Female Gender

The women's liberation movement in the United States of America has led the way to greater freedom for women around the world. European women struggled for their own freedom and also brought about great changes for women.

The struggles that women dedicated their efforts to provided freedoms to women that historically did not exist. Historically, men owned women as if they were property. Wives were equal to slaves to men and female children were used for family gain.

The marriage vows that are often excluded today from marriage ceremonies stated that a woman is to honor and obey her husband. She was not an equal until today. In fact, in the book War and Peace a woman states that she is ready to be married to the man she loves. She says that she is ready to be his slave.

Female children were not considered useful. The family even paid a dowry to the family that took the female child from them. Fathers still walk their daughters down the isle at marriages and give them away. Today this is considered a nice tradition, but it stems from fathers giving their female children away as property.

The defining attributes of female gender today are not the same as they were before women gained many freedoms. It is no longer easy to describe what makes a woman female.

Think about it. What does make a woman female?

Women can have children. That makes a woman female. Beyond the female body there is nothing today defines femininity. It can no longer be said that women only wear dresses or even skirts. Women are no longer the only ones that get their ears pierced. Many previously feminine attributes are no longer only feminine and no two women follow the same standards.

The truth of the matter is that women no longer have a set standard to develop into. Women now do everything that men do and even wear all of the clothing that men wear. These changes in women have not yet been equalled by changes in men.

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