I have been waiting to read about the beginnings of the feminist movement, since the start of the semester. Because of the enlightenment, many old traditions had been challenged. One in particular, was the idea that women were inferior beings. "The French Revolution raised the possibility of re-creating human societies on new foundations. Many women participated in these events, and a few insisted, unsuccessfully, that the revolutionary ideals of liberty and equality must include women" (805). As Mary Wollstonecraft (author of
Vindication of the Rights of Woman) quoted, "who made man the exclusive judge, if woman partake with him of the gift of reason" (805). Because of the raising middle class, not all women had to just stick to household duties. Some women took part in temperance movements, charities, abolitionism, missionary work, and sometimes socialist and pacifist organizations. The first organized expression was in Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848. That day, a conference was held where women came to finally say what was on their minds. "By the 1870's, feminist movements in the West were focusing primarily on the issue of suffrage and were gaining a growing constituency" (806). My favorite part of the reading was about
A Doll's House.
A Doll's House is a three-act play by Henrik Ibsen, which he wrote in 1879. Nora, the heroine, finds herself in a loveless and oppressive marriage, and decides to leave her husband and kids. Of course, this play had its haters. This play was certainly ahead of its time, with its topics. "Writers, doctors, and journalists addressed previously taboo sexual topics, including homosexuality and birth control. That is why I love art though. It sometimes crosses boundaries and makes people really look at the world. The playwright George Bernard Shaw found Ibsen's willingness to point out flaws in society exhilarating and so do I!!
Ellen Johnston was a independent woman during the time of the industrial revolution. She lived a simple, happy childhood until the age of eight when her single mother married an abusive man. He made young Ellen work for years in a factory. He tormented her and she suffered greatly from his actions. Because of this relationship, Ellen ran off with a boy at age seventeen and got pregnant. Unfortunately, the affair did not last and she (like her mother) was left to raise a child by herself. Through all of this however, one thing kept young Ellen sane. She called herself a "self-taught scholar", because of her love of reading and writing. This was a time where literacy was expanding, of course there were still many poor illiterate women, but Ellen made it a goal that she would keep this love of hers alive. "She loved reading "love adventures" and developed a romantic image of herself as a "heroine of the modern style"" (840). Along with her love of reading, she also wrote poetry for the "penny press", which were inexpensive newspapers of the region. Ellen loved expressing her feelings through poetry and knew she did not want to live a life of domesticity. Ellen "did not feel inclined to die" in a time when women who gave birth outside of marriage were considered beyond the confines of "true womanhood" (840). Most of her writings depicted home life as very negative due to her time living with an abusive step-father. Ellen worked very hard in the textile mills of Scotland to support her and her daughter, while also pursuing her passion of writing poetry. She even simply signed her poem , "the factory girl". It was in the factory, where Ellen found emotional and personal satisfaction. Though Ellen never made it big, she did not follow the crowd like some people. She still let her feelings be known to a small group of people, in a time where woman were fighting to be heard. 
