fJonathan has 13 post(s)

In Silvia Federici’s book “Caliban and the Witch: Women, The Body and Primitive Accumulation ,” Federici explains the consequences of land privatization in Europe in the late 1500’s. In this chapter, “The Accumulation of Labor and the Degradation of Women”, Federici lists several events that relate to the history of degradation that women have received. In “The Devaluation of Women’s Labour ” women lost the opportunity to work through land privatization and a commercial agriculture. (67) In the late 15th century capitalist merchants employed women for a lower wage than men. This increased the profit for merchants and caused businesses to compete. Businesses who were not in favor of this socio-economic change protested and petitioned the employment of women. They even pushed to limit women to their households. A result of the loss of employment to women resulted in the rise of prostitution. (67) This event in this chapter represents the beginning of the degradation of women. Women’s independence was stripped from them as employment was barred. They were confined to the daily tasks and ideology of a domestic house wife. Restraining women and ranking them below white men made them inferior. Through the limiting of women economically merchants were able to keep their businesses afloat, constructing a new career for women that would last for centuries. However the aftermath of these decisions display a more vivid picture of the degradation of women. (90) The rise of prostitution in Europe showed the strict nature of white men towards women. Unlike the Middle Ages which prostitution was normalized, harlotry was banned and met with harsh punishments. Women were flogged, imprisoned, banished, ridicule, etc. Sexually assaulting prostitutes were reoccurring and met with little or no care. Prostitutes were even considered witches and whores. This consequence caused by the failure of adaption of women laborers was met with a demeaning response. This again points to the harsh nature of white men in the late 15th century, the degradation of women due to land privatization, and the idea that women were no longer in authority of their autonomy as Federici states. (113)

In chapter 3 of, “Women, Race & Class”, Angela Y. Davis uses prominent historical figures and events to explain the relationship between gender, race and class. This relationship is best represented during the Akron Convention when African-American women named Sojourner Truth distinguished herself in the midst. The relationship amongst people around the nineteenth century was based on class then divided itself into gender and race. The white man was considered the superior figure, being able to vote and hold land. The white woman was the housewife in some cases tending to the children, being unable to be self-sustainable and education was barred for most women. African Americans on the other hand were slaves, sort of like domesticated animals at the time due to the insensitivity of their jobs and the harsh treatment they received. Black woman were treated no differently, raising kid, tending to land, equal punishments. One group that was not mentioned during the Seneca conventions was the African American woman. Sojourner Truth connected the relationship between race, gender and class by representing the last group of women who faced both racism and sexism which were two controversial topics at the time, during the abolition movement and women right movement. Truth goes on to explain in her famous “aint I woman?” speech she gives counterclaim to argument that women were too fragile to help themselves, what purpose do they need to vote. Stating she hasn’t not experienced the courteous side to a man seeing that she is a woman. That she too has done the same load of work as other African American men in the field and take the same punishment as they do while bearing thirteen children, all to watch them be sold as slaves. Sojourner  Truth was mentioned by Davis to explain the connection between race, class and gender. African –American women needed their equal rights just as much as white woman and white woman needed their equal rights just as African American men needed their human rights. All these issues at the time from sexism and racism all depended on the superior figure at the time, White men.

Hello everyone. My name is Jonathan Khan. From a very young age, I have aspired to join the United States Marine Corps as a Scout Sniper. While I wait out the enlistment process, I am looking into pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in economics. Before attending Hunter, I was a student at Queensborough Community College. I’m not entirely certain which economics profession I want to take on after obtaining my degree, but I am seriously considering becoming more invested in the stock market business. Though I was born in the United States, I am also of Guyanese and Trinidadian heritage. I enrolled in this class mainly because I am interested in learning more about the views that society has towards women and why it is these beliefs exist. I also want to have a better understanding of what it means to be a woman in todays society.