Politics and Equality Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Politics and Equality - Essay Example Kelly Florence, to name only three, among many, who made it easier for women like, Nancy Pallosi, Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin to compete with men in the political arena. Introduction: The quintessential concept of equality between the sexes is as old, as perhaps the Biblical account of Adam and Eve. She was made from the rib of Adam, by the Lord God, to be the consort and companion of the first man, so her subservience is but a natural corollary of the story. Theology apart, world history is also replete with instances of the lesser status of women as compared to men. So, Cleopatra, perhaps the most powerful woman of her time, was less in status to the Cesar and later Anthony, only because she was a woman. This notion of male superiority is deeply ingrained in the psyche of mankind, and the examples that I have cited are incidents and /or aspects of this phenomena of our societal behaviour in general and of the individual aspects of our domestic existence, in particular. The movement of the American women to shrug off this yoke of subservience to patriarchal hegemony, is typified in the movement of attaining the right of vote for the American women, that on the one hand has challenged centuries old notion of male domination and on the other hand, is a milestone in human history, where the women have fought for what was, and is their inalienable right as human beings__ that of justice and equality with men. The movement of the American women to acquire the right of vote is referred to as the Suffrage movement. The focus of this movement was to get the right to vote for the American women. In words of Jo Freeman: "The Suffrage was not a united movement. It was a coalition of different people and organisations that worked together for a few intense years around the common goal of votes for women." The organisation that headed this movement was the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) under the able leadership of Carrie Chapman Catt. "She