decided to act for the right to be seen as an equal in society and gain these rights that men held. Though this belief may have stayed steady for centuries, it has also caused many women to go against it for the betterment of women in society. Jeannette Rankin has challenged the boundaries in which women were supposed to be held in during the 20th century. She was educated and even earned herself a degree in Biology, going beyond what most women would do during that time (Jeanette 1). She not only did that, but she also fought diligently for the women’s suffrage movement. Through her hard work while she resided in Washington State, women’s right to vote was passed in the state’s constitution and she would later fight for the right in her home state, Montana, which would soon afterwards pass the right to vote also (Jeanette 1). She voted against both World Wars when she was a part of the U.S. House of Representatives and fought the rights of women that were working in the war effort even if her beliefs were unpopular (Jeanette 1). She broke the image of what women were thought to be allowed to do as she has done far more than what was conventional of woman during those times, becoming a politician even during a time where many women were not allowed to vote and a social activist. She opened doors for many women and showed that women can do more than just be house wife. Furthermore, the status of women changing causes a domino effect and shows women that there are more possibilities one can take advantage of than one would have been able to before. With opposing the status quo, women have earned the right to vote and own property (Slamming 949). Women have gained rights that they never had before and have showed to be legal and societal equals to men with their efforts in the feminist movement. Women do, in addition, hold jobs that were once seen as male only careers. Women are now doctors, lawyers, and soldiers. Women now hold positions in politics where they were once believed to have no business to be involved in. The mindset of people have changed over the course of many centuries because the courage some women had to go against what society has told them and change the landscape for women’s rights for later generations of women. Women are not judged as strictly as they were not too long ago. President Corazon Aquino was the first woman president of the Philippines when she sworn into