A womans place is in the home How could a woman -no matter her age, education, social background or race-

accept and agree with the statement that a womans place is in the home! We - men and women are both human beings, we were born human beings and as such we are equal no-one is supposed to be more equal than the others! So why should we be treated as unimportant or minor? Havent we suffered enough to win the right to be set on the same pedestal men have been using for quite a while? In written records of human history especially those concerning Christian times - women have always been presented as second class creatures and in one of the first examples - the Bible the very fact that God created Eve from Adams rib predetermined the inferior position of all women. Most submitted to their fate and only the names of handful of them went down in the annals of history. Among such names are Eve, the first woman, Mary, the mother of Jesus, Jezebel, the queen of Israel and some others whose exceptionally good or bad deeds were the only reason for them to be remembered. During the Middle Ages and mainly during the Dark Ages, when ignorance and barbarism were prevailing, things were even worse. Not only were women thought to be minor and unimportant, they were reckoned to be evil by nature! Their position in society was comparable only to that of the slaves. Women did the housework, worked in the fields, took care of the children - in a word -they supported the family. But what was given to them in return? The right to be silent and to suffer, the right to be bought and sold, to be offended and ignored, even to be perished on the stake! And again, the names of outstanding women of that period were too few among them the name of Joan of Arc. Centuries later, during the Renaissance and the Enlightenment, the intellectual movement was marked by a celebration of the powers of human reason which was the beginning of volte-face in human conceptions of life, people and the world. Womens consciousness was awakened their position in society changed for the better. But, nevertheless, they still were only mere ciphers for the men. Only those who got the power were treated in a different way- rhymes and songs were written to sing praises to them, sculptures and pictures were created to glorify their extraordinary deeds Catherine the Great, Elizabeth II, Marie Antoinette, etc. The industrial revolution of XVIII and XIX th century upset the fragile balance of that society and showed the women the way to change it. They shook off the habit of being mute, ignored, neglected and exploited and created the first women organizations which fought for their right to vote, to work, to govern - to be equal with men. Nowadays we have gone a long way from where we started but there is still much left to be done. Today we can work(if we want to) we can elect and be elected, we can do things which 50 years ago sounded as heresy be politicians, astronauts, police officers, soldiers, managers, etc. Only when women got the freedom to do what they could and wanted to did they show how capable and knowledgeable they really were. How their mercy, their love and incessant care for the others could help the world become a better place, could help us all be better. We have the right to control our lives and the lives of others but something still needs to be done as this world has been governed by men for too long. 620 words