Amin Al Ghamdi

ENGL 1102
Professor Justin Cary
May 3, 2014

Do women have fewer rights than men?
In the past and probably even now, women are considered weaker than men.
Women were responsible of what was considered the easy chores, like baking, cleaning
and raising the family. While men were responsible of getting the food, the money or
anything that the family may need. This idea was stable for many decades, until a group
of women came out in the late 1800s and early 1900s and wanted to change that
idea.(Plain, and sellers 235) They did not like how women were treated; they wanted to
make the males and females equal. These women are called feminists, to address
feminists properly, feminists are defined by Delmar Rosalind in her book what is
feminism?
as the leaders , organizers, publicists, lobbyists, of the womens
movement; they come into their own and into existence on a relatively
large scale in the course of development of a women;s movement. the
social movement, particularly in its political dimension, provides the
context for feminism ; feminists are its animating spirits.

When the feminists have done what they done, an argument started between
the people who agreed with them and who did not, and the argument is still on. The
feminist or feminist supporters argue that women have the right to do what they want,
and they should not be forced to be under a mans arm. When the anti feminists say
that women are supposed to be weaker than the man, and they say that that is how god
created them. In this essay I will show some of the arguments that have been going
between the two groups. And I will also prove some of the arguments wrong.
Some feminists argue that treating a woman as the weaker part of the family and
giving her the tasks that do not require any strength is an act of disrespect and
underestimating the womans capabilities. While the anti feminists are saying that this is
the way women are. A woman is always going to be weaker than men, and doing these
tasks require lots of strength that is not one of the womans specialties. Thinking about
what both sides say I came to know that the side with the stronger argument changes
over time. If I heard this argument three of four decades ago, I will surely agree with the
anti feminists, because in that time women had no chance in competing with the man.
She would not be able to go hunt for food, or go build a house. But in this time both
genders are not doing these tough tasks. It is not right to say that the women will not be
able to go to work because Marketing is a mans job.
Another debate is that women have fewer rights than men. Throughout my life I
always heard the term Women have fewer rights than men. As much as I totally
support women having their total rights, I got bored of the false argument that they
come up with. For example the biggest arguments that they have is the women get
paid less than men argument, even though this was proven wrong from the moment
they came up with it, they still insist on using it. They are saying that women get paid 77
cents for every dollar a man earns. The truth is they are paid 23 cents less because
they are majoring and working in jobs that get paid less.("Do Women Earn Less than
Men?) Women are more into arts and music, so if a woman got to work as an engineer
she will get paid just like her male colleague.
Another thing that feminists argue is the rights of women in other countries. Let
us be specific and say the Middle Eastern women or more specific and say Saudi
Arabian women. The argument is that they have totally no rights in there. Women are
forced to wear Hijab, Women are forced to not work, Women are forced to marry a
stranger that she doesnt love and so on, these are quotes that we hear a lot by
feminists. They are saying all of these words, when they dont know what the culture is
like in there, or what if the women there are actually complaining about it or not. Women
there, are not wearing the Hijab because they are forced to instead they choose to do
so. To prove that, Jacob Poushter shows in his article that the percentage of people
who believe that a woman has the right to wear whatever she wants is as shown in the
following chart.

from the chart you can see that the percentages are not really high, in Tunisia the
country with the highest percentage half of the people of the country do not believe that
women can wear what they want. But the problem is actually in the question, when this
question is asked a lot of things come in the persons mind and take in regard that most
of them are coming from a conservative tradition. So lots of people may say No.
Also women there are not not forced to marry a strange man instead they get to
see each other talk to each other and the marriage would never be until both agree on
each other, it is called arranged marriage and it is widely known around the world. But
to be completely honest women dont have their total rights in there. Saudi Arabia is the
only country that doesnt allow women to drive and that is hopefully going to change in a
close period of time.
One last argument that feminists have is that women should have the right to feel
safe. feel safe from what? feel safe from men. they mean by that sexual harassment.
according to Daniel Goleman from the New York Times a study that was taken in 1981
show that 42 percent of women have reported being sexualy harresed. and that one
third of the 42 percent say that it was taken in the form of unwanted sexual remarks. So
do feminist win in this argument? Well even though men get sexually harassed too, but
it is surely not as much as women do.
To sum up, we can see how both sides have strong reasoning and arguments,
and how everyone is fighting to prove themselves right. But in the end the natural
habitat of human will win women will not be servants of men, and women will not be
men. Every gender will know its place and tasks. While both of feminists and anti
feminist will harm themselves fighting on unwanted rights.


work cited
Plain, Gill. "Feminist criticism and psychoanalysis." A history of feminist literary
criticism. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
Learn Liberty. "Do Women Earn Less than Men?" YouTube. N.p., 30 Aug. 2011.
Web. 7 May 2014. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwogDPh-Sow>.
Delmar, Rosalind (1986) What Is Feminism? in Juliet Mitchell and Ann Oakley,
edsWhat Is Feminism? New York: Pantheon Books
POUSHTER, JACOB . "How people in Muslim countries prefer women to dress
in public."Fact Tank 8 Jan. 2014
Goleman, Danial. "Sexual Harassment: It's About Power, Not Lust." The New York
Times22 Oct. 1991