Tierra Abrams
Mrs. Lannutti
English 1
March 11, 2015
Martin Luther King once said, “Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.” Women are looked down upon every day and are seen as inferior compared to men. To make matters worse, they are also looked down upon by each other, constantly comparing each other to what they should look like. After analyzing the subject, it is supported that women shouldn’t have had to endure the degradation they were forced to face and still are facing today.
Since ancient times, women have been seen as subordinate to men. In ancient Greece, women were seen as “inferior creatures by nature…[and were] usually regarded as mere chattel­­personal possessions of their husbands and fathers, with hardly any better standing than household slaves,” gty.org . Since women couldn’t exactly help bring money into the household because they weren’t allowed to work, they were arranged to marry as early as possible to get them out of their parents’ home. They were seen as sex figures and were only used for that, and to bear children for their husbands that most were forced to marry. Women basically did not have any freedom.
The women’s rights movement in America began around 1848 and ended in 1920.
Women were tired of being seen as the “submissive wife and mother concerned exclusively with home and family,” history.com . Women were created equal to men, and they wanted the same

rights as them.. They wanted the right to work the same jobs as men, equal pay, and the right vote. Marches and associations were held, and the National American Woman Suffrage
Association (NAWSA), and the National Women’s Trade Union League (WTUL) were created to improve the rights of women. Eventually, after years and years of protesting and fighting, women were finally given their equal rights. “
Ratified on August 18,
1920
, the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution granted American women the right to vote,” history.com . Women’s average wages did expand, but today, they are still paid less than