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Assignment Two-Federici

Woman were never seen or treated as equals to men. They were only seen as subordinate, housewives, whose sole purpose was to serve man’s needs and reproduction.This is the role that in general, we are told and believed to be factual. The truth of the matter is that women often played an essential role within the military and acquisition of land,and also lead protest not only alongside the antislavery movement and women’s suffrage but also by going on strike in opposition of having their bodies used as baby making machines for either their slave owners or the men in the military (Frederici, 84,106). Woman fought on their own to integrate themselves into society and be seen as equals however as much as they fought, men always had ways to degrade women and continually squash their hopes of ever be treated fairly. The jobs of midwives were even taken away by male doctors, who became the dominant authority in the delivering babies. This allowed the government to gain power over the population ratio to ensure that there was enough food and supplies to go around. Midwives, prostitutes, and unwed pregnant women, were either charged with infanticide or forced to terminate their pregnancies. This was the ultimate form of degradation to the women during those times because being capable of bearing a children, was the only real power that they had left. And yet this miracle of life that only women could provide, was taken away, their bodies were used, abused, discarded like trash and thrown in jail. (Frederici 101). Any control women had over their bodies and pregnancies was eventually taken away, as governmental policies changed to gain capitalistic power, essentially turning women into incubators, breeding future labor workers to multiply capital accumulation. Though this all may have occurred in the middle ages, presently the government still has laws that control women’s bodies and their ability to procreate. (Frederici 106) Abortion and birth control laws are heated topics of debate in congress and even used as campaigning strategies, perhaps not completely for accumulation, but most definitely to gain popularity and win elections within different political parties.