My Feminist Manifesto

Amazing that a woman was comfortable with settling to be simply a homemaker. Amazing that a woman though housework ruins ones hands and makes her unattractive. Amazing that “hands” would be a part of one’s body to show inequality. Ask any man if they would agree to pitch in to keep their women’s hands beautiful and functioning. Any man who agrees, will give a start to what is to become a partnership and not a traditional marriage.

Ask any woman who has just decided to have or has just had a baby what is more important to her? Raising her family or rising up the corporate ladder. It really should not be about either or. Women can have both. Think about it. Little girls love their dolls and boys just want to kick that ball. Does this mean men can’t take care of babies or women can’t play sports. Of course not! It just means each gender has its own energy that flows in a specific direction. Let it flow!

Guess what? No one can win this battle. Excepting the fact that men and women are equal but different makes things more clear.

Why not just enjoy the feast full of unique qualities that men and women bring to the table. Why not just mix and match those qualities without being stereotypical. And as for the “cooking”… Men can cook as good as women and women can enjoy a meal that is cooked by men. But unfortunately, this is one area that women have long been associated with…being in the kitchen. “Biological role” one can say. The question is “Is cooking for a man a good way to win his affections?” If this was indeed true, then all men would only want to marry women who are chefs. It has to expand beyond that. It must!

Justification

My manifesto was written based on the “The Cottagette” written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. In her short story, Gilman touches bases on the stereotypical concept that the role of women in marriage is to be a homemaker.  When the young woman Malda expresses an interest in a young man Lois’s advise is eye opening.  She says “What they care for most after all is domesticity. Of course they’ll fall in love with anything; but what they want is a homemaker.” This shows how woman were comfortable just to be recognized as a homemaker. Let alone to say that men, will fall for “anything” does not hold women in too high a regard.  But Malda externalizes that she wants to do other things like needlework and that housework ruins ones hands for needlework.  The hands, in my opinion, are the first item that shows inequality in this work. The men in the story agree that they should pitch in to keep their women’s hands beautiful and functioning. This gives us the first spring of what is to become a partnership and not a traditional marriage. Gilman reveals that is not the only thing women are capable of but women also has intelligences.

For a long time women have never been urged to follow their dreams nor do as they pleased.  I believe that only now in the modern ages have women felt the need to become so outwardly independent as their self-worth was not properly shown through the role of a domesticated house-wife. However I feel that this ‘role’ was created or if not created encouraged by women themselves. When growing up mothers would push for their little girls to learn to cook and clean because that is what women are made of or of the thought that that’s what will find them a good husband, but that gives a man the advantage to expect it. Most men refuse to partake that role because in their eyes that’s what the woman is there for, but the statement made by Ford I think gives enough light to us women. He says “It is not true, always, my dear, that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach; at least it’s not the only way.”  This shows that all men don’t want to marry someone who is only skilled in house work but someone with smarts, and other skills. By Ford asking Malda to marry him only if she gives up cooking and continue to do what she loves to do and that he would take on the role of cooking shows true love and equality in a marriage.

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