Sex, Gender and Reform in the City Essay -- Gender Equality

And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. Then the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, He made into women, and He brought her to the man. And Adam said: ‘This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.’ During the times of Antebellum America, women became a cornerstone of history and helped construct the way sex and gender was viewed in the United States. Women began to acknowledge the way they were being treated and started to educate themselves about the rights they deserved and the effects it would have on the future generations. Religion became a forum where women could feel a sense of empowerment and the Second Great Awakening spoke of everyone being in charge of their own salvation, be that as a male or female. However, before the empowerment of women began, the male hierarchy of America distinguished females as a lower class and the several articles that are to be mentioned will give evidence to the struggle of women. The goal of reform for women is equality between genders and opportunities for women to thrive in America. The push for women’s rights in the late nineteenth century proved to be a definitive factor that women’s referendums were headed in the right direction. Political participation was growing within the female population, which could be credited to a higher education among women. Women had gained the energy to push for equality and by helping society and women in the communities, women grew as leaders. However before such empowerment grew in women and the female circle, women had to be live through a male dominated society in th... ...Reborn: Visions of Youth in Middle-Class America, 1780-1850 (Penn, 2005), 148-176. [Beachboard] Horowitz Leftowitz, Helen. â€Å"Voices in the Sexual Conversation in Antebellum America,† Attitudes toward Sex in Antebellum America (Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2007), 1-31. [Beachboard] Ryan, P. Mary. , â€Å" The Power of Women’s Networks: A Case Study of Female Moral Reform in Antebellum America,† Feminist Studies 5.1 (Spring, 1979), 66-85. [J-Stor] Srebnick Gilman, Amy. â€Å" Who Murdered Mary Rodgers?: Police Reform, Abortion, and the Criminalization of Private Life,† in The Mysterious Death of Mary Rodgers: Sex and Culture in Nineteenth-Century New York (Oxford, 1997), 84-108. [Beachboard] Stansell, Christine. â€Å"Women on the Town: Sexual Exchange and Prostitution,† in City of Women: Sex and Class in New York, 1789-1860 (Illinois, 1987), 171-192. [ACLS Humanities E-Book, via Coast]